A Night In The Toy Store (A Baby Adventure)

A brave little toy elephant searches for her lost boy. Based on a true story. Written for my son and his best friend, Baby.

One day when Cody Kinz was 4 years old, he met his best friend, Baby.

Cody and his parents, Mommy and Daddy, had been shopping. As Cody looked around the toy department, he spied a gray elephant sitting in a doll stroller. She had a red bow around her neck and looked very friendly.

 

She also looked very lonely.

 

Cody went over to her, picked her up and hugged her.

“Mommy,” he said. “Someone left their Baby here. I need to take care of her.”

Mommy said he could take her home.

So Baby very happily went home with Cody, Mommy and Daddy.

 

Cody and Baby have been best friends ever since.

They play cars together, and they sleep in the same bed.

Sometimes Baby has to take a bath in the washing machine. Cody takes his bath in the bathtub but Baby knows that when she gets out, he will be there waiting for her.

When Cody goes to school, Baby is a little sad that she can’t go with him, but Cody has lots of other friends who live his room and Baby likes to talk and play with them too. There is Bart, the big bear and Charlie, the cougar, and Fluff, who’s a bear but wears basketball clothes and shoes like a person. There’s even another little elephant that Cody calls “Baby’s baby”. There are more friends too so Baby is not lonely and it’s not long before Cody comes back.

 

Baby had never worried that Cody wouldn’t come back when he left, until one day when they were out having an adventure and Cody got lost.

 

It was a nice sunny day when Cody ran into his room and scooped up Baby off the bed.

“Daddy is taking us to the toy store!” he told her.

Baby was excited. She loved going on adventures and Cody took her to lots of places.

They had gone to restaurants, the park, even to the movies together. All of those places were fun but the toy store was the most fun of all.

They had a great time going up and down the aisles, looking at the many wonderful toys.

“Look at that car, Baby!” Cody would say and hold her up so she could see it.

It was a blast!

The whole way in the car, Cody talked about what he wanted to look at first.

Of course, Baby knew what Cody liked most of all: cars. But she listened patiently as always while he told her about how he wanted to get a new one for his collection.

Finally they arrived at the toy store and it was huge!

Up and down the aisles they went. Cody stopped and looked at so many things that Baby’s head was spinning with all the colors and shapes they saw. Cody and Daddy talked about the cars in the car aisle and Cody said that they needed to find a Toyota.

 

But then, Cody’s Daddy had called him over too look at a new video game. Cody was really excited about that and had set Baby down.

The next thing she knew, the store was dark and there was no one around.

Cody must be lost! She thought.

This was terrible! Baby sat up and looked around. Not only did she not see Cody, but there weren’t any people around.

“Cody?” she called.

There was no answer.

Cody must be so scared! She thought. I have to find him.

Baby started to look around.

After awhile she made it to the toy car section. She leaned against a stand of Hot Wheels.

“Whew!” she said and wiped her fuzzy forehead. “Sure is easier to get around the store when Cody carries me.”

Baby remembered being in this aisle earlier with Cody. He had been looking at a Toyota MR-2 model.

“Toyotas are the best made cars.” He had told Baby while holding the model so she could see it. “When I grow up I’m going to have maybe 5 of them.

“They don’t make this kind anymore though.” He said, gesturing to the MR-2. “Maybe they will start making it again when I’m big.”

From where Baby was at the end of the aisle, she could see the MR-2 model on the shelf.

But Cody wasn’t there.

“I’ve got to find him!” she said to herself.

Next, Baby went to the bike area of the store.

Cody really loved to ride on the different bikes that they had there. He would put Baby under his arm and ride with her, or sit her on the handlebars.

“I have that one.” He told her pointing to a small electric motorcycle. “When I get bigger, I’m going to get a gasoline powered dirt bike that goes really fast!”  He made the sound of a dirt bike and raced around the bike section as if he were riding a motorcycle.

Everything was dark now. There was a tricycle at the end of the aisle. It was yellow and had a bright silver bell.

Baby’s favorite color was yellow.

Hmmmm. I wonder if I could ride that. Baby thought.

She went to the tricycle and looked at it for a moment. It was small and she thought she could reach the pedals. With a little effort, Baby climbed up onto the seat. She had seen the smaller children riding this when Cody had been here earlier. It didn’t look hard… Baby put her feet on the pedals and pushed. The tricycle moved a little.

Ok! Baby thought and pushed again. It was harder than it looked but Baby pushed and pushed and began to make her way down the aisle.

“WEEEEEEE!” Baby shouted as the tricycle picked up speed. “I’m doing it!”

As she reached out to ring the bell, she turned the wheel too sharply around the corner. One of the back wheels caught the end of a shelf. It popped up into the air and the tricycle leaned to one side.

“WHOAAAA!”

The tricycle fell over. Baby pulled herself out from under it and dusted herself off.

“They sell these things to little kids?” She said shaking her head. “Someone could get hurt!”

Baby sat down to rest and think.

Where had they gone after the bikes?

“Legos. He loves Legos.” Baby said as she got up and made her way to that aisle. 

Cody was not there either but she walked up the aisle anyway. She stopped at the small pile of Legos that was on the bottom shelf. Someone had been bad and opened a box. When they had been here earlier, Cody saw the loose blocks there and told her that it was wrong to do that. But since it had already been opened, he hadn’t seen any harm in playing with the ones that were out for a few minutes.

Baby picked up a few of the brightly colored blocks and stacked them into a small tower.

She was getting VERY worried. Where could that boy be?

With a sigh, she left the tower she’d built and went to the stuffed animals section.

“Hey!” she shouted up to the cuddly toys. “Have any of you seen a cute little boy with light brown hair and big brown eyes?”

The toys seemed to think about it for a few moments but then most of them shrugged and shook their furry heads.

“Sorry.” A purple and orange snake said. “We see lots of kids through here. Don’t know if we’ve seen yours.”

Baby was getting really scared. As she made here way back to the front of the store, she began to wonder if she would ever see Cody again.

 

What if he didn’t realize he was lost and didn’t know she was looking for him?

 

“He must be very scared.” She said to herself. “I would be… if I were the one who was lost.”

Then Baby had a terrible thought. What if one of the grown ups thought she belonged in this store. It was a toy store after all and, to a grown up, Baby might look like one of the toys they sold here. What if they put her on a shelf and some other child bought her?

Baby might never see Cody again.

Baby was very sad to think about that. She sat down and tried to think of what she should do.

Suddenly she heard loud banging on the front window. Peering around a candy display, Baby could see that there was a grown up man at one of the big windows.

“Hello?” he shouted.

It’s Cody’s Daddy! Baby thought excitedly. Now we will find Cody!

She jumped up and down and waved her arms and trunk in the air. “Daddy! Here I am!”

Then she remembered: Grown ups couldn’t see her move or hear her talk.

Ahh nuts! Baby thought.

Baby heard someone moving around in the store. A man came up from the back and went to the window.

Cody’s Daddy tired to tell the man why he was there but the man didn’t understand him. After a few minutes, the man walked away. Then Cody’s Daddy walked away from the window too.

“Don’t go!” Baby yelled, even though she knew that Daddy could not hear her.

Baby was disappointed that Daddy had not gotten in the store but she was relieved that Daddy must realize that Cody was lost and he was there to help her. She went and sat down where Cody had left her. The store would open when the sun was up and they would find Cody then.

She wanted to stay awake and wait for the store to open but it had been a long and tiring day. After all, she wasn’t used to walking so much and she had never pedaled a tricycle by herself before.

With a big yawn, Baby closed her eyes and fell asleep.

 

Someone was carrying her.

Baby opened her eyes and saw that a grown up had her. She didn’t know who he was and she was frightened!

They are going to put me on a shelf and sell me! She thought.

But then she saw Cody’s Daddy. He was smiling as he took Baby from the other grown up.

“Cody is going to be happy to see you.” He said to Baby as he carried her to the car.

When Baby heard that, she was relieved because knew that Cody wasn’t lost anymore.

As she sat in the backseat for the ride home, Baby thought about her adventures in the toy store.

It had been fun, she decided. Now that she knew Cody was no longer lost, of course. But she was ready to go home

 

And she was definitely ready to see Cody again. Baby settled back in the seat and watched the city flash past the car window.

The first thing I’m going to do, she thought, is give Cody a big hug.

 

And the second thing I’m going to do is tell him to never get lost again.

 

Author's Note

It is what it is. I hope you enjoy it.