Welcome to the home of my fictional journal, The Diary of Madie Beartri.
This blog first began in 2004 and grew into a collection of more than 350 journal and diary entries, following Madie’s life and adventures as they unfolded over the years.
Although the original blog disappeared many years ago, I was fortunate enough to recover every written entry. I’m now bringing them back to life here so the story can be enjoyed once again. Sadly, many of the original podcast recordings were lost along the way.
As I rebuild the blog, I’ll be re-recording the missing podcasts. They may not sound exactly like the originals, but they’ll share the same stories, memories, and adventures that readers have enjoyed from the beginning.
Thank you so much for stopping by. I hope you’ll enjoy getting to know Madie and following her journey as much as I enjoyed writing it.
I finally found a new journal to write in. I found it at the plaza, and I paid a hefty price, but I desperately needed something to write my thoughts down in. You would think that a person living inside of a school building would have access to paper. Not in this school. Except for the stash the Journal Club keeps under lock and key, the only paper in this school is the student records. This paper, of course, is already written on and serves no useful purpose to me. Not a lot to tell about bear country, except that things have been quiet for weeks. I am a little bored.
Actually, I am really bored. Everyone is off doing their own thing. I was hoping maybe I could get someone to play a game of cards. Spades, perhaps. It’s a fun game, but no one was interested. I even asked the library trio, Marty, Gretchen, and Cecilia. Day in and day out, they sit in the media center and read.
Surely they could have used a diversion. They weren’t interested. Marty said they were doing research. This sounded so funny. Somewhat interesting, so I asked if I could help. They all three looked at me and in unison said no, and before I knew what was happening, they pushed me out of the media center, and then they locked the door. Here we go. Those three are a wealth of information. A little odd and secretive, and they are rarely seen alone, but they can be very helpful at times. I am only a little hurt that they didn’t want to play with me.
Oh well, their loss. The agriculture club is trying their best to supply us with a variety of fruits and vegetables, but an unfortunate accident with a bug infestation has damaged much of our crops. In an effort to keep us from starving to death, the Agriculture Club has asked for volunteers.
They need people to help with the crops that are left. I will be spending much of my time next week helping in the fields. Oh joy, It’s not that I’m… mind helping out, I just hate manual labor. Oh well, better to help now than to starve later.
There’s trouble in Bear Country.
The Runt came running down the admin hall before sun-up this morning, he was yelling at the top of his lungs.
“Get up, Get up. They took our fuel! “
I jumped off my couch and met the boy in the hallway.
“Ok, we get the point.” I yelled back.
I grabbed the Runt by his shoulders and tried to calm him down.
By this time everyone living in the admin hall was awake. Sleepy eyes everywhere.
The Runt tried to squirm out of my hold as he cried.
“Tony’s hurt, they beat him up!”
Tony lives in the basement. He has been my friend (sort of) since before the world turned upside down. We didn’t run in the same circles, but we had several classes together. He always asked my opinions on homework assignments. I used to wish he would ask me out on a date. Unfortunately, he was dating a cheerleader. Tony isn’t very social these days, but he is very good at fixing whatever we break.
I ordered the Runt to stay put in the admin hall and grabbed some muscle. When I say muscle, I am referring to Matt and Jonas. The three of us ran toward the basement.
The basement was a mess, and Tony was slumped against the far wall, “I tried to reason with them.” he said as he spit out a mouth full of blood. “They took all our fuel!”
Tony said it was Central. I was not surprised. They have been giving us trouble for ages.
The Central Bobcats are from the East end of Lafayette Blvd we live on the west. We were rivals in football, basketball and volleyball. Our bands competed against each other in competitions before the world threw itself into chaos. The big difference between us and Central is that we are not a bunch of thieves and bullies.
I take back the “I’m bored” thing. Bear Country held a meeting tonight to discuss what could be done about our missing fuel. The consensus was nothing. Asking for the fuel back wasn’t an option, taking the fuel back wasn’t an option, although two people who shall remain nameless thought, we should storm central and take it back. Can you say Matt and Jonas. We voted this down because of the possibility of casualties, on our side. We decided to put int place a security team detail during the night hours. Everyone over the age of 12 would be required to keep watch at two-hour intervals. Our resources are few and we don’t need to be losing anything else. We have strength in numbers, and we can protect ourselves when necessary.
At the meeting we also discussed the up-and-coming festival. Like last year we plan to have a feast, music and games. The Journal club will be putting up fliers to announce the event to the community. We invited everyone, except for central of course. With luck they won’t grace us with their presence at this year’s event.
I Dreamt about being home again last night. I swear I could almost feel and smell the clean sheets. It felt like a weekend. One of those mornings when you had a great night’s sleep. A familiar smell wakes you. My mom was in the kitchen making her famous biscuits. I miss those biscuits. I miss the strawberry jam. I don’t know what woke me from my dream, but it was a letdown when I realized it wasn’t real.
I went to the market plaza today to see if I could find a pair of new shoes (old shoes). The ones I have are coming apart at the seams. My feet wouldn’t fit into any of the shoes. I guess I will wear these a little longer. While I was shopping, I overheard people discussing the Central Bobcats and their leader Xavier Boulder. The Central Goons are causing trouble all over town. I am not usually afraid of anything, but “the Boulder” seriously worries me. He is so evil. People say he is that way because his father was always beating on him, especially if he lost a tournament. I don’t know if this is true or not or if it is just a rumor kids spread around to explain his meanness. I do know that he never seems to have remorse about his actions. He actually enjoys hurting people.
We moved Tony from the basement up to the admin hallway. He is not doing well. His eye seems to be better, but his stomach is extremely bloated and painful to the touch. He isn’t holding any food down, but we are insisting that he drink water. People die from dehydration. Marty, Gretchen and Cecilia have walked out to the main library to do some research on Tony’s condition. With any luck they will come back with some answers on what we should do to help him. In the meantime, the kids are taking turns sitting with Tony and trying to keep him comfortable.
Tony is getting worse and the Runt is missing. I couldn’t find him anywhere this morning. He didn’t show for breakfast. His bike is also missing. He is too little to be out in the city alone. It would be disastrous if the Central Bobcats caught him.
Lisa took over sitting with Tony after the Runt. She said he was obviously upset and mentioned something about finding medicine to help. If I thought medicine was available, I would have been the first person to go and find some. Unfortunately, finding medicine for even the common cold is just not possible. Survivors emptied out the pharmacies long ago. You can occasionally come across something to barter but there is no guarantee that what you are bartering for is actually in the bottle. The only time medicine appears on the market is when some desperate soul is trying to save a dying loved one. People have been known to sell their soul for medicine, and it turn out to be nothing at all. Some awful concoction someone has put together. Matt and Jonas volunteered to go and look for the Runt. I would have gone but I have things that need my attention here.
It has been a long day. Matt and Jonas have still not returned with the Runt. I am keeping my fingers crossed that the Runt is doing fine and that the Central Bobcats didn’t catch him. Tony was his best friend, is his best friend. Speaking of Tony, he is still recovering. We are still taking turns looking after him. He is not taking in many fluids, but his color is improving slightly.
We held elections today for sheriff. Sherrif Pete will take over as the man in charge of security. He has started looking for people to fill the deputy sheriff positions. I need to put a Thank you in the Bear News for everyone that helped out in the middle of the night.
I suppose I should give you some good news. Casey finally delivered her baby. Her labor lasted for days. She was in labor, then she wasn’t, she was in labor then she wasn’t. I felt bad for her because she was in constant pain. Everything turned out fine in the end. Mom and baby are doing well. As soon as Casey is up to it, we are going to have a naming ceremony. The ceremony usually occurs about two weeks after the baby’s birth and that will put it around the end of the month.
It rained all night long. I love the rain. I seem to sleep well when it rains.
It is going to be a busy day. I promised Casey I would watch the baby a little while so that she can take care of herself. She is the cutest baby. I hope Casey gets to enjoy her for a long time. I am not so sure I would want to take on the responsibility of having a baby. There are so many things to worry about. Babies don’t seem to do as well as they used to. No medicine. there are limited things you can do when they get ill. No one talks about the things that can go wrong. I wonder if Casey worries about the baby getting ill. I would worry.
I saw Tony up walking around a little while ago. He was heading toward the showers. It’s a good thing because he was starting to smell really bad. If he had been severely ill for much longer it was going to be a challenge to get people to sit with him.
