I Love California
I used to sit in the I Love California shop in Terminal 2 at the Los Angeles International Airport. I sat and I sat and I sat. Nobody wanted to take me home. I had a little gray smudge just above my right eyebrow, so someone would pick me up, squeeze me, look at the gray, and put me down. All the snowy white bears went home with people. I just sat and sat and sat.
Ms. Mary moved to California in June of 1998, and stayed a whole year before she went back to Minnesota for a visit. When she returned to California, she walked by the I Love California shop where I was sitting and sitting and sitting and then she turned around and came back to the table where I was sitting and watching and hoping and sitting. She picked me up. She hugged me. She looked at the gray smudge above my eyebrow. She kissed me right there on that grey spot and hugged me again, and then she carried me right up to the cash register and told those people she was taking me home with her.
And here I am!
My smudge is still on my forehead. I'm glad I have it because Ms. Mary says it's a beauty mark. If I had been a plain white bear she never would have taken a second hug. She might never even have picked me up for a first hug.
This menagerie keeps getting bigger and bigger. We just sit around all day, but it's nice to sit where I am loved.