One of my biggest fears is that we will lose Arthur Bear one day. Arthur is Nathan’s
best friend. He alternates between being the same age as Nathan, or the same age as Toby at which times he is Nathan’s baby. Nathan goes through periods when he wants to take Arthur everywhere with him. We try hard to discourage Arthur leaving the house, but at times it is easier (and less effort, less screaming to cope with, and less arguing) just to let him take the bear. I once lost him for a day, and frantically searched everywhere I could think of, including rather obscure places, in the flat before I finally found him underneath a blanket on Nathan’s bed.
Today we packed up our campsite and started the trek to Albury where we planned to spend the night before finishing the trip home tomorrow. Arthur got out at Scammel Lookout where we had morning tea, and he also got out of the car at the Murray 1 Power Station where we had a quick look at the museum and used the toilets. Back in the car the two boys fell asleep for a bit and didn’t get out of the car again until a SES Driver Reviver stop some 80 km on the Albury side of Corrying. We got back into the car and we just driving off when Nathan asked for Arthur. Well, we couldn’t find him, went back to the Driver Reviver place and checked that he want left there, when I suddenly wondered if we had left Arthur in the toilets at the Power Station.
With hearts in our throats we turned the car around and headed back towards the power station and kept checking the phone to see if we had any signal so we could try to call the Power Station to see if Arthur had been found there. Some 70 km later we finally managed to make the call to discover that a Teddy bear had been handed in, but the lady who had him finished work in 10 minutes and we were still a long way from the Power Station. She said she lived not far from Corryong, so she would meet us at the Post Office to give Arthur back to us. We had to wait about an hour after we got there, but it all ended happily with Arthur being returned to Nathan. Our little detour took us an extra 3 hours, but it was worth it.
An hour later and Nathan is still saying…
I’ll never leave Arthur again. Never,never, never. Never. Never.
