Made Up

The bear and I made up. We sat together on the dock overlooking the lake.

I said, “It’s nice not fighting. I feel like I can breathe again.”

The bear said, “I know. I was so angry at you that I found myself constantly thinking of ways to eat you.”

I said, “Really? Like what?”

The bear said, “I imagined you pointing your finger at me the way you do, and I open my mouth and eat you whole in one bite, finger first.”

I said, “…I thought of calling animal services and telling them that you had foam coming out of your mouth, and you were waving a gun.”

We sat in silence for a while. The bear put its paw in my palm. I squeezed its paw. We watched the sun come down.