Significant Object

(Josie Sayz: More archiving. More university flash fictions. Another one from my ‘Life Writing’ module. This one is about my most significant childhood object.)

I’ve never been a people person. When I was little I hated nursery, I hated school. In fact, I hated anything that involved the need to talk to other people. But that does not mean that I was lonely.

Watching other children playing games and then crying when someone cheated, someone changed the rules, or just wasn’t being nice, made me glad that I wasn’t like them. I had my own companion. He never cheated in games, or pushed me over, or got me into trouble and he was always there when I needed him. Unlike any human, he was the best friend anyone could ever ask for. His name was Purple Teddy. Okay, so maybe it wasn’t the most creative of name choices, but names don’t always reflect personality.

Purple Teddy went with me everywhere; to the shops, to the park and even to nursery – that is when I went to nursery. Every day, Purple Teddy and I would hatch a new plan to try and stay at home. We tried pretending to be sick, but Purple Teddy gave us away, he wasn’t very good at fake sneezing. Then we pretended to have spotty-itous, but my felt tip smudged when Mommy made us wash our hands. So then we tried to pretend we had tummy ache, but Mrs. Low never believed us. I had liked my teacher, Mrs. Low, until I discovered that she was really a wicked witch. She was aware of my distance from the other children and was determined to put an end to it.

One day, after I had finished making a commotion over having to come to nursery, Mrs. Low snatched Purple Teddy away from me and stuffed him in a box, out of sight. It wasn’t fair! Other boys and girls were allowed to bring things with them to play with and they never got taken away. Their things were less important than mine too: a yo-yo, a pack of cards, a toy car. These toys often lay forgotten on the floor, only to be remembered at home time.

My pretend tummy ache turned real and I clenched my hands into fists, as I watched Mrs. Low disappear into the Teachers-Only-room with Purple Teddy. However, this time I decided I didn’t want to cry… I wanted to get even. No one was allowed to take Purple Teddy away from me, not even Mommy. Mrs. Low had crossed the line and I needed a plan to get him back. The only problem was, Purple Teddy was better at coming up with plans than me. He was always the one who came up the schemes to try and get us to stay at home, but now, I was on my own. It was up to me to save him.

The wicked witch prowled the playroom, spying on all of the other boys and girls. While she told Tiffany off for throwing sequins and glitter around the room, I made a dash for the make-pretend room.

Lifting her head out of the dress-up box, Sophie asked me to play shop keeper with her and David in the pretend shop. I didn’t want to play, but I hoped that if I dressed up Mrs. Low would think that I was someone else and wouldn’t find me. Then I would have time to think of my rescue mission. Putting a floppy straw hat on my head, a spikey feather scarf around my neck, I knew that I was now undetectable. Buying a plastic apple, I handed Sophie my play money, as I looked over my shoulder through the door of the playroom. My eyes froze open as they faced the figure in the doorway. There, stood Mrs. Low in her ‘nice lady’ disguise that witches have, and smiled at us. My disguise had worked – she didn’t recognise me.

After Sophie and David became bored playing shop, I managed to sneak off into the play castle. It wasn’t really a castle, there were no turrets for princesses to hide, or moats full of crocodiles or dragons, but there was a corner, known as the ‘den’, piled high with cushions and blankets for when the princess needed to sleep on a pea. I traded the straw hat and prickly scarf for the princess’ cone hat and crawled inside the den.

I thought I was safe to conjure my plan, until Derrick, Jack and a nasty bully named Adam ran into the castle declaring a fight between the King and the Cannon Shooters. Balls were hurled around the make-pretend room, destroying the castle and the den. Scrambling out from the den, I ran to seek shelter elsewhere.

There wasn’t anyone sat on the carpet, where the books were kept, so I decided to continue my mission from there. The book rack was next to the Teachers-Only-room, where Purple Teddy was held captured, so I decided to keep guard. I leant all of my weight against the door, but it wouldn’t open and I was too short to reach the lock. Even if I piled all of the books on top of each other, I still wouldn’t be able to reach the lock. Knowing that I might be able to use an idea from a story to free Purple Teddy, I grabbed several books from out of the rack and set them around me on the floor.

Just as I was about to discover how Tiny Ted freed the trapped mouse, Mrs. Low gathered everyone onto the carpet and swept the books away from me, placing them back in the rack. Once everyone was quiet she explained that because Derrick, Jack and Adam had destroyed the make-pretend room, we all had to stay on the carpet until it was home time.

At first, I thought this was good news. Sometimes if someone brings in a toy that’s too big (like a bicycle or a scooter) it gets placed in the Teachers-Only-room until the end of the day. At the end of the day, we all sit on the carpet and Mrs. Owl makes us sing ‘If You’re Happy and You Know It’, or ‘One Finger, One Thumb Keep Moving’, then people get their toys back. But today, Mrs. Low has made us sit in a circle and talk about our favourite foods, then our favourite colours, whether we liked the sun or the rain and what makes us happy or sad. I wanted to say that Mrs. Low made me feel sad for stealing Purple Teddy, but I knew that she would never give him back if I did, so when it was my turn I just repeated whatever someone else said and prayed that it was home time soon.

Hours seem to drag by as we went around the circle sharing what Mrs. Low called ‘friendly thoughts,’ and what I called: ‘secrets.’ Eventually, punishment was over as Mrs. Owl entered the room. She made us all gather around her to sing our end-of-nursery-song, whilst Mrs. Low went into the Teachers-Only-room.

When Mrs. Low returned, she wore her ‘nice lady’ disguise again and handed Louise and Adam their bicycles and Luis his scooter, but Purple Teddy was still held captive. After the song was over, Mrs. Owl led everyone to the coats and bags room, before going outside to meet their parents, but Mrs. Low made me stay behind. My arms went all bumpy and started to shake. I felt my insides twist in knots as my tummy ache came back. The evil witch, Mrs. Low, was going to capture me too.

Once everyone had left the room, Mrs. Low crouched down to my height and placed her hand upon my shoulder. I squinted my eyes shut and turned my face away from hers. “My, haven’t you been a good girl today,” she said in her smiley voice. “You’ve been playing with Sophie and David, haven’t you?” I gasped and jerked my head to face her. Mrs. Low had seen through my earlier disguise. How could she? She must have cast a spell on me. “See,” she continued. “You don’t need to bring your bear with you. You can play with the other boys and girls.” Releasing my shoulder from her grasp, she went back into the Teachers-Only-room and gave me back Purple Teddy. Amazed, I closed my eyes, squeezing him tight – I was never going to let her or anyone else steal him again.

Before Mrs. Low could change her mind, I ran into the coats and bags room to put on my coat, so that I could go home. On the way home I told Purple Teddy everything that happened during my attempts to save him and he revealed the torture that he had been through whilst trapped inside Mrs. Low’s lair. Once home, we declared that we would never be separated again.

Seventeen years later, I find myself having a bad dream about a wicked sorcerous trying to capture me at university. Having been chased around campus, I finally found a dark room to hide inside. As the tremble of her footsteps near, my heartbeat races and I jump as my alarm clock drums in my ear. Waking up, I flinch, knowing that something is missing. I turn frantically from left to right trying to restore normality. Reaching down onto the floor I clutch my purple bear tightly in my hand, before giving him a squeeze and placing him back on my bed.

- Josie -