“Where are the bears?” David, José’s 5-year-old nephew, cried the moment he arrived with his parents—José’s brother Jorgé, and José’s sister-in-law Mariela. “I want to see the bears, tio,” he said, almost falling out of the taxi that brought him with his parents from the airport to the home of his uncle José and José’s partner Aaron in northern Vermont. “You promised.”

José had told his brother that almost every night a mama bear would visit, accompanied by her two recently born cubs, and when Jorgé planned their visit to Vermont, seeing the three bears was, for David, going to be the highlight.

“You don’t understand kids,” Jorgé told José when they discussed the visit. “Ever since you told David about the bears, he’s had me read the story, The Three Bears, aloud to him every night when I put him to bed, otherwise he won’t sleep. He’s obsessed.”

The first evening, while his parents and uncles ate their dinners, David watch—and rewatched—the Disney cartoon The Three Bears, his eyes glued to the television.

“You say they usually come in the early evening?” Jorgé asked, looking at the time on his iPhone. “By the way Aaron, this is the best roast chicken. Before we leave, will you let me have the recipe?”

“Generally, they show up any time until 9:00, while it’s still light out,” José told his brother. “But there’s no guarantee that they’ll show up at all.”

“I hope they do—for David,” Jorgé said. “I’ve read the story to him so many times that I feel I know it by heart. If they don’t show, he’ll be so disappointed.”

That evening the bears were no-shows. José listened to his brother read the story of The Three Bears—twice—before David calmed down sufficiently for the lights in his room to be switched off.

This pattern was repeated the next three evenings. No bears appeared.

“José, isn’t there something we can do to entice the bears to visit?” his brother asked. “I don’t want David to go home without seeing the bears. Perhaps we could leave them food; that might encourage them,” he added, hopefully.

 For the last night of their visit, José promised his nephew they would have a marshmallow roast outside. That afternoon, Jorgé built a fire pit in the driveway near to where José told him the mama bear would bring her two cubs.

“Do bears like marshmallows, tio?” David asked José as they prepared for the roast.

“Bears eat berries and herbs, so I’m sure they like to eat marshmallows,” José told his nephew.

They decided to start the marshmallow roast around 8:00 while there still light, hoping the fire might attract the mama and her cubs. David sat between his father and his uncle, while Mariela brought out the tray with the marshmallows, the Hershey chocolate bars, and the sliced bread.

“This should be a real s’mores roast,” José explained. “Something of middle-America,” he explained to his brother and sister-in-law.

“I want to put the ‘mallows on the sticks,” David said, taking the branches his father had prepared that afternoon. While he began squeezing the marshmallows onto the sticks, his father lit the fire and his mother put pieces of the Hershey bars on slices of bread which she placed near the fire, to melt.

After a few minutes, José excused himself. “I should put the dogs in the house; I’ll be right back,” he told them. José left and called Lily and Mandela to follow him, while Jorgé repeated the story, The Three Bears, to David and Mariela.

Suddenly, above the crackle of the fire in the fire pit, there was a noise coming from the nearby woods.

Growl…growl…GROWL….

“It’s the bears,” David screamed and ran to his mother. “Mama, the mother bear is bringing her cubs,” he told her as he climbed onto his mother’s lap for protection.

Growl…Growl….Growl….

“Jorgé, do something,” his wife screamed. “They’re coming closer.”

Jorgé turned on the flashlight in his iPhone and shined it in the direction of the growling.

GROWL…GROWL…GROWL….

“Take David and go inside,” Jorgé told his wife. She lifted their son in her arms and ran onto the porch and into the house, returning in case her husband needed her.

“Do you see anything?” she asked, but when she saw Jorgé on the ground, his hands on his heart, she rushed to him.

“I think it’s my heart,” he said softly. At that moment, José appeared.

“What happened? Why is Jorgé lying on the ground?” he asked.

“When the bears came, I think he had a heart attack,” Mariela said. “Where’s the nearest hospital? We shouldn’t wait for an ambulance. Can you drive him there, Aaron?”

“José, help me lift Jorgé into the car. Mariela, go back in the house and wait there with David,” Aaron told her. “I’ll call you as soon as I get to the ER.”

When the truck was a distance from the house, Jorgé opened his eyes.

“I think it worked,” he said.

“You looked like you really did have a heart attack,” José told his brother.

“And the growls you made, Aaron, sounded real,” Jorgé laughed.

“They were real,” Aaron told him. “I googled sounds that black bear mothers make when they’re calling their cubs, and played the tape. Do you think David believed he actually saw the mama bear and her cubs?”

“You don’t know kids, as you and José don’t have any, but kids—especially young ones, like David—are very inventive. All you have to do is plant the seed and their creative imagination takes over.” Jorgé sat up in his seat. “David was all set on seeing the mama bear and her cubs, so by creating a scene like we did—and the growling sounded so real that I forgot for a moment that we had planned it all—David believes he actually saw the bears.”

Twenty minutes passed. Aaron turned the truck and headed back to the house.

“I think we should return now,” he said. “Mariela might be worried.”

“Call her and tell her I’m okay, that I didn’t have a heart attack but just a fright that caused my heart to beat faster.”

As they parked the truck, Mariela came running out of the house.

“You’ll never guess what happened,” she said, hugging Jorgé. “I’m so happy it was nothing serious, —but guess what happened after you left?” Without waiting she said, “The mama bear returned with her two cubs.”

“What?” Jorgé shouted.

“After you left and David and I were in the house, we heard a growling. David ran to the window. ‘Mama, come here,’ and I joined him at the window. ‘The bears are here; they came back.’ And sure enough, the mama bear was there with her two cubs, just like you told us they would be, José.”

“I can’t breathe…I need a glass of water” Jorgé whispered, falling to the floor.

“Jorgé, what’s wrong?” his wife asked as she bent over his prone body.

“I think…I think it’s a heart attack,” Jorgé told her.

“That’s not possible, Jorgé. You just came back from the hospital,” Mariela said as she caressed her husband who was gasping for breath and clutching his chest. “José, I think something is wrong; I’ve never seen your brother like this,” Mariela said, stroking her husband’s face.

“Mariela, José will help me put Jorgé back in my truck. José, you stay here with David. Mariela and I will drive Jorgé back to the hospital,” Aaron said.

When they arrived at the hospital, the attendants at the ER put Jorgé on a stretcher and wheeled him into the operating room for the doctor on duty to examine him, while Aaron took Mariela to the waiting room.

“I just don’t understand how Jorgé could have two attacks so quickly,” Mariela said, accepting the coffee Aaron offered her.

“I have to confess, Mariela, that the first wasn’t an attack….”

“What do you mean?” she asked, a worried expression on her face.

“The three of us—José, Jorgé, and me—planned it. Since we couldn’t be sure the mama would show up with her two cubs, Jorgé suggested that I go into the woods and make mama bear sounds, to scare David who would believe that she was really coming out of the woods with her two cubs. By faking a heart attack, Jorgé thought David’s 5-year-old imagination would cause him to really believe that she had come with her cubs,” Aaron explained.

“But she did come, just not when the three of you were there,” Mariela said.

“What I don’t understand is why Jorgé had a heart attack when you told him that the bears had actually been at the home,” Aaron wondered.

“You don’t understand José’s brother, Aaron. He was the one who was all excited about the possibility of seeing the mama bear and her two cubs. David was too, but it was Jorgé who got the boy all worked up, reading him the story at bedtime and watching the Disney cartoon with David. All Jorgé could do for weeks before our visit was talk about seeing the bears. He’s like a kid, really. There are times when Jorgé acts like a 5-year-old. I think when we told him that the mama bear had really come with her cubs, the disappointment of not being there and seeing them was such a shock that it caused him to have a real heart attack.”

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Mr. Lande notes: “I was born in Montreal, but have lived most of my life in the south of France and in Vermont, where I now live with my partner on a 500-acre farm, writing and caring for more than 100 animals, many of which are rescues. Previously, I taught at l’Université d’Ottawa where I served as Vice-Dean of my faculty, and I have owned and managed country inns and free-standing restaurants. Recently my stories have been accepted by more than a dozen journals including Bewildering Stories, Archtype and Literally Stories.

“I live in the country where wildlife is a part of life. Every day, I am visited by hundreds of wild ducks and Canadian geese, and bears come by often. “The 3 Bears” is simply a story about everyday life around here.”

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