The pink teddy bear sat on an antique fire stove in a chilly second hand store. It’s fur was dusty and the tag on its ear that proclaimed its worth was now gone. It’s black eyes and nose still shone and the embroidered rose over its heart was still intact. There it sat, waiting to be loved.
A young woman came in through the glass door from the wet street and anxiously browsed the shelves. She went upstairs to see what treasures the second hand store held and passed by the pink teddy bear. She found nothing she was hoping to find upstairs; nothing to temporarily fill the ache in her heart. She came down the stairs and made her way to the back room that all second hand stores seem to have. It was then that she noticed the pink teddy bear. A large grin broke across her face.
“A big Beanie Baby!” she exclaimed, picking it up. She turned the bear this way and that, searching and examining. “Well they tore off your tag,” she muttered “but everything else looks good!” Things had been so hard lately that seeing a piece of her favorite part of childhood made her very happy. However as she held the bear she thought of the bills that needed to be paid, money that had to be saved, space, and all of the other much loved stuffed animals that were currently being neglected in storage.
She thought “I can’t do that to the little guy. Try to find space for ‘im and eventually put ‘im in with the others in a dark storage compartment; never to see the light of day until I get my own place. Here it has a chance to be picked up by a little kid who will love and play with it for a very long time. It deserves that chance.”
She put the bear back on the antique fire stove. “I’m sorry buddy I can’t take you with me; I don't have anything to offer.” Before she could change her mind she walked past into the back room. She continued to look through the shelves and the racks of clothing already well aware that she wouldn’t be buying anything that day but looking anyway because why not. When she had finished she made her way towards the glass door leading out onto the wet street. She stopped on her way to say goodbye to the big pink Beanie Baby. An overwhelming ache entered her heart as she looked at the bear. She didn’t know if it came from the sorrows that were going on in her life right now and being brought out by a rush of nostalgia or if she was feeling what all toys feel when they are left behind. She held back her tears, feeling silly as she picked up the bear and held it to her chest.
“I can’t take you with me but I can love you for a little while.” She opened what was left of her heart and tried to pour warmth and love into the bear. She let the bear comfort her too. The steady solidness of being able to hold someone without worrying that you were being a bother helped ease the loneliness eating away at her. After a while she kissed the bear's head and set it gently back on the antique stove. The ache wasn’t as strong as before and she hoped that the bear would be ok until the next person came along to love it. As she left she didn't notice the soft green light that shone in the bear's black eyes for a moment or that its fur became cleaner or that it sat up a little straighter. She didn’t see what a few moments of her time and love had done for the bear. Sometimes a few moments of love was all it took to make things a little better.
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