Lucy was humming a soft melody as she steadily connected her freckles with a thick black marker. Her soft red curls fell in front of her face, and would occasionally dance when a cold wind picked them up. I sat in Lucy’s lap staring blankly ahead at the circus mirror that had blown Lucy's head up three times its usual size. On any typical day at the park Lucy and I would sit in front of the dust covered warped glass and laugh at our silly reflections for hours. On the last day I saw Lucy it was different. On that day Lucy cried.
“You love me don’t you, Teddy?” Lucy asked without looking up from her work.
Of course! I wanted to yell, always and forever! But my synthetic fur, stuffing and embroidered mouth muffled my little voice.
A tear rolled down Lucy’s cheek from her emerald eyes.
To me Lucy was the most beautiful person in the world, and I wished more than ever that I knew what was wrong. When you're a toy you don’t always understand everything what goes on in the world.
Lucy suddenly swept me into a warm hug that smelled of chocolate chip cookies and pine needles.
Don’t let go, I thought, but I wanted more to actually say it.
Lucy gently stroked my round ears and gazed into my button eyes. “You’re my best friend, Teddy,” she said between tears. Then Lucy grabbed my foot and scribbled something on the underside of my paw with the big black marker. When she was finished she held me up at arm’s length to admire her work. Lucy smiled, and I tried my hardest to smile back.
“Lucy, it’s time to go!” Lucy’s mother called from the bottom of the slide.
“Two more times down the slide first?” Lucy called out.
“Yes, two more times,” her mother replied.
“I’ll be right back,” Lucy said as she planted a kiss on my nose. She sat me down gently against a pole and made sure I was comfortable before she flew down the slide and out of sight. Lucy never came back up the stairs to get me.

When night came I knew Lucy wasn’t coming back for me. How could she have forgotten? Surely it had been an honest mistake. Her mother must have swept her away before she had the chance to return to me. Yes, that’s it. I kept telling myself that Lucy would be back the next day. She was probably sitting alone in her bed right now thinking of me. I didn’t like the idea of her all alone in her bed. She would be so vulnerable to monsters and nightmares without me by her side to protect her.

It wasn't long until an old man lumbered up the stairs of the playground equipment seeking shelter from the cold.

“Well, well, well, what do we have here?” he said, scooping me up with his big dirty hands, “I could use a friend you know, and you look like a good listener,”

The man had soft wavy hair that fell around his face unevenly. His big blue eyes and rosy full cheeks reminded me of a character Lucy once told me about. Santa something was his name, and apparently he had been the one to bring Lucy and I together. Because of this I decided to trust the man.
“Santa” set me back down and sifted through his bulging backpack, and fished out a single needle and thread.
“Your eye is coming loose, Mr. Bear,” Santa said, and as he mended my eye he told me his story.

It turns out the Man’s name wasn’t Santa at all, it was Theodore. Theodore had a way of bringing his stories to life that moved me. Whenever he spoke of something sad, like a war, his eyes would glisten with water and his face would turn bright red. The animation in his voice was loud and exciting, and when he laughed the whole ground would shake. By the time Theodore finished fixing my eye I had completely forgotten about my beloved Lucy.

Morning came around and I found myself tucked under Theodore’s arm. The sun peaked over the treetops warming my little body. I waited and waited for Theodore to wake up because I was eager to start a new life with a different companion. But Theodore never woke up.

I hated myself for forgetting about Lucy. I’m sure that I could have loved Theodore, and maybe he could have grown to love me, but I guess it just wasn’t meant to be.

A police man found Theodore’s body a few hours later, and I was taken away to a thrift shop called Raggedy Anne’s Home for Toys. Lucy’s favorite story mentioned something about an Island of Misfit Toys, and I’m sure Raggedy Ann's was just like it.

After being put through the treacherous spin cycles of the washing machine I was tossed onto a shelf beside a stuffed giraffe with various patches of fabric covering its neck.

“What are you in for?” the giraffe asked me once the shop closed for the night.

“Nothing,” I replied with a sigh, “Absolutely nothing,”

“Oh I doubt that,” the giraffe said, “I mean just look at you. You’re no used shoe if you know what I mean.”

I took a good long look at myself in the mirror across the aisle. My once silky tufts of brown fur had been matted by the washing machine, and the threads holding my eyes in place didn’t match in color. What could the giraffe have been talking about? I looked terrible.

“Oh I get it,” the giraffe said, “You’ve never really made it out of the house. You’ve never see a neglected toy,”

“That’s not true!” I protested, “I’ve been through quite the bit of neglect in my day!”

“Oh please,” the giraffe huffed, “Just look at you. Not a single tear in your pelt and your ears are on straight! I bet you’ve never even seen your own stuffing!”

I didn’t answer the giraffe. How could he say such terrible things to me? I vowed from then on never to speak to him again, it was a shame the shopkeeper had set me down so close to him.

“Look, Bear,” the giraffe said to me, “Somebody obviously loved you. I mean just look at your paw! Some of us have been here for years. But you, you’re so pretty you’ll be gone by tomorrow.”

My gaze drifted back to the mirror across the aisle at the mention of my paw. I had completely forgotten about the moment Lucy and I had in the park. On my paw in dark black squiggly letters Lucy and written, Teddy and Lucy Forever.

The giraffe was right; a little old woman picked me off the self the next morning. On my way out of the store I could see the eyes of chipped porcelain dolls, and torn stuffed animals glaring at me. Some with contempt, some with envy, and others with wide eyes that said, “We told you so.”

The little old lady gave me to her grandson as a birthday present. Once the wrapping had been torn away, and the Boy picked me out of the bag with his grimy hands, the anticipation of a new present fell from his face.

“What do you tell your Grandmother?” the Boy’s father asked as he placed his hand on his son’s shoulder.

“Thanks Grandma,” the little Boy sang out in his most convincing tone.

The voice may have worked on the Grandma, but it sure as heck didn’t work on me. I knew from the very moment the Boy wrapped his arms around my waist that I wasn’t wanted.

I spent years with the Boy. I sat by in the corner of his room watching him grow up. He went through phases like any child does. First it was trains, then comic books, to play guns and video games about war.

The whole time I sat in the corner collecting dust and cobwebs. A few mice chewed through my paws and collected my stuffing for their nests. Spiders and beetles crawled over my eyes and burrowed behind my ears, and the Boy even rearranged his furniture right over me.

I wished that the giraffe could have seen me. Look at me, I had thought, look how I’ve been left behind and forgotten. Who loves me now? That’s right, no one,

Sometimes at night from where I lay under the bed I could see a sliver of the moon. Oh, how I longed to venture outside. I lay there on the cold hard floor imagining what it would be like to be the moon, wild and free in the night air. Everyone loved the moon. Humans gazed at it in awe because of its beauty. If I was the moon Lucy would be able to see me, and call me beautiful like she used to. It was those times at night when I missed her the most.

Ten years went by before anyone ever noticed me again. One day the Boy fished me out from under his bed and tossed me in a cardboard box that had the words Giveaway printed boldly across the front.

One day a girl I’d never seen in the house before came into the Boy’s room. She was beautiful with her long skinny limbs and deep green eyes. Freckles dotted her entire body, and a mess of red curly hair was pulled back into a small ponytail behind her head. Her voice was as sweet as honey, and she covered her mouth whenever she laughed.

“I can’t believe you’re leaving so soon, Kyle,” the girl said as she dusted off a picture frame before setting in into a box at her feet. She was wearing bright yellow rain boots.

“It’s just college,” the Boy answered hugging her from behind.

The girl smiled coyly and kissed the boy on the check.

The girl gently plucked a snow globe off the bookshelf, and with a puzzled look tried to decide which box it should call home. Her eyes settled on mine. The girl’s rain boots made a squeaking sound as she skipped towards across the room. When she reached my box her lips pursed and her brow furrowed. She gently picked me out of the box and gave me a few hard pats. She started to cough as the dust from my pelt clouded her face.

“I’m going to run down the the kitchen for some water,” the Boy said, and just like that the girl and I were alone.

“You look terrible.” she said as she plucked dead bugs and cobwebs from my pelt. It felt good for someone to clean me off, because it showed that some people on this Earth actually cared. Suddenly the girl stopped as if she had been frozen. She gasped and violently held me up by the ankle.
There she would see the remnants of a girl who had once loved me, but just as quickly had forgotten. It pained me to think about Lucy’s large writing, because to me it was more of a scar.
The girl swept me into a hug and the smell of chocolate chip cookies and pine needles filled my nose.
It couldn’t be! I told myself.
The sound of footsteps rang through the Boy’s bedroom as he returned with a glass of water. I could sense him stop abruptly at the sight of me and the girl. The girl looked up with tears in her emerald eyes.
“Isn’t this just great, Kyle?” she said. ‘
The Boy set his glass down on the desk with a loud thunk, and then said, “Lucy, I don’t know what you mean?”