Tags
Big Pavel, Children's Stories, Czech Republic, Growing Up, Illustrations, Little Anya, Polar Bear, Prague, Zoo
Dedicated to the one and only Cindy LaCoste Strange, the best Mama, the best cheerleader, and the original strong woman in my life.
Little Anya disliked school very much, but she disliked summer even more.
You see, Little Anya, like any six-year-old, found school far too boring, but she also found school far too big. School to her was nothing but big rooms, big numbers, big letters, big kids, and big teachers, all getting bigger and bigger and bigger all day long, making her seem littler and littler and littler all the time. The only thing Little Anya liked about school was learning, but even that seemed like the littlest thing of all when it came to school.
Little Anya much preferred life in her little room in the little flat she shared with her Mama and little brother just a little ways away from the center of Prague. There in her little room in her little flat, Little Anya would take a little time each day to read from one of her little books, taking each subject little by little. She particularly liked books about animals – little ones, of course – and spent a little time ach day reading up on the littlest animals she could find, like mice and turtles and different types of birds. She wished she could read a little more about her little friends at school, but alas, there seemed to be little room for that.
Anyway, the reason Little Anya disliked summer much more than school was because even though school was big, the city of Prague was much, much – much – bigger. It had big streets with big cars, big sidewalks with big buildings, a big bridge with a big palace at the end of it, and even a big, brown, twisty river cutting right through it, splitting the city up to make it bigger than it even needed to be already! Even the people seemed big: they walked big, talked big, sat big, stood big, even breathed big. Prague was the big, bigger, and biggest place Little Anya could think of – all three in one! – and during the summer she had to be out in it all day long, running errands up and down with her Mama in their little car.
Of course, Mama loved the city, and she even said, right to Little Anya’s face, that she loved it because it was so big! This used to bother Little Anya quite a lot, but eventually Little Anya learned to live with it. She loved her Mama very much, and she had faith that the silly lady would come around eventually.
As a new summer approached, Little Anya was bound and determined not to be forced out into the big, broad, bustling open if she could help it. Mama, however, had already planned ahead. You see, Mama had picked up on that fact that Little Anya loved animals, but had decided, instead of getting Little Anya more little books on her favorite little animals, she would take Little Anya and her little brother to the Zoo. The Zoo. One of Prague’s biggest places, filled with all the biggest animals, and certainly the biggest waste of time Little Anya could think of.
Little Anya begged and pleaded with Mama to reconsider, but Mama was firm. “Don’t complain, Little Anya,” she said, crossing her arms the way she always did (and the way Little Anya always did, too). “This will be good for you. Trust your Mama.”
Little Anya could not believe a big old time at the big old Zoo would do her even the littlest of good, but she knew better than to tell Mama otherwise. So, when the day came, Little Anya, in an act of protest, picked out her littlest outfit, packed her littlest bag, and made herself scoot in the littlest steps possible – that is, until her feet started to hurt from the strain of scooting too far.
The Zoo was, just as Little Anya feared, as big and as bustly and as bashy as she had imagined. Everywhere there were big people with big children and big snacks and big mouths all staring at even bigger animals with even bigger children and even bigger snacks and even bigger mouths. The monkeys were big, the tigers were big, the elephants were big – even all of the mice and turtles and different types of birds were big! This left Little Anya quite disappointed – who could she count on to stay little anymore?
With the day almost over, Mama announced their last stop: the famous Prague polar bears, Maria and Big Pavel. Little Anya rolled her eyes. There were bigger animals, yes, but none so big and loud and furry and, not to mention, dangerous. Needless to say, Little Anya was more than a little apprehensive. The polar bear pen was in two parts – which is far too many parts – both with big rocks and big pools of water for the big bears to lumber around in. And Lumbering was exactly what they were doing when Little Anya and company arrived, the two of them just lumbering around and looking at everyone down their big, long snouts. Little Anya was hardly impressed and she showed it, crossing her little arms and turning up her little nose as her Mama and her little brother and the rest of the crowd “oohed” and “aahed” at the big, bumbling, lumbering beasts.
While everyone else was watching the bears lumber around, Little Anya decided to slip away for a little time to herself. So she meandered around the corner to the other side of the polar bear pen – the side without any polar bears – and decided to wait it out. As she went, though, she noticed that one of the great big bears – Big Pavel, she was sure of it – was watching her through the glass. Little Anya sniffed at him as loudly as she could and turned away, hoping he would take the hint.
Unfortunately, he did not, and just as Little Anya was getting comfortable on the empty side of the pen, he came swaggering through from the other side of the pen with his big, black snout leading the way. Little Anya turned and watched, quite annoyed, as the big brute trudged down the rocks and approached the big, blue pool that stood between them. Then he stopped, swayed a little bit from side to side, and just stared at her. This only made Little Anya more annoyed, so she walked straight up to the glass between them, stood up on her tiptoes so she could see right over the edge of the water, and gave the big lug the meanest little stare she could muster.
Little Anya stood there for what seemed like forever, glaring at the big goof and daring him to back down. Big Pavel was not impressed, though, and Little Anya thought, just for a moment, that he might even be smiling at her, which she found particularly annoying. In fact, the more Little Anya tried to glare him away, the more Big Pavel seemed to enjoy it – she could even swear he was laughing at one point! The nerve!
Little Anya was just about to scream and stomp her feet in the most ferocious manner when Big Pavel finally broke the stare and dove straight into the water. Little Anya jumped a little – she didn’t expect him to do that! – and watched in amazement as he sank deep into the blue and started paddling towards her. Little Anya was scared at first – Big Pavel was big, indeed, and coming straight for her – but for some strange reason, she couldn’t look away. He just drifted forward, moving those big paws as he went, that mysterious smile on his face, until he came to the glass and shot up into the air, snout first. Big Pavel stayed up there for a moment, his nose in the air and his fur pressed against the side of the glass, and then, much to Little Anya’s amazement, sank into the water on his back and started to paddle back to the rocks, looking up at the sky with his big paw on his belly.
Little Anya was so amazed by what had happened that she started to jump up and down to get a better look at Big Pavel as he floated back to the rocks. Big Pavel started treading water once he reached the rocks on the other side, staring back at her with that cheeky look on his face. Then he did the whole routine over again: back into the depths, up to the glass, snout in the air, swaying in the breeze, and then backpedalling to the rocks with his paw on his belly, all while Little Anya watched in rapt attention.
And Big Pavel, somehow sensing how fascinated Little Anya was, just kept on going: diving deep, coming up, swimming back, over and over again with that smile on his face and that lazy paw on his belly. He moved so smooth and so slow, like a lullaby, almost like he wanted her to join. Eventually, much to her own surprise, Little Anya decided to do just that! So she pressed her face up against the glass, and when Big Pavel came up for breath she jumped up and put her nose in the air just like he did, happily swaying from side to side. Then she put her hand on her tummy and scooted backwards as he paddled away, smiling to herself just like he did. No wonder he kept doing it so much: it was fun!
In fact, it was so much fun that on her third scooty trip back, Little Anya accidentally bumped into something, or rather someone. It was an old man with a thick, bushy mustache and squinty eyes peeking out from under the brim of his hat. He was just standing there staring at Big Pavel and smiling. Standing next to him was a very thin woman with curly red hair and a big purse, and next to her a short, round woman with a camera, and next to her twin boys with matching striped shirts, and all of them were smiling and laughing at Big Pavel. Other people were starting to notice, too, and soon they were all wandering towards Big Pavel’s pen. Big Pavel, meanwhile, was keeping the show up, and that little smile of his had gotten a little bit bigger.
Little Anya was smiling, too, and her smile had definitely gotten bigger. She couldn’t help but laugh as she ran back to the glass to meet Big Pavel and begin their little dance again. She didn’t even mind that there was so many people watching, so many big people, too – for once, she didn’t mind being in a crowd!
Little Anya and Big Pavel danced their little dance for a good while, and yet it seemed like only a minute before Mama put her hand on Little Anya’s shoulder and told her it was time to go. Little Anya immediately refused – after all, they were only just getting started! But when she looked around, she did notice that the sun was starting to go down, and the crowd was starting to thin, and her little brother was starting to whine. It really was time to leave.
Little Anya turned back to Big Pavel, who was bobbing up and down at the rocks, looking at her with that same smile on his face. She was very sad to leave him – she even had to fight back a tear – and she wished there was a way to tell Big Pavel that she wanted to come back. For some reason, though, it seemed like the big bear already knew. This would not be their last dance together.
Little Anya was terribly disappointed to leave, but as she stomped down the hill away from the pen, she took one last look back to find Big Pavel sitting on his mound of stones, watching her go. In that moment, she suddenly realized how small his pen was. Even though it had two parts, it was still only a few rocky patches and some water to play in, which is not a lot for two big bears, never mind for one particularly big bear who likes to swim and dance so much.
Little Anya began to wonder what Big Pavel – and Maria, too – thought about their little pen. She wondered if they enjoyed little places, like she did, but she rather doubted it. In fact, she had learned a long time ago that polar bears were at home in the Arctic Circle, a very big place indeed, much bigger than their little pen, much bigger than the Prague Zoo – much bigger than Prague itself! How sad, then, that the two of them had to live in such a tiny pen, in such a little zoo, in such a small city.
All of a sudden, as she was walking with Mama back to the car, Little Anya started to wonder if maybe big old Prague – and the big old world at large – wasn’t so bad after all. Besides, she, unlike Big Pavel, could move around in it as much as she pleased. Big Pavel, on the other hand, would always be stuck in his little pen, swimming and dancing with strangers on the other side of the glass, and he would probably never get to see the Arctic Circle again.
This made Little Anya very sad for Big Pavel, and she wondered what she could do to help. Perhaps the Zoo could make him and Maria a bigger pen? Perhaps they could let them go? Perhaps she could even rescue them herself? All of those seemed quite unlikely. Perhaps the best she could do was keep Big Pavel company as much as possible. In fact, that’s exactly what she planned to do. The next visit to the Zoo couldn’t happen soon enough.
As the little car took her back to her little room in her little flat, Little Anya stared out her window the whole way. The city seemed closer to her than it had before, much more manageable, and not to mention a thousand times more beautiful. All that time shut up with her little books in her little room in her little flat in her little room – what had she missed? Big Pavel wouldn’t have missed a thing, she decided – he would have been out lumbering around all day, seeing what he could see and dancing his little dances.
The journey from the Zoo to their little flat seemed like only a minute, and when they got there, Little Anya looked up to her Mama and said something she never thought she would say:
“Mama? Can we drive a little more? Or walk? Please?”
Mama looked at Little Anya, clearly quite surprised, and smiled.
“Yes, sweetheart,” she replied. “Why don’t we go for a walk to Old Town Square?”
She and her little family ate dinner in the Square that evening and wandered around until the sun went down, with Little Anya taking in every little – and every big – sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch that she could. In fact, she absorbed so much that she could barely walk – it was like her whole body was full! – and Mama eventually had to carry her up to bed. The last thing Little Anya remembered before going to sleep that night was asking Mama when she would get to see Big Pavel again. Her Mama said it would be soon, and then kissed her daughter goodnight.
Little Anya drifted off soon after, and sure enough, Mama was right, because she spent the rest of the night dancing with Big Pavel all up and down the streets of Prague.
Originally, I had planned on having a solid collection of illustrations, but unfortunately, time and the failure to come up with a unified aesthetic caught up with me. Here’s what I came up with in the end.