WtP: Lost Treasures chp5

"That was very odd," Kanga noted as they walked down the path that would lead them to their homes. "Very odd indeed."

"Why did he keep thinking that he knew us, Mama?" Roo asked as he snuggled up in his mother's pouch. "We've never seen him before."

"I'm not sure, Honey. I'm not even sure how he was able to speak to us at all."

"Humans are strange," Eeyore commented, keeping his head low. "That's all I have to say."

Rabbit listened to the others as they spoke about the event that had just taken place until a shiver ran up his spine, all the way up his ears which immediately began to point in different directions. He shuddered and shook until it had faded away, and then looked up at the sky above. "Oh my; I believe we'll be in for some rain," he announced as they reached the fork in the path—it split into several smaller paths that led to different areas of the Hundred Acre Wood. Rabbit turned around and looked at the others while placing his hands on his hips. "We should hurry and get home quickly. Tomorrow, we'll go honey harvesting for Pooh, so that he can have something for a while and not need to constantly borrow some from me. We'll meet at Pooh Corner. For now, get indoors before the rain comes."

"It's a good thing we live close to here, huh Mama?" Roo said with a giggle.

Kanga, Owl and Eeyore each said their farewells for the day, on account that their homes were nearby and they would be able to get indoors before the rain came. Rabbit's home was in fact nearby as well, but Pooh, Piglet and Tigger had some ways to go before arriving to their respected houses.

Rabbit rubbed his arms to keep warm from the suddenly chilly breeze before turning around and looking at Tigger. "You still have some laundry to finish for me," he groaned, "But we'll deal with that in the morning. For now, you, Piglet and Pooh are welcome at my place until the rain stops."

"You're actually invitin' us into your homety-home, Bunny-boy?" Tigger asked, slightly amused by this fact.

"I'm too overwhelmed to give you the boot right now, Tigger," Rabbit sighed. He shook his head while closing his eyes. "We should have never gone to Christopher Robin's house. That was the strangest and most worrisome meeting I've ever had. I think it would be safer if we don't step foot into that yard ever again."

Tigger, Piglet and Pooh recoiled at this piece of information. "But Rabbit, what if Christopher Robin comes back and we're not there to see him?" Piglet wondered.

"Like I told Pooh: if he returns, he'll know where to find us," Rabbit replied as his ears fell back. "But with those people living there, I highly doubt he'll ever come back."

"But what about deh promise he made us when he left?" Tigger pointed out, with a hint of worry in his voice. "Christopher Robin promised us dat he would come back."

"With those people there, I don't know, Tigger. But it would be safest for us if we stayed in the Hundred Acre Wood." As thunder rolled in the distance, Rabbit shuddered again and looked upwards. "Anyway, let's get indoors before we're caught in the rain." He turned to leave when a final thought returned to mind, and he quickly turned around and pointed at the bear. "Pooh, I especially want you to heed my words," he warned. "Don't you go anywhere near Christopher Robin's house, you understand? It'll just make things worse for you."

Pooh looked on in dismay. "But Rabbit, I—!"

"No more buts, Pooh Bear. You said so yourself that that man was not Christopher Robin. So don't go there."

"I did say that," Pooh agreed. "But still—!"

Rabbit sighed in exasperation. "Again with the buts!" he moaned while turning on his heels. He began to make his way down one path. "We will discuss this once we're indoors, Pooh. Now come along, the three of you."

Tigger and Piglet watched him leave before the feline bounced off after his friend. Piglet made to follow as well until he realized that his best friend had not done the same. The small animal stopped in his tracks before turning around and looking at the bear. Pooh was still standing where he had been before, but his head was turned in the direction they had come from.

As Piglet walked up to him, he could sense the sadness in his friend. "Pooh, are you gonna be alright?" he asked softly.

Pooh kept his eyes on the path before opening his mouth: "I don't know, Piglet," he said quietly. "I feel strange. Like the rumbly in my tumbly is now in my heart. It feels… out of place."

"Out of place how, Pooh?"

Pooh sighed and rubbed his head. "I don't know," he replied. "But I believe it has something to do with Christopher Robin not being who he is… or that man not being Christopher Robin." He pondered this quietly until he sighed again and looked at the forest floor. "Bother," he muttered; "Why did I feel so afraid? It was very odd. I've never felt that way with anyone before, save a Heffalump or a Whoozle, or even a Jagular. But I've always tried to be nice… I wonder why he frightened me."

"He frightened everyone, Pooh," Piglet said. "He even frightened Tigger and Rabbit."

"I wonder why we were all afraid."

"Perhaps because he knew so much about us… but was still a stranger."

Pooh thought about this. "… Yes… maybe, Piglet…" He stared down the path again before looking at his best friend. "He felt so… so strange and unfamiliar. Very sad, almost. Like something died. Yes; that's the right way to say it."

"Yes," Piglet agreed. "I felt the same thing."

"Christopher Robin never felt like that."

"No, he didn't."

"He felt happy. Very happy, in fact." The bear sighed heavily. "I do miss him, Piglet. I wish he would come back like he promised."

Piglet grabbed Pooh's paw and led him off. "Me too, Pooh," he whispered. "Me too."

*****

Christopher Robin finished unloading the moving van in silence after standing in the empty yard for a minute or two. His son ran out to ask where the Silly Old Bear and his friends ran off to, but he never got a response; his father hardly even seemed to acknowledge his presence.

When dinner came around, he was still as silent as he had been while moving boxes. Tanya noticed it, especially after her son attempted on numerous occasions to have a decent conversation with his father. Christopher hardly touched his food—he mostly pushed peas around and mixed them in with the mashed potatoes. He seemed to listen every now and again to conversations between his mother and his wife, but for the most part, his mind was elsewhere. And he never once said anything.

Tanya had a feeling that it had something to do with the time he had spent in the yard before working.

While his family did the dishes, Christopher Robin went upstairs to his old bedroom, which would become his son's in a few days. It had been years since he had last set foot in this room, and now was as good a time as any to visit it.

Rain was pit-patting against the glass of the window when Christopher opened the door and peered inside. Everything was still in its place, meaning nothing had moved or changed; not even his bed. He was certain that his mother had moved things around, but aside from that, everything was just the way it had been when he left the Hundred Acre Wood.

Even the drawings which he had posted on the wall as a child were still there. As he walked over to them in order to give them a better glance, Christopher found himself wondering why he had never taken them down during high school. Perhaps he had been too lazy to do so; perhaps his mother wanted him to, secretly.

Or maybe… Christopher had kept them up there because… because someone else would be hurt if he took them down.

The possibility made his heart drop. These drawings had been the last batch he ever drew of his Hundred Acre Wood friends. There were drawings of Rabbit, drawings of Tigger and Piglet, drawings of Owl, Eeyore, Kanga and Roo. But his favorite, and the ones that covered most of the wall, were the drawings he had done of himself and Pooh.

Christopher grabbed one of the pictures and pulled it off of the wall. This one in particular had been a gift, not from him, but for him. One night, when Christopher had been about thirteen years old, while the others had fallen asleep, he and Pooh had stayed up late drawing pictures of each other and their friends. The last one Pooh did before falling asleep had been one where he and Christopher Robin were hugging.

"We should probably get back in bed, Pooh… Mum will be awfully mad if she finds us still up."

"Yes, yes, just wait a minute… I'm almost done… There! Here you are, Christopher Robin."

"Why, thank you, Pooh. It's lovely. I will put it up on the wall right now."

Christopher sighed heavily and stroked the picture. "If only I had taken that moment more seriously," he said to himself. "All of a sudden, it feels like it was all just a dream."

"What was all just a dream?"

The sound of his wife standing hardly a few feet behind him made Christopher yelp in fright and turn around while clutching the picture in his hands. He stared at his wife, who had reeled back in shock, and then glared at her. "Why do you do that?" he snapped.

Tanya looked about quickly before stifling a laugh. "Do what?" she asked.

"That! That sneaking up thing! You've been doing it ever since college, for goodness sake!"

Tanya giggled here while covering her mouth. "You're easy to scare, that's why," she teased. As her husband settled down and turned away from her, she cleared her throat and placed her hands together. "Christopher, you've been awfully quiet since this afternoon," she added in a soft tone, as the man stared out the window. "Why so gloomy?"

Christopher looked at her over his shoulder for a moment before sighing and looking at the picture in his hands again. "Just lost in my memories, I suppose," he whispered.

"Memories? Would these have anything to do with… a certain bear of yours?"

Christopher took a deep breath and sighed. Tanya had been the only person with whom he shared his adventures in the Hundred Acre Wood. She had also been the only one who did not laugh at him about his stories—in fact, she went on to drawing and painting images for him, which he kept in a special box—Tanya had graduated as a book illustrator from another branch of their college.

Tanya walked over to her husband and looked over his shoulder at the picture he held. She smiled. "Did you draw that?" she asked, attempting to cheer him up.

Christopher noticed her effort, yet could not bring himself to please her. "No," he replied. "Pooh did. When I was in middle school." He looked at the drawing once more before letting out a moan and setting the paper on the dresser. "I used to get bullied in school because someone saw me talking to…animals," he muttered while heading over to the bed. Animals had actually been a substitute for stuffed toys—it was his way of keeping the hurt at bay. "When I would come home, I would go into the Hundred Acre Wood and look for Pooh. He'd be there to cheer me up… Even if… I didn't feel like being cheered up."

He sat down on the bed and placed his head in his hands. "I saw him," he said. "I saw Pooh Bear this afternoon. And the others. They were all looking for me."

"I know," Tanya said as she sat down next to him. "Kris told me about the Silly Old Bear in the van."

"I don't know why they came, only that they did," Christopher continued. "And then I ran out to say hello, but…" He felt his heart break and he shook his head. "They… they didn't recognize me. Rabbit even got insecure and scolded me for impersonating their dear friend. I knew I hadn't been here in over ten years, but I didn't expect them to be so oblivious. I mean, even Pooh…" Christopher let out a sad sigh between his hands. "… Even Pooh seemed… afraid of me. Out of all my companions… my best friend wouldn't even let me grab his paw. He… wouldn't even look at me in the eye after a moment."

He fell silent here for a minute or two. During that time, his wife remained by his side, listening carefully to everything he said. That was one thing he loved about Tanya; she knew how to listen.

… Just like Piglet. Oh, how it pained Christopher to find so many similarities between people he knew and the friends of his childhood. His mother was like Rabbit and Kanga; caring, organized, stern, and even a little on the grumpy side of things. His father had been like Owl and Tigger, full of stories to tell and full of energy. Tanya was gentle like Piglet, and their son was no different from Roo.

And at the moment… Christopher felt, perhaps even a tad worse, like Eeyore: gloomy and pessimistic at times.

The man let out a sigh again. "I don't understand, Tanya," he whispered. "Why didn't Pooh let me hold him? I thought for sure that he would recognize me. He's normally always happy to see me… It's as though something in him completely changed over the last decade. He even said that… I didn't feel like Christopher Robin… Whatever that means."

"Christopher, I hate to be the bubble popper here but…" Tanya waited a moment before continuing: "Well, it's not Winnie the Pooh who's changed. It's not even your other friends who have… it's you."

At these words, Christopher Robin raised his head and looked at the fair-haired woman. "Pardon?" he said. When all his wife did was sigh and stand up, he straightened his back and continued: "What in the world does that mean? How have I changed, Tanya? I don't understand. What have I done differently from before?"

"It's not for me that you've chanced, Christopher," Tanya replied while turning around and looking at him. "Although I've noticed the change progressively get worse over the years, it's not something that any human being would notice at once. But that doesn't mean that a certain bear and his woodland creature friends haven't noticed it."

"Tanya, what on Earth are you talking about?" Christopher asked, his voice beginning to grow impatient. He stood up and held up his index finger. "I haven't changed in the least! Tell me one thing that could have changed; one thing—!"

"Your innocence."

This had not been an answer Christopher Robin had been expecting.  Slowly, he let his raised arm fall to his side, and waited patiently for his wife to continue. Tanya passed a hand over her face and sighed. "Christopher, I had imaginary friends as a child too," she said. "And although they were not nearly as precious as yours are, I was able to keep something they taught me through my childhood: innocence. Imaginary friends bring out the innocence of a child, Christopher. And the amount of innocence you have right now is far less than what you had when we first met…" She paused here and looked at him with saddened eyes. "And your friends have noticed it. That's why they don't recognize you, Christopher; you don't have that innocence that they once knew, the innocence that made you… well, you. The innocence that allowed them to distinguish their dear friend from any other person on this planet."

Christopher stared at her in dismay before turning around and passing his hands over and over through his thick hair, messing it up. He groaned softly and walked around the room.

"And because of the lack of innocence they once sensed in this place, it's making them feel insecure," Tanya added. "My father was a child psychiatrist, remember? He used to talk to me about some of his patients, and even discussed having imaginary friends with me. You're like one of the children that went to see him. You were so creative in the beginning, so innocent at heart… but over time, things changed, and your innocence just… began to disintegrate. That's why Pooh and your other friends became uneasy and insecure around you; the innocence they had once felt, the innocence that had once kept them safe from harm, is no longer there. Without it, they can't feel you, or recognize you—!"

"Then how do I get it back?" Christopher asked in despair, turning to look at his wife. "How do I get my innocence back? I thought about them all the time through college, missing them more and more every day. So how does that take away my innocence and how do I get it back?"

"Simply thinking of your friends is not innocence, Christopher," Tanya pointed out. "Anyone can think back to their childhood and wish to relive it. You need more than just memories to bring your innocence back."

"Then how do I do that? I promised Kris that we'd go visit the Hundred Acre Wood, so how can I make Pooh Bear, Piglet, Tigger and the others recognize me again?"

Tanya waited a few seconds in silence before slowly shaking her head. "That's not something I can help you with, Christopher Robin," she replied. "That is something that you must do yourself."

Christopher stared at her in silence before passing a hand over his face and staring out the window behind Tanya. The rain seemed to get thicker the more it fell. Perhaps it had something to do with his mood change; he had always wondered if the sky knew when he was upset and would cry for him. A silly childish thing to think…

Wait; childish or childlike?

Think, think, think.

Christopher sighed in exasperation and buried his face in his hands. Tomorrow, after unpacking a few boxes, he would go into the Hundred Acre Wood and look for this so-called innocence which he had unknowingly misplaced. As a boy, he always went in there to start searching for things.

Maybe trying it out again would help get his innocence back… and win back the friendship of his woodland friends.

Especially Pooh's.

*****