Pan, the Panda
There once was a big and fat panda who lived in the jungle. This fat panda’s name was “Pan”, Pan the panda, and he was the protector of the jungle, always protecting the other animals from any harm and keeping them away from any threats, big or small. One day the panda was roaming around eating bamboo and rolling around the ground giving bamboo to the other baby pandas, and he wished that some day he could have a baby panda of his own. 12 as a matter of fact, 12 fat baby pandas just like he was, all boys.
Everyone knew Pan as the “protector” or “good guy” but no one really knew about his personal feelings and his emotions outside of watching out for their lovely habitat. One day Pan was hanging out with “Turtis” the turtle and “Buns” the bunny, as they were doing their natural every day patrol at 3 PM, making sure that the jungle was safe from harms way.
Turtis asked Pan, “how come you never dated or found a lady panda of your own?”
Buns joined in and said, “yeah Pan, me you and Turtis all grew up together and we both have little ones of our own except for you. When are you going to get those 12 kids that you always bragged about?”
Pan replied, “I don’t know, I’m really not that good with talking to other lady pandas, I feel that they’re too good for me, or I feel like I’ll screw up, like maybe not giving them enough bamboo to eat or too busy to pay attention to them. Maybe I’m just scared, scared of not being able to make the lady panda happy enough. I’m not like the other men pandas, all strong and big like who have all the lady pandas, whereas I’m a fat-big panda who protects the jungle for a living.”
Buns said to Pan, “Pan, you have nothing to be scared about, you are one of the nicest animals in the jungle, and you protect others because that’s who you are. You like to watch out for them so that they don’t get hurt or have anything bad happen to them. When I was hungry, you came to my bunny hole, and gave me carrots. There were no carrots in the jungle so you snuck into the local grocery store and scared everyone to death and took carrots!”
Turtis and Pan laughed.
Turtus said, “It’s true Pan, you’re such a great panda, one of the best pandas I’ve ever met, don’t worry about those other big and strong pandas. They don’t have what you have, you’re smart, honest, and most of all, caring. When my baby turtle was lost in the jungle river, I came to you and you did whatever it took to find him, you looked for multiple hours that even went to a day, just to find out that he was sleeping in the pond under a hidden rock. You didn’t get upset, you didn’t care, you even asked me ‘is everything going to be alright’ and I replied ‘yes, I’m so sorry Pan’, and you told me not to worry about it. Pan, you deserve everything you wish for, I wish you happiness and I hope you find what you’re looking for.”
Pan graciously smiled and thanked Turtis and Bun for the encouraging words but tried not to let it fill his head with “feel-good feelings”. As they were about to head their separate ways, Buns told Pan, “Pan, you’re a good panda, no one will ever hurt you”.
Pan took their words along with him as he patrolled the jungle as the afternoon came into night. Pan sat by the river on a giant rock, eating bamboo and watching the water flow. Pan *sighed*, and he looked into his reflection in the water and pouted with his two fat paws on his cheeks as if he were a little boy stumped about not going to the toy store. Pan thought, and thought, and thought, for hours, and it was past midnight already. All of the sudden, Pan realized something, and he told himself that he was going to find a lady panda to bear his 12 baby-son pandas. There was one particular panda who Pan liked very much. Pan liked this lady panda a lot but he was always afraid of her because she was too good for him and so pretty like. This lady panda and Pan were great friends always liking the same things and hanging out every once in a while, but they also had contrasting views on some issues regarding life. Nevertheless, it was Pan who was always the only male panda who could make her genuinely smile, and that is why their friendship lasted for so long. This lady panda was everything Pan had wished for, but he knew he couldn’t compete with all the other male pandas. She always attracted the big and strong pandas but she never accepted any of their expensive and neat-like gifts that they would give her. She was different, strong, and beautiful. She had soft and fluffy panda-fur all clean and groomed like whereas Pan was covered in grass, dirt, and water from the river. He was afraid, he was afraid of being hurt, humiliated, not knowing what to do if he got rejected or embarrassed in front of all the other animals. But Pan didn’t care, he was willing to sacrifice his reputation just so he can find the lady panda that he always wished he could be with. Pan was a tacky panda and sucked at getting gifts, so he went to the bamboo tree and gnawed on the bamboo tree sticks to make little pieces. Each little piece of bamboo was used for the total structure of his gift. He gnawed, ripped weeds from the ground to tie the bamboo together, and he made a bamboo box with a door opening. It was a foot by foot box, just enough room to put something small inside. Since Pan was the jungle’s police, he would roam around the entire jungle and one night he found a dazzling and beautiful blue rose sitting on top of a rock in the middle of the river. Sparkling as the blue rose was, Pan knew this would be the perfect gift, although it wasn’t expensive and nice like the other male pandas gifts were, Pan thought simplicity and gifts from the heart would make the most of a gift. Pan took the blue rose and put it in the box, rapping the bamboo box with leafs and making a bow out of some of the plants as if it looked like a gift box in Christmas. Pan dropped it off at her door step at almost 4 AM and he ran away like a little boy holding a little girls hand who was laughed at by his little school friends.
It was morning time and Pan woke up from his bamboo tree house and realized something… He totally forgot to put who the gift was from! Pan panicked and he didn’t know what to do, as if the lady panda will never know who sent her such a dazzling and genuine gift that only Pan could think of. Pan was bummed, and it was almost afternoon and he was about to go get lunch at the bamboo cafe. He ate his lunch and he walked back to his bamboo house to get ready for his 3 PM patrol. As he climbed on the tree into his bamboo house, he saw a small leaf note, left on his door step.
It read, “There was no name on this gift, but I knew it was you … you always knew how to make me smile”
Pan teared with joy, and he kept that leaf-note with him forever.
