study and learn. But now I had come face-to-face with a Gobi Bear, I wasn’t that sure I knew as
much about them as I thought I did. The sun was setting, and I could see a huge looming shadow
cast on the sand. And slowly , ever so slowly, I stood up, my legs wobbling with fear. I tried not
to make eye-contact with her, but she lumbered over to me, interested but fearful. I could sense
her fear of the creature before her- she didn’t know what it was going to do to her. I never would
have thought that a Gobi Bear would be afraid of a meagre person like me. And suddenly I wasn’t
afraid- I just reached out and stroked her soft nose and rubbed it gently while she looked at me
with trust and love in her eyes that I had never seen before.
The moment I got home I said, surprisingly confidently, “I’ve got a bear.”
“What?” came my father’s startled reply.
“I’ve got a bear that walked home with me and is now standing right outside the door.” I
answered calmly. My mother gasped and rushed outside in panic whilst shouting “A bear? A bear?
Really Oyun, I thought you were smarter than this!” I just shrugged and mumbled about it being a
nice bear.
“So you just decided to take a bear along with you while going home? A Gobi Bear? It’s hard
to believe that you’re 12 already, Oyun. I thought you knew better.” My father cried.
“She’s not just a bear, Papa, her name is Ger Lüügee Yavna- ‘Going Home’. Ger for short. I
named her this because she came home with me.” Frustrated and exhausted, my father just sighed.
Ger was my everything. I had spent my entire life farming in the fields, never running
around, never playing. And then suddenly, Ger and me were galloping through the long grass,
the wind in my face, my long hair streaming.We leapt over any obstacle in our path. Nothing
could stop us from jumping the highest jump in the world, we felt. Until the day that there was an
obstacle we could not defeat, and we fell.
“Papa?” I asked as I came through the door. He was sitting at the table, reading. “Where is
Ger? Darkhny needs her, and she’s not in the stables. Is she out?” I watched Papa warily while he
gulped and seemed to choke up.
“Um...Ger’s not here... She’s gone.” A loud silence echoed through the room.
“What…..?”
“Oyun, really, it’s just that...that...um..we needed money for food, and I want you to go to
school and learn and…..I’m sorry….” he trailed off, a guilty look on his face. The silence was so
loud my ears were bursting.
“Ger...but, she...no! No, no, no!” I felt like I was drowning. My eyes were blurred with tears
and I was holding my breath, waiting for my mouth to move, to tell my father how horrible he
was. But I couldn’t- I said nothing. Though I was infuriated inside, I just calmly walked to my
bedroom and slept more soundly than I ever had in my life.
Of course I went to school in Darkhan. I couldn’t refuse that chance of a lifetime. My family
is now wealthy, thanks to Ger, who I still remember everyday. I study biology and environmental
issues at a university, now I am 19. I am older and I am wiser.I don’t cry about Ger, for really my
friendship with her was just a childish game, and I knew she was a wild bear, and deserved to be
wild. I’ll never know to who my father sold her to, because soon after my thirteenth birthday he
died. I regularly walk the path to his old farm, to remind me of the days of farming with Antonio.
I have realised that I miss farming more than I miss Ger. And one day, whilst walking, I saw a
creature, a bear walking along the track. I don’t know if it was free, or a Gobi bear, or if it was
Ger, and I never will. But as I saw the last of the bear, lumbering round the corner through the
sand, all I knew was that it was going home.
