XL Story

> XL Story

XL Story Chapter Menu

XL, Beeba Boeboo and XL's dad, Max, continued along the snowy sidewalk toward the Post Office. They saw the red Canada Post band clearly on the building. Max was in no hurry, but the two boys were excited to discover where Fred may have moved to. So they raced ahead, leaving Max to catch up later.

The post office was almost at the end of the street, and even though Main Street was only a few blocks long, XL and Beeba were a little out of breath as they raced up to the front stairs. It turned out that the post office was inside a small convenience store filled with candy and a few groceries. There was a post office desk in one corner, next to the store cash register. There was a young woman sitting behind the counter, wearing blue jeans and a matching denim jacket. She was sipping on a straw in a can of pop that she was holding in one hand.

"Are you the post master?" asked Beeba.

"Yep," she answered, setting her pop down on the counter. She brushed the bangs of her long blond hair off of her eyes and leaned back on her stool. "Today is my day to take care of the store. I can't spend all my time in Tahiti. On Saturdays I have to be here. How can I help you?"

"We need to find the address for Fred Rose," said XL. "The man at the general store said that Fred moved away. We were wondering if Fred left a forwarding address."

"Now that's an interesting question," answered the woman. Do you have his original address?"

"Yes, this is it." XL handed her a card where he had written the address.

"My, you have very nice writing," said the woman. "Very pretty. If only I could read, it might be of some use to me."

There was silence for a moment. Then Beeba spoke. "Perhaps you should put on your glasses," he remarked, referring to the glasses sitting on the counter next to her pop.

She put on the glasses and looked at the card. "It's a miracle!" she exclaimed, looking at the card. "Now I can read. Yes, I know this place. However, our privacy rules do not permit me to give you a forwarding address."

"That's stupid," said Beeba. "Of what use is a forwarding address if nobody can send mail to it?"

"Ah, but sending mail to it and giving out the address aren't the same thing, are they!" said the woman. "However, if you answer a riddle, I can give you a clue."

"OK, what's the riddle?" asked Beeba.

"A man built a square house, and each of the four walls has a southern exposure," she replied.

"That means that each wall faces south," she added. "A bear came wandering by. What colour is the bear?"

"That's crazy!" exclaimed Beeba as he turned to XL. "There is no way a square house can have all four walls facing south. And what has that got to do with a bear? She is just pouring on more Blarney!"

"I'm not so sure of that," said XL. "I think there may be an answer to this riddle..."

Reader, please help XL: what colour is the bear?

Black

Brown

White

Return to Universal Ethics Home Page