A Bear Named Herbert

Toys have feelings too.

I used to be played with; I used to be hugged; I used to be loved. I had countless tears in my stitching to show my use and my eye had popped out on more than one occasion. But now I don’t even get touched. I don't get hugged; I don't get played with; I'm no longer loved.

I sit on a shelf all day.

All alone in the pitch black darkness of a closet.

I’m not sure how long I have been stuck on this shelf, but it felt like years. Decades. Maybe even a millennia. I'm sure that any longer, I would have gone crazy.

I can hear talking on the other side of the door. I knew the voice belonged to my owner, Tabby, and her mother.

Tabby was a wonderful girl, but I'm sure she had grown up and forgotten about me by now. I didn’t understand what I had done wrong. Was I too old? Too ruined? Too dirty? Maybe she found newer, better, toys to play with. I wouldn't blame her. Who would want to play with an old toy like me?

The door to the closet opened, allowing the deep light from the windows to shine in. I saw Tabby, for the first time in forever, with her luscious brown hair and curious gaze looking right at me. She smiled and reached up towards me. My chance had finally come.

“Found it,” she whispered, pulling the box next to me off its shelf. She held the box under her arm, beginning to shut the door again. I couldn’t let her get away, I didn’t want her to ignore me.

I fell off the shelf, dropping to the ground and getting stuck between the door and arch.

“Oh,” Tabby gasped, looking down, “what’s this?” She reached down, picking me up off the plush blue carpet. She turned me over, glancing over my old and dusty fur. Her bright blue eyes met with my bleak brown ones curiously before she looked back over her shoulder. “Mom, would you mind me taking this?”

“I don’t see why not,” Tabby’s mother said, shrugging as she left the room, “he's yours after all.”

Tabby hummed and looked back to me, turning me over more before placing me in the box she held under her arm. For the first time in a long time she had looked at me and touched me. I was filled with joy, even if she stuck me in a box soon after. I was ruffled around in the box, but even that couldn’t discourage me because it didn’t last long and I was once again in her hands.

“Look, Hun,” Tabby said, holding me out to a small girl, “I’ve brought you something.”

The little girl looked just like Tabby when she was younger. The small child took me in her hands, gripping me tightly.

“This is Herbert,” Tabby said sweetly to the child. “He was my teddy-bear when I was younger, and now I’m giving him to you.”

The small child looked to her mother and smiled brightly as if thanking her. The small child then took me up in her arms and hugged me tightly. For the first time in forever, I felt like I was important.