Edward R. Bear clutched his fish tightly. He was glad that he had a fish. Edward had heard that bears were omnivores. That means that they eat a lot of different kinds of food. But Edward Bear loved fish the best of all foods. And he had a fish. He was keeping his fish close by because he had heard rumors about hibernation. Edward wasn’t completely clear on the facts, but as he understood it, bears go to sleep during the coldest days of winter and stay asleep for months while winter rages outside of their den. Then they wake up and when they wake up they are hungry. Edward didn’t like being hungry. So he was keeping his fish for hibernation. Edward often woke up hungry. He knew that having a fish close by would be a real treat if hibernation were to last a very long time.

Edward knew that his full name was Edward R. Bear, but he didn’t know what the R. stood for. He thought it might stand for Ricketts – that was a name his mother used a lot. He thought it might stand for Russell – that was a name his father used a lot. But he didn’t know how he got the name Edward R. Bear. He just knew that it was his name.

Edward’s home had wheels. On the inside it was a very comfortable home with everything that a bear could need. It had a comfortable sofa where Edward liked to sit among the pillows. It had a table and a kitchen and a bathroom and a big bed. But the part that Edward liked the best was that it had a room with four bunk beds. Edward was told that the bunk beds were for children and he very much wanted to meet some children. Having a place for children in his home seemed to be a good idea.

Edward knew that his home had wheels because on September 17, 2012, his house was hooked on to the back of a pickup truck and towed to the back yard of a house on Waxwing Lane near the Black Hills National Forest. Edward loved looking out of the windows at all of the trees and the deer and the turkeys that wandered through the yard. One time, Edward thought that a turkey might be a good thing to eat, but he wasn’t sure how he could catch one and besides, Edward was on the inside and he couldn’t open the door by himself.
Edward did know a little bit about the outside of his house. Near the door it had letters and numbers. It said KZ 2505. Edward wasn’t sure, but he thought that might be his address. He didn’t know where other animals lived, but assumed that they had addresses, though he couldn’t really understand who decided what numbers and letters to put on houses. Edward hadn’t ever seen other houses when his house was moved to Waxwing Lane. He did know one more thing about the outside of his house. On the front and on the back there were pictures of a buffalo and the word “frontier.” Edward knew that some people called the buffalo the “American Bison,” but he liked the sound of the word Buffalo. And Edward knew that his home was in the Black Hills of South Dakota, which was home to Custer State Park and a large herd of buffalo. In fact, Edward had heard that the buffalo roundup was coming.


It sort of made sense to have the word “frontier” on the front of his home, but Edward couldn’t imagine why the word was also on the back of his home. If the frontier is at the front, shouldn’t there back a backtier at the back? Every time Edward thought about it he couldn’t figure out what the words might mean.

But they were on the outside and Edward R. Bear was on the inside. And hibernation was coming. So Edward was glad he had his fish.