Maggie's Famous Maple Syrup - Pt 2

There was no incident the day Bob didn't come home. He simply fell asleep parked outside the station and his heart stopped. Bob was old. He should have retired a decade ago but the people kept reelecting him and he felt it his duty to serve. When Maggie got the call she was devastated. Her and Bob had been together for 50 years. She was frightened for him, frightened for herself and her future, famous maple syrup didn't matter anymore. Their adult children Bill and Helen helped with the funeral arrangements. It was a nice procession, the entire town showed up and they honored Bob with a plaque outside the station. By the next day, Maggie was alone again. She'd saunter the house with no particular destination. Sometimes she'd wash dishes that were already clean or pick up a crossword and stare out the window at her maple trees. Another Tuesday, while staring out the window, Maggie noticed a black bear leaning up against the tree she called "Big Sapper". The bear was just sitting there hunched against the tree looking right in her direction. This wasn't cause for alarm, Maggie had seen dozens of black bears in her lifetime growing up in Vermont. This one time, her father tried to pet a wild black bear and at the slightest huff ran inside like "he had wings on his boots". But this bear wasn't foraging, wasn't sniffing around, it just sat there looking at Maggie in the window. It looked lonely. Maggie's first assumption was that the bear was hungry. Against her better judgment and father's voice in her ear, Maggie fixed a basket of food, placed in on the edge of the porch and went back inside. When Maggie woke the next morning she saw the basket was still there untouched and the bear hadn't moved from its hunched position next to Big Sapper. Maybe it's hurt, she thought. But going out there to find out was simply too dangerous, she need to get the bear closer to investigate. "The syrup!" she exclaimed in excitement. Although Maggie hadn't tapped a drop of sap since Bob's passing, she always had a stock cupboard full of her famous maple syrup. She pulled out two jars and lathered the syrup all over the food she was preparing for the bear. She once again put the basket on the edge of the porch. This time, Maggie stayed outside and waited. A few minutes passed when the bear rocked himself off his hind legs and slowly trudged toward the smell of maple syrup. Maggie could tell by its gate that the bear wasn't injured. The closer it got the less afraid Maggie was. The bear went head first into the basket and scarfed down every morsel of food with that delicious maple syrup on it. When the bear was finished eating it slowly turned back to the woods to rest against Big Sapper. Maggie would leave another basket of maple syrup covered goodies for the bear tomorrow.