I Want A Home
By: Paula Crofoot
Tags: Light, Fiction, Toys, Happy, Animals

I Want A Home

Can I Go Home With You?

©Paula via Canva

I could hear the dolls gossiping about me on their shelves. I couldn’t blame them. The one and only old teddy bear left here, always ignored by the children in favor of the newer animated toys, the dolls, even the more fashionable plush toys, very few of which were bears.

The thing was, I wasn’t supposed to be here. I’d come here a while ago, I’ve long lost track of time, with a sleuth of my kind. We’d been purposely made up to be retro, hence my soft dark brown fur, movable posable limbs, large eyes and large ears. But the children didn’t want us. We didn’t sell. After a long time sitting on these shelves, the humans that run this place came along with a box and stuffed all my brothers and sisters in. I guess they got sent back to where we came from. But somehow, I got missed. I was sitting next to another bear from a different sleuth that had similar fur color to mine and the human didn’t see me.

So, I’ve been sitting on this shelf for ages, waiting for just one child to want me. Problem is, I’ve been around long enough to figure out the children that want plush toys, that might want a teddy bear are the young ones. They’re short and I’m on one of the upper shelves. There’s no way a little girl or boy can see me up here. I think tonight, I’m going to try to get to the lower levels. Now, that’ll be a problem as that’s prime real estate. After all, most children who want plush toys and dolls are short, so we all want on the second and third shelves. But I’ve been around so long, I’ve seen toy trends come and go so surely they want me out of here just as much I want to go.

It’s nighttime and the store is closed. Now’s my chance but due to my posable limbs, I can’t move all that well. Add to that the fact I’ve been sitting on this shelf for a long time and I’m very stiff. The stuffed tiger next to me woke up and asked me where I was going. I told him my hopes of getting lower for a child to find me. He warned me that would be difficult as the popular dolls and plush toys lived there. I assured him I understood but that even the first shelf gave me a better chance at being picked than up here on the fourth. Even if I ended up out on the floor as many from the first shelf do, at least I would be seen by somebody.

He decided he agreed and would come with me. After all, two were better than one. He hasn’t been here as long as me, no one has really, but he’s been here at least two seasons and would like to have a home and child too.

I agreed, we’d been talking for a while and he was probably the closest I could call a friend around here.

The competition to get a home in a toy store is fierce. Now, don’t get me wrong. I’ve heard of that toy movie and it’s not entirely wrong. Toys can make friends. But you don’t really have friends until you have a home with a child. After all, not only is your main goal to go home with a child but what’s the point of making friends with the toys around you only for them to leave or for you to leave?

So, the tiger and I make our way to the end of the shelf and figure the best way to get down would be to jump. Unlike many toys, our plush figures protected us from getting hurt from falls. So even a fall to the floor wouldn’t hurt us. But my goal was the box of plushies set up for Valentines Day. Once there, we could make our way to the floor and back to the shelves. We both jumped, aiming to land on our bottoms and backs. Just because we couldn’t get hurt didn’t mean we didn’t feel the jolt, even in a box of fellow plushies and that’s harsh on one’s limbs. Especially when your limbs were firm like mine.

We made our marks just like I planned. One white long-furred cat the tiger landed on immediately complained that not only did we mess up her fur, but we didn’t belong here. We weren’t special holiday plushies like them.

He apologized for messing up her fur and I assured her we weren’t aiming to stay. It was simply a soft place to land. She huffed and shooed us along. We clambered down to the floor, many of the Valentines plushies wishing us luck.

By now, I was tired. My limbs aren’t truly made for this much movement. But I had a goal and I wasn’t stopping until I made it. The tiger and I made our way over back to the shelves. The plush toys and dolls on the shelves had been watching this entire debacle. A stuffed unicorn on the second shelf told us that there wasn’t any room on their shelf, to not even think about trying to climb up. As far as she was concerned, we’d be better off climbing under the shelves and staying there with the long-lost toys. The ones no one talked about as the only noises anyone heard were growls and screams from under there.

See what I mean by the competition? I’ve heard the humans talk about unicorns as a good happy symbol and the unicorns that were on my shelf were very kind. But that one was obsessed with being picked by a child and wouldn’t even have an old tiger and even older bear in her way.

The plushies on the first shelf were more than happy to make room for us. After all, the more toys on the first shelf, the less chance you had of being knocked out and kicked around, including the risk of going beneath. Of course, the more toys, the less chance you had of being picked.

We were in the middle of the shelving and the tiger had walked towards the end of the aisle by this time where a kind bunny and puppy told him we were welcome to join them on the second shelf. No doubt, they figured they’d be picked before us. But even so, as the tiger and I climbed our way to the second shelf, it became evident that they were the rare kind comfortable enough in their popularity and looks that the competition for a child wasn’t as fierce for them. Understandable, really. Puppies and bunnies and bears had been popular with the young children since plush toys were first created.

The tiger and I settled in, thanking the black and white puppy and gray bunny for allowing us space.

It’s morning. We all settled in motionless, still aware of everything going on. I still expected it to be a while before I would be picked. After all, I’m a teddy bear, old school at that.

But to my surprise, a little girl came down the aisle with her mother. Her mother was telling that they didn’t have long. She could choose a toy, or even a few if they weren’t too expensive, but to be quick about it.

The little girl stood on her tippy toes, looking on our shelf, hopping down the aisle looking for a new friend.

She keeps coming back to where the tiger, bunny, puppy and I are sitting. Could it be one of my friends might be chosen, perhaps the old tiger?

No, she’s reaching for me!

She hugs me and tells her mommy she wants me.

Her mother is clearly surprised, not expecting a bear like me, I imagine. But she took me from her daughter and placed me in their cart, telling her daughter she could have another if she wanted.

Oh, Joy! The little girl went back for the tiger and now he’s in the cart with me. Oh! Here comes the little gray bunny and black and white puppy as well. I suppose when you not only take the initiative but pay it forward, it really does pay off. Now we all have a home.

We’re sitting on the little girl’s bed now with all of her other plushies. She’s quite the collector. I’m not the first teddy bear, though I am the only one that is built like I am. The puppy and bunny aren’t the first either, but the tiger is. We also have names now. Despite what that movie shows, we don’t actually get names until the children name us. Even when they forget what our name was, we remember.

The gray bunny is Bugs, after apparently an old cartoon bunny. I’ll have to see if I see that cartoon with the little girl sometime. The puppy’s name I feel for. She named him Dotty for his spots. Though I suppose it’s better than Spot. I heard a child call a spotted dog she was carrying through the toy department that once. Turns out the tiger is female, I thought she was male. Luckily, the little girl saw better than that and named her Daisy after her favorite flower. My name is Choco, after her favorite chocolate cereal.

Finally, after all this time, I have a home with friends and a name!