Children's Business Review

Helping Someone Who’s Not Feeling Well Can Make All The Difference

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“He’s my best friend and probably the smartest person in the entire forest!” Clara explained, somewhat forcefully, to her friend Eva as they approached Aris’ house.

“Aris, are you home?” Clara called out when they were within earshot. Minutes later, a somewhat dozy looking Aris appeared.

“I’m sorry, did we wake you?” Clara asked apologetically.

“Yes, you did wake me but no apology is needed,” Aris exclaimed as he looked first at Clara and then at Eva with a smile which both bears immediately returned. “To be honest, I’ve been a bit of a lazy bird today but now that you’re here I feel invigorated; your youthful energy must be contagious,” he noted with a chuckle. 

“Aris, my friend Eva has a problem and I brought her here to see if you can help. I know if anyone can solve her problem, you can. You will help us won’t you?” 

Eva cringed. While s expected that Clara would ask for Aris’ help, Eva was caught of guarf by Clara’s direct plea Aris.

“I’ll certainly try to do whatever I can,” Aris answered as he glided down from where he was perched so that he could sit between the two bears.

“Thanks Aris,” Clara  remarked as she turned to Eva. “I told you he’d help.”

It wasn’t easy for Eva to speak about her problems with anyone, let alone Aris, someone she had, up until that point, never met. But with Clara by her side, Eva spoke of the shyness she’d always lived with and which seemed to be worsing. 

As the three sat together, Eva shared how she felt overwhelmingly anxious whenever she was around strangers and  in any circumstance when she happened to be the centre of attention. 

As she finished telling Aris how she’d been feeling, Eva found herself somewhat relieved.  Clara, who had been quiet yet clearly supportive of her friend, spoke up.

“Aris, I’ve been telling Eva that the way she feels isn’t good and that she should really talk about it with someone who could help her but she doesn’t want to. I was hoping that you feel the same as I do and can convince her to get some help.” Clara explained.  

“I don’t know if Clara’s told you, but I like to tell stories,” Aris said, turning to Eva. “And I think I’ve got a rather appropriate story for this occasion.” 

******

If you or I sat down and thought properly about it, there’s probably not many people we’d like to be stuck on a desert island with. While we might enjoy a day or two alone with family, friends or a loved-one, seeing the same face and listening to the same voice day-in and day-out would most certainly grow tiresome rather quickly. 

Now imagine that it’s not a desert island that you are stranded on but a floating piece of ice in the middle of the ocean. If you’re able to picture that, you’ll have an idea of the predicament that Patrick and Lucy, a pair of Emperor Penguins, found themselves in many years ago.  

Before they were marooned on a small piece of ice in the middle of the ocean, Patrick and Lucy made their home on the expansive ice fields in the frigid Antarctic with thousands of other penguins. On the day of their unplanned departure, the two had gone for a swim in the frigid waters and, after catching and eating some fish for lunch, had settled on the edge of an iceberg and taken a nap. 

Perhaps it was the vigorous swim they had earlier, or maybe it was their full bellies, whatever the reason, neither Patrick nor Lucy woke, or even stirred, as the ice they were sleeping on broke away from the iceberg and began floating away in the ocean’s currents. To be fair, until recently penguins could be assured that the various icebergs and glaciers upon which they formed their colonies were stable and they were certainly not accustomed to pieces of ice breaking off and floating away.

It was Patrick, always a light and fitful sleeper, who woke first and quickly realized the mess the two were in. It didn’t take long before Lucy was awoken by Patrick’s running back and forth on their tiny floating platform and muttering insescently “Oh dear, oh dear, oh no, oh my.”

While Patrick had quickly determined what must have occurred, he seemed unable to do much beyond explain the situation to Lucy and continue with his lamentations. Being much more proactive than Patrick and believing that they couldn’t have floated too far from home, Lucy suggested that they merely dive into the water and set out in the direction that appeared to most probably lead them home. This wasn’t an entirely foolhardy idea as when they peered off into the distance, Patrick and Lucy could almost make out one of the rocky mountains not far from where their colony nested. 

“That simply won’t do I say it simply won’t do,” Patrick, who had a habit of repeating himself, declared. “Look there, and there, and there!” he exclaimed while turning and pointing at the seemingly endless ocean that enveloped their floating island. 

Try as she might, Lucy couldn’t see a thing in any of the directions that Patrick pointed to so emphatically and so he shared with her his conviction that the waters around them were rife with leopard seals and orca whales, just waiting to make the two penguins their dinner. Patrick refused to put one foot in the water.

Now many other penguins would have left Patrick to float away and would have jumped in the water and swam towards what was, in fact, their home; but not Lucy. 

Lucy was that rare type of friend who was there for Patrick though thick or thin, despite his eccentricities. And while Patrick was never one to express his emotions, besides his worries and fears of course, Lucy always knew how much Patrick appreciated her and his tender feelings towards the one person who was his only true friend. 

As the day turned to night, our two castaways continued on their floating journey towards wherever the ocean, and luck, would carry them. It was their empty bellies, rather than the sunrise or the sound of the waves around them, that woke Patrick and Lucy the following morning. 

“It’s true that we’re both famished,” Lucky admitted to Patrick, who was in quite a foul mood. “But look on the bright-side, there’s an ocean filled with fish around us. Shall we hop into the water and try our luck?”

“So we can be breakfast for the seals? I think not,” was Patrick’s firm response. “We’re better off waiting until we float to land, or starving for that matter.”

“I don’t see how we’d be better off starving,” Lucy remarked, having become somewhat exasperated with Patrick by this point. “Stay here, I’ll go get us some food.” And with that, Lucy slid gracefully into the surrounding waters and disappeared from sight. 

“Stay here, I don’t know where she thinks I’d go.” Patrick muttered to himself, happy that it was Lucy, and not him, who was taking a chance in what he perceived to be an ocean teeming with predators. As the minutes went by, Patrick grew more and more discontent. “Something must have caught her. I’m all alone now and will surely die before I reach land.” 

Overwhelmed, Patrick sat on the ice and continued bemoaning his fate. Moments later, and aided by Patrick’s sounds of distress, Lucy located their floating ice platform and triumphantly popped out of the water at Patrick’s feet, laying a rather large fish in front of him. 

Patrick’s joy in seeing that Lucy was safe and sound was quickly replaced by a new worry; how much of the fish should they eat now and how much should be saved away for later. It was entirely reasonable, in Patrick’s opinion at least, to assume that they might be unable to catch any more fish. 

Well after everything she had done to get them food, Lucy was having none of it and tucked right into fish she had spent considerable energy to catch. Knowing that the debate with her was over before it had begun, Patrick joined Lucy and rather enjoyed their meal. 

Unfortunately for the pair, their time adrift was not brief and for days they floated in the ocean’s currents. To their relief, food was indeed plentiful, thanks of course to Lucy as Patrick never looked into the ocean around them without seeing danger. To their credit, the pair were good companions through what must have been an arduous time.   

As the days passed, it became quite obvious to both penguins that what had once been a comfortable platform for the two of them was becoming smaller and smaller, particularly as a warm current was carrying them into ever warmer surroundings. As sunset approached on their fifth day at sea, Patrick summed up their predicament. 

“I’m afraid that by sunrise, we’ll no longer have this ice to buoy us; we’ll be cast into the water and will certainly never see each other, or anyone else again.”

Despite the fact that Patrick repeated these concerns several times, Lucy didn’t respond as her attention was drawn to something off in the horizon. “Patrick, I think that I see some land out there,” Lucy said with excitement, gesturing over Patrick’s shoulder.

Now, to be fair, this wasn’t the first time that Lucy believed that she had seen a coastline over the past days, and on every other occasion, the pair soon realized that she was mistaken and had been deceived by a trick of the light and the waves. 

With a certainty that she hadn’t shown up until that point, Lucy insisted that she could indeed see land and that their only real option was to try and make their way to shore before the night came and they found themselves adrift in the dark with no platform to rest upon and no bearing on where they should go. 

As Lucy’s suggestion was really the only sensible option the pair had, Patrick suppressed his overwhelming doubts and anxiety and slipped into the water behind her and the two set off towards what they both hoped was indeed land. 

Hours later, as the sun was just setting, two exhausted yet enthusiastic penguins washed up on a rocky shoreline. In the light of the moon, Lucy and Patrick’s faces beamed as they had never felt more fortunate than they did at that moment. Patrick was especially proud as moments before they landed on shore, he had snagged a fish, not a fish they were used to having but nevertheless a delightful, and certainly well-earned dinner.

“I just hope that we’ll make it through the night. Who knows what is out there and might like to gobble us up,” Patrick said somberly to Lucy following their dinner as they counted the stars above them.

“Shut up Patrick,” Lucy said with a smile as she cuddled in close to him and the pair drifted off to sleep. 

As the sun rose the following day, Patrick and Lucy were able to examine their situation. From what they could tell, the rocky shoreline where they found themselves was not a tiny island but part of a larger land mass. It was certainly warmer than they were used to with no trace of ice in any direction. 

Patrick, of course, favoured staying put and not venturing far from where they had first landed. “It’s probably not that safe out there, we would be much better staying here. We can easily hop into the water and escape anything that tries to get us from the land, and can hide among these piles of rocks should something come from the sea to grab us.”

Lucy, a much more adventurous type, wholeheartedly disagreed with him but knew and understood the strain that Patrick, a penguin who needed consistency and his routines to feel comfortable, had felt since their now-melted ice raft had broken away from home. 

And so, in the days and weeks that followed, Patrick and Lucy reached a compromise. They constructed what turned out to be a rather comfortable nest, framed by a large pile of rocks and surrounded by long tufts of a sweet-smelling grass that grew all around them. This home suited Patrick to a T as it was as secure and secluded as he could hope for and Lucy soon grew to adore its quaintness. And as part of their compromise it was agreed that during the day, when Patrick tended to stay close to home, Lucy would venture further and further afield and explore their new home. 

One afternoon, a couple of months after the two penguins had arrived at their new home, Lucy ran up to where Patrick was dozing.

“I’ve found some Penguins!” She exclaimed excitedly if rather breathlessly. “They’re terribly nice and welcoming. Come with me, I’ve told them all about  you and how we ended up here and they’re anxious to make your acquaintance.” 

Lucy’s excitement quickly dissipated as she saw on Patrick’s face a complete resistance to being introduced to her new friends. Knowing Patrick as well as she did, Lucy attempted to anticipate and pre-emptively address some of his concerns and misgivings. 

“I think you’ll like them, they are just like the penguins we lived with at home,” she began. 

“Well to be honest, they’re not exactly like us,” Lucy admitted, “They are a little bit smaller, have these funny white stripes on their heads and bright orangey-red bills, but in every other way, they’re what we’re used to.” 

Sensing Patrick’s immediate hesitation, Lucy continued. “It seems like they live together in a big group and share everything. I think they even look out for each other, it’s a very safe place.”

To Lucy’s dismay, but not to her surprise,  Patrick refused to meet the other penguins that day, the next day, and the one after that, and the one after that, and eventually, Lucy gave up asking. This didn’t stop her from spending more and more of her time with them as they were overwhelmingly welcoming and Lucy delighted in playing with the young chicks and laughing with the penguins her own age.  

In time, Lucy left her home with Patrick and joined the flock of penguins who, by that point, felt like family to her. Before you judge Lucy for leaving Patrick, know that she tried everything to convince him to join her. While he grew to welcome the other penguins as visitors, he never felt comfortable leaving his home to call on them nor could he fathom the possibility that he might join Lucy and nest with them. 

A true friend, Lucy never let too much time pass without visiting Patrick, first alone, and later with her growing family. Patrick was always a nervous and panicky penguin however he eventually found comfort in his new home and grew to be especially fond of Lucy’s youngest son, a precocious penguin she named Patrick. 

******

Quite unexpectedly, Eva gave a big bear hug to Aris after his story drew to a close. “Do you mind if I come to see you again?” she asked. 

“It would be my pleasure,” Aris responded as the two bears prepared to leave. 

Weeks later, Clara asked Aris if Eva had visited him. 

“Many times,” he answered with a smile.

“I’ve noticed that she seems less anxious than she was before, do you think that something you’ve said, or that story you told us helped her in some way?” Clara inquired. 

“I certainly hope that the time I’m spending with her is having some effect,” Aris answered cautiously. “And you’re right about the value of stories, sometimes hearing a tale about someone else can provide a window and insight into our own lives.” 

“Didn’t you once tell me a story about a cheeky bear?” Clara asked with a giggle.

“I believe I did,” Aris responded as he winked at his friend.