Ava
There were three things Ava was slowly beginning to learn about her new ‘friend’ Bear.
The first being that he was not just grumpy like she originally thought but actually extremely grumpy and it wasn’t because he hadn’t warmed up to her but because that’s just who he is. She was pretty sure that she had never heard him smile like ever. Not even once.
The second thing was that as much as he tried to deny it he enjoyed it whenever he heard her knock on the wall. In fact, she was again pretty sure those were the only times she ever heard him almost smile.
The third and most recent thing was that he enjoyed silence. He had been quiet all day, and no matter how much she knocked, he hadn’t made a single sound, and yet still, she knocked again.
Silence.
“Bear?”
More silence.
Her curiosity was now slowly starting to turn into something else. Something she didn’t like.
Worry? Fear?
She shook her head.
Bear was Bear. He was strong and Ava was fairly certain that nothing could hurt him. Well, almost nothing. She’d never seen him but she often imagined his likeness to that of an actual bear.
Okay, so maybe not an actual bear per se, but she knew from their very few one-sided conversations that he was as hostile as one.
She knocks again, and then after what feels like an eternity, she hears it. A grunt. Like the first time they talked, the noise is soft, almost non-existent, but it’s there.
“Bear, are you okay?”
Another low grunt and then, “I’ll be much better if you can learn to appreciate the silence, Solnyshko.”
Suddenly and all at once, the fear and all the worry she felt just seconds ago evaporate into thin air.
Poof.
“You’re still here,” she says, the relief in her tone evident as she slumped against the wall in her usual position.
“Of course I am. You must think my father more merciful than he is if you imagine that he’ll free me from this place after three miserly days”
Three days.
Ava felt her heart sink at that, right to her stomach before mixing with the plain bread and apple slices she had for breakfast.
She hadn’t realised that she’d been locked away for that long until this very moment.
“Has it been three days?” She asked, hoping for once that Bear would tell her something other than what he just let slip.
He mutters something in a language she can’t make out, and slowly, very slowly, he says.
“Da”
She felt like she was going to scream or cry, maybe both. Had her father really not come for her? Had she seriously been locked in this place for three whole days? Had her father forgotten her?
The questions came one after the other and she found herself unable to answer any of them.
“Bear. Can I tell you something?”
“I have a feeling that you’re going to tell me anyway”
“I’m scared.”
The words tumbled out of her, soft and desperate. A long second passes between the two of them, neither breathing nor uttering a word.
The truth was that Ava was tired. Exhausted, if she was being completely honest with herself.
Being brave was tiring, especially if you didn’t know if you should be brave or scared.
“I know, Solnyshko. YA tozhe”
She hadn’t bothered to ask him what the words meant and yet she found them strangely comforting.
“Do you think my father will come for me?”
Ava heard a long exhale leave Bear and then silence stretched between them again. She knew what that meant. Bear never hesitated.
“You want the truth or something easier to swallow?” he finally asked, his voice quieter than before.
Ava thought for a moment. “The truth.”
She had once determined long ago that one truth was better than a thousand lies even though all she wanted was to be lied to if it let her cling to hope.
A soft thud came from the other side of the wall as if he’d rested his head against it. “I don’t know, Ava.”
It wasn’t the answer she wanted.
A single tear drop rolled down her cheek and she realised then that it was the first time she allowed herself to feel the sadness that had been weighing in her mind ever since she was locked in here.
In the first hours she’d been here, she had held on to hope, clutched its fleeting wings so desperately she was sure she’d break it, but now, by some manoeuvre, she was not familiar with, the feeling had eluded her, leaving her with nothing to cling to but a single bent feather.
A low grunt emanated from the other side of the wall once again.
“Bear? Are you okay? You don’t sound so good”
He let out a disgruntled laugh, one that made the knot in her stomach tighten.
“I guess that’s what happens when you take one too many punches in the ribs”
Ava straightened, pressing her palms against the cold floor. “What? Did someone hit you?”
There was a long pause, and then a sigh. “It doesn’t matter”
“Of course, it matters!” the words were sharper than she intended for them to be, but she didn’t care. “You’re hurt, and no one’s helping you.”
Why was no one helping him?
Surely they were guards stationed outside his door; surely one of them could come to his aid… unless…
“Was it the guards? Did they hurt you?”
While Ava was asleep she’d heard shuffling on the other side of the wall, followed by a few bad words she had once promised her mother never to use again. She’d ignored it until the sound faded because she’d been too tired and scared to check what had happened but maybe she shouldn’t have.
Bear laughed, the sound ripping through her thoughts and she wondered if she’d accidentally said something funny.
“They wouldn’t dream of hurting me. I suppose that pleasure only belongs to one person.”
His father.
Ava knew from their conversations that Bear’s father, the owner of where she was currently being held, was not a good man, and neither was he a good father. Even though Bear had never once implied it, Ava was fairly certain that Bear’s father was hurting him, just as Clarissa, a girl from her dance studio, had been hurt by her own father.
It was things like this, the ability to pick up on things left unsaid that made Ava feel a jolt of pride every now and again.
“Is there anything I can do to help?” The question is one met with another bout of laughter and she became suddenly confused about the sound.
Well, confused and scared, because she had never heard Bear laugh more than once in any conversation they’d had.
It was worrisome.
“Can you somehow fix my ribs from across the wall?”
Ava clenched her tiny fists. She could not.
“If not then I suppose you can pass me something to eat then”
A small smile teased at the corner of her lips. Now that she could manage.
Now, it is important to note that to a seven-year-old girl like Ava, sarcasm is a gift only few can possess in such youth. She was not part of the few.
Ava pushed up from the floor, using her knees to support her as she straightened. On the other side of the room, in the steel tray that was passed to her earlier in the morning, laid an apple. An already bitten, juicy, red apple which Ava had intended to save for later… or until the guards came and took it away.
She picked up the fruit and then walked back to her position by the wall.
“Bear?” She called softly, and a low grunt answered her in return.
“I have an apple,” She says, “Do you want it?”
“And how do you expect to pass it to me? In case you haven’t noticed, there’s a brick wall standing between us”
Ava frowned. She hadn’t forgotten. She hadn’t forgotten because she was looking right at it.
Yet she thought they had to be a way. She remembered that on the first night she was here she’d seen a mouse run right over her legs before disappearing into the wall
As she replayed the incident she realised that the mouse hadn’t disappeared into the wall like she originally thought.
It had slipped through a small gap between the bricks near the floor.
And it was right around… here?
Ava crouched down on her hands and knees, running her fingers over the bottom of the wall as she attempted to feel for tiny spaces.
Her heart threatened to leap from her chest when she found one. A tiny crack right there at the corner, barely wide enough for her hand to fit.
“Bear” She whispered through the whole. A second later his voice reverberated.
“Either I’m going mad with pain or you’re closer than you were three seconds ago.”
It was Ava’s turn to giggle.
“I’ve found a way”
“A way for what exactly?”
“To pass you the apple.”
She peeked through the hole, and as expected, she could barely make out anything on the other side except maybe a pair of feet.
“Can you come closer? There’s a hole just across from you. I’ll pass it to you through there.”
A beat of silence followed before Ava heard a soft shuffle from the other side. Then, the faintest whisper of breath as Bear exhaled.
“I’m here,” he murmured.
His voice sounded much deeper up close.
Ava grinned. Sticking her tongue out because how else is one supposed to concentrate, she angled the apple, pressing it into the small gap.
She held her breath, waiting.
And then… one tug.
That’s all it took and the apple was no longer in her hand.
She peeked once more through the gap, ignoring the slight pang of disappointment when she saw nothing but feet again.
“I can’t believe this,” Bear muttered more to himself than her, “I think you’ve just successfully smuggled me an apple.”
Ava couldn’t help herself, she beamed so brightly she was sure she would create another hole with her smile.
“Told you I can help,” She says, assuming her position against the wall and tucking her legs underneath her.
“That you did.” A quiet pause, “Thank you, Ava.”