Here Yogi, Yogi, Yogi,” I yelled while I was hunting with an old friend named Todo. The forest was dense and you could only see as far as the length of your gun.

“Nah, I would say he’s more of a Winnie the Pooh kind of bear, Carter. Just think of that golden fur,” Todo stretched the word golden as if he was trying to make me look stupid, but I shrugged it off. I’ve been able to tell since this morning that he’s been trying hard to act normal. My eyes darted to him and then to the ground. Todo is clutching the dirty brown rifle he found in shed tight, too tight, and you can tell he’s regretting a lot right now. His deep green eyes are staring off into space as if thinking of how he can make things better.

“Fine. Here Winnie. Here Winnie,” I said slightly giddy about hunting bear. The excitement seemed to cut through the awkwardness. What we heard was that the bear had killed three different dogs this week and there is a bounty on its head. The hippies believe he is a wandering, the conspirators believe he is a government experiment, and everyone else believes it’s a new species of bear. Either way we’re hunting him.

Taking a step into the thick brush I nearly tripped into an impression in the ground. “I think I found tracks” I maneuvered the brush so I could see the deep, wide paw print in the soil.

“You wouldn’t think he would be so active considering it’s in the middle of winter.” His deep voice echoed a bit.
He paused which gave me time to think. “The tracks are kind of deep.” I tried to meet his gaze but his dark brown hair shielded his eyes and his head was tilted down. “Maybe we should let another hunter go after him.” After all we weren’t skilled hunters. If anything we were lucky to kill a deer.

“No way,” Todo yelled. “Five hundred dollars could get us a lot. Plus we’re the ones with the guns. If anything goes wrong we have each other’s back,” part of me was still worried that Todo didn’t have my back. Why couldn’t I just have said yes? Maybe things would have been better, but part of me knows that if he ever asks me out again I would say no.

Soon enough the sun was starting to set and we already agreed that hunting at night was too dangerous so I called it. “We’ll get him tomorrow, ok”

“Yea I know,” he whispered under his breath. I slung my gun over my shoulder and breathed. Part of me was really happy this was over. The atmosphere was suffocating.

We started heading north where the forest got less dense, and the trail is more visible. Todo was walking slower and his eyebrows rose as he asked, “Do you smell that.”

“What-“I was cut off by a loud squishing sound. A smell rose and it definitely wasn’t a good smell. I closed my eyes and breathed to keep from screaming. “What did I step in?”

Todo’s eyes got big and a smile crept up on his face. “It’s bear poop, and it’s fresh! He can’t be too far. We could still catch him.” As he jumped for joy, I began scraping scat off my shoe and onto an oak. At this point pissed wasn’t half of what I was.

“Do what you want, I’m going home.” I started to move on, but in the middle of the trail sat the most beautiful thing I ever saw. Its yellow fur seemed reflect and embellish the little bit of sunlight left in the forest. I was in a dumb awe. Even when there bear started to move towards me and even when the gums of his teeth were showing I was star struck, until Todo grabbed my arm and basically dragged me away.

As soon as I got my footing together I ran as fast as I could with Todo at my side and only looked back to see the bear breathing heavily and hammering the ground to get to us. I could see dirt becoming airborne behind my steps. We were so close to the road and we should have kept running, but Todo grabbed my arm and I skidded to a stop. “Let’s climb the tree” On instinct I followed his order. Nails out I scurried up the tree and Todo followed. It wasn’t until I could see the bears golden fur in the distance that I realized how stupid we were being.

“You dumbass. Bears can climb trees.” It was too late when I said it. The bear was at the base of the tree. I don’t believe in miracles, but it was a miracle that the bear decided not to climb the tree. It just fell asleep at the trunk of the tree. We were stuck there.

Getting into a comfortable position on my branch I realized I still had my gun and it would be so easy to just shoot the bear. It would be a simple solution to the problem. “You know we could shoot it from up here and collect the money.” I looked up at the stars and moon. They were so beautiful. “This is the first time I’ve ever seen a golden bear, so it should live. It’s beautiful. Let’s wait for thirty minutes. It might go away.

Todo sighed, “Fine.” We stayed silent for at least five minutes and I could tell Todo’s index finger was getting twitchy. “While we’re here please forget everything I said yesterday, ok”

I stared into his emerald eyes with a straight face and said, “Ok.”

Ten more minutes passed and silence became loud again, “What’s wrong with me? I mean, when you said ‘no’ you were.” He paused, “sure that it hurt,” he whispered.

He couldn’t look me in the eye when he asked and that infuriated me. “I’m a little mad at you for asking. Why change this? No drama and we’re the perfect team. Why change that for a stupid title? Why can’t we just stay like this and since you asked we’ll never be normal.” I stopped when I realized that I raised my voice. Under my breath I muttered, “There is nothing wrong with you.”

Looking down I saw the bear mosey away, his golden fur dulling in the corner I my eye. “Let’s go Carter. The bear is gone so let’s go,” was all that was said before me and Todo got down.

As he walked he walked with distance. As I walked I walked with desperation to catch up to him, but he was walking too fast. To this day I haven’t caught up to him and to this day no one has seen the golden bear. He left the day Todo pulled away. The day I lost my best friend. How can something so beautiful disappear?