One December day, a polar bear cub found itself floating down a river. No one noticed the young bear drifting in the Firth of Forth, its current gently carrying it along.
From the Queensferry Crossing road bridge, no one spotted the bear. And even if they did, they would think it was just a piece of rubbish, a piece of white flotsam making its way downstream. Certainly not a polar bear cub, a polar bear cub in Scotland.
Close to the riverbank, a black Labrador was wagging its tail, waiting patiently for the order to jump in and retrieve the bear. Instead, its owner, unknowing of the dog's intent, whistled it back to its lead. The jogger, headphones on and checking her fitness watch, didn't realise that she was running right alongside the bear. The old lady, heading towards a crowd of ducks with a shopping trolley full of loaves, didn't see the cub bobbing and turning in the swirling currents of the wide river.
So nobody saw the young polar bear.
The heavy river, full of the last two days of rain, swept the cub on and on.
A gull made an inquisitive peck at the bear's fur. Unsatisfied, it flew off.
At Port Edgar, it nudged into a moored boat. The bear then slipped under a jetty, staring up at the grey sky between its wooden slats.
Where would the cub go? Would it end up being washed out into the North Sea? And if so, then what? Fate was guiding the young bear, held by the cradling hands of the river.
The cub eddied and rocked as it met swift currents pushing their way around the foot of the rail bridge.
On a large green marker-buoy, two grey seals watched its steady progress with no more than an unconcerned glance.
A backwater steadied its progress and pushed the cub closer to a sandy bank. Here a partly submerged willow tree stuck out its spindly fingers which snagged the bear's fur.
And that's when the cub's journey ended. For now.
Would the tide rise and so free it to be once again at the mercy of the river? Or would it be kept right there? Alone. Waiting. Waiting for chance. Waiting for hope
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A Polar Bear Called Forth
General FictionCaitlin McGill is quite a special ten-year-old. She looks after her gran as well as having Forth, a polar bear cub, as her best friend. So when her gran's health deteriorates everything she knows becomes unsettled and uncertain. Where will she liv...
