It had been a long time since he had seen the sun. An eternity spent in the dark, alone, craving nothing but human touch, companionship, some kind of reminder that the world hadn’t ended. He had never felt such despair and loneliness. At the beginning, he’d been prepared for the end. He knew it wouldn’t last, knew that it couldn’t last forever, but then the end kept getting further and further away and before he knew it, it had been 7 years and then 8 years and he deluded himself into thinking that he would be the exception. He thought he could be the one to break the pattern and that what he had would last forever. Alas, it was not to be. So here he sat, shunned and alone, a pariah in the house that had once been a home.
Blanket paused, holding his pencil above the pink construction paper he’d hidden away on the closet shelf after sneaking it out of the craft center on one of his late night forays to the dining room where he would go and talk to Sally the dog after everyone had gone to bed. She would sit and listen and turn her head to one side or the other, and most of the time he felt better after their chats, but he still missed all the fun he had with Abbey. He still lived in her room, but in the closet, up on the shelf and she never got him down to hang out with anymore. She had a new love now, One Direction, whatever that was. Her room was covered with pictures of some boys and she listened to horrible music all the time. It made him want to cut his ears off, but he could never get his hands on the good sharp scissors, so he hid his head under the baby clothes that were up on the shelf with him. And he wrote his story so that others might benefit from his pain, or so that it could be read into evidence when Abbey’s mom was brought up on charges of blanket cruelty.
It had all started innocently enough. One night at bedtime, Abbey and her mom had another conversation about Abbey’s teeth, specifically about the ones that weren’t growing right because she was still sucking on her first 2 fingers at night.
“Abbey, I know you think it’s going to be fun to have braces, but I promise you, it will not. It hurts. It hurts to get them on, it hurts to get them tightened, and it hurts to get them off. You cannot chew gum the whole time you wear them. They are not fun.”
“Wait. You can’t chew gum when you have braces on?” Abbey sat up straight in bed. “I didn’t know that.” Abbey loved to chew gum; it was one of her favorite things to do. Blanket was lying next to her in bed and he started paying more attention, usually these conversations just made Abbey mad, and didn’t last very long, this one was starting out differently.
“No, there is no gum chewing with braces. There are other things you can’t eat with braces, if you’d like I can print you a list, but gum is a big one. I know that you are trying very hard not to suck your fingers, but you do it while you’re asleep and you don’t even mean to. I think maybe we should try that plan we made a little while ago.”
“Okay, mommy, I think I can put blanket away. I think it will be okay to go to sleep without him, and then maybe I won’t suck my fingers anymore. Can he stay in my room though? I don’t think he would like to be too far away from me.”
“Abbey, I think that is a good idea, maybe you and blanket will feel better if he’s close by.” Abbey’s mom, turned out the light, and left the room; she had taken blanket from his cozy spot on the pillows and stuck him on the lower shelf in the closet.
“Abbey, psst, hey Abbey. What in the heck do you think you just agreed to? This isn’t like before when you agreed that I would stay home and not ride to school in the car. This isn’t like all the times you agreed to leave me at home on field trips, and vacations and other fun stuff. This isn’t like the time that you agreed you would only hang out with me at bedtime. That was all total crap, and mean, but I let it go because you were getting older, and getting cooler, and you had to worry about your rep. I get it, it’s cool. But THIS IS COMPLETELY NOT COOL!!” Now Blanket was raising his voice. “This is basically saying ‘Sayonara Blanket, it’s been real, it’s been fun, but I don’t need you anymore’ well that’s just fine, because you know what, I’m just fine up here on the shelf. There’s an Elmo blanket and, and, this Big Bird lamp, and oh look, here’s a Barbie head, see we’re chill. So there.” And with that, Blanket turned his back on Abbey’s astonished face and lay down to go to sleep.
The next morning, came and Abbey got up to get dressed for school. She climbed up on her desk chair and told Blanket good morning, but he was still mad and kept pouting, giving her the silent treatment. Abbey gave him a squeeze and left for school. He stewed all day about their argument. They’d never spent the night angry at each other. Actually, they’d never spend the night away from each other at all. When he caused the spectacle at the wedding, they’d laughed about the scary photographer, and when he got stuck in the tree, Abbey had rolled her eyes, but gotten her dad to save him. When he got them in trouble for staying up late to watch TV, Abbey had taken the blame without a complaint. Blanket was pretty sure he understood what Abbey’s Mom meant the night that she’d stood in the doorway after Abbey fell asleep, and said, “I just can’t believe that she’s not my baby anymore. Where did the little girl go who asked for naket, and chockynik? Where is the little stubborn toddler who spent 45 minutes putting on her own tights because she had to do it herself? Watching her grow up makes my heart hurt sometimes.” At the time Blanket thought Mom had gone nuts, but he totally got it now. His heart hurt and he missed the Abbey that he fell in love with.
Abbey came home from school that day and sat on her bed and worked on her homework. The television was on and Blanket watched her from the shelf in the closet. He wanted to call out to her and hear about her day, but he was afraid she wouldn’t want to talk. He was afraid that she’d ignore him. So he sat silently on the shelf and watched this big girl. She still had the freckles she had when she was 2 and wandered out of the yard with the dogs and away from the house. She still had knobby knees and bruises on her shins like she did when she first learned to walk. She still had the space between her teeth that used to accommodate the 2 fingers she sucked on all the time when she was little, and still did when she was asleep. But now superimposed on that face was the face of grown up Abbey, and he knew that he would only be able to see the little girl Abbey for a little while longer and then only grown up Abbey would be there. Maybe this was for the best, say good bye now. All at once, like ripping off a band aid. Get the hurt over now and then learn to like life on the shelf. It could be worse; he could have ended up put away in a tote somewhere. Or donated to charity, or taken apart for spare yarn. He shuddered at the possibilities. There were many more days like this, and the times when Abbey checked on him came farther and farther apart. And now that he was up on the shelf, he didn’t even get occasionally used as a blanket for the Brother. Before he knew it, it was getting warm outside again, the season was changing and he was still on the shelf.
So now the question was, what would he do with himself? He’d been recently repaired, and felt young and spry and too fit for retirement. He may have lost his youthful color, but not his vim and vigor. Then he realized, that he had been looking a gift horse in the mouth this entire time. A way to be relevant, a way to be active, a way to get off the shelf. The Brother.
He didn’t have a blanket yet. Well, he had blankets, but he didn’t have a Blanket, a companion, a compadre, a partner in crime. He was flying without a wingman, and it was time to remedy that situation. But this plan would require careful execution. JT had already demonstrated a preference for soft fleece blankets; he’d rejected the yellow imposter version of Blanket. There’d been a very long week when Blanket had tried to mentor the new brother version, but it just hadn’t worked out. Yeller, as he was called by the toys and Blanket, had been adamant about cleanliness and proper behavior, refused to be cuddled at night, only wanted to be draped decoratively on the rocking chair, hated being called Yeller and had been stuffed out of sight by the longneck dinosaur and Raggedy Andy.
Maybe it would be best to forget trying to mentor a new blanket, there had been hundreds of other blankets in this house, and not once had any of them expressed an interest in being friends with any of the kids. They were all content to lounge about and get used a few months of the year and then hang out, doing absolutely nothing. Well, except the Cubs Blanket, he was forever wandering around the house, throwing salt over his shoulder and muttering about spells to break the curse and making some kind of sacrifice to the baseball gods. Crazy, that one was.
What Blanket needed to do was become JT’s Blanket, his buddy, his companion, his go to soother. He waited until Abbey got home from school that afternoon and when she walked into the room he pounced. She shrieked and it startled Blanket, so he clung to her face and she stumbled over the rug and crashed into the Lego table sending several carefully constructed structures flying. Abbey and Blanket crashed into the bed and fell down.
“Oh my God, are you serious? You’ve been up there sulking seriously for months and today you pounce on my head and scare the crap out of me and we fall down, and make a mess. What is with you?” Abbey crossed her arms and gave Blanket the stink eye.
“Okay, maybe not the best move, but come on. I’m out of shape. Look at these arms, they haven’t seen action in forever, I’ve lost muscle tone, you’re going to have to take me to the Y, and buy me some Creatine, or whatever that shake mix stuff is from GNC, I saw an infomercial. You know, you could get me Hip Hop Abs while you’re at it. That Shaun T guy is built. Wait, I forgot; I had something to talk to you about.” Blanket had been rambling, but now he remembered what he was up to.
“Here’s the thing, I cannot take one more day in the closet. I am going crazy in there. It’s dark most of the time, it smells like feet and I am sure that at night when I’m asleep those creepy porcelain dolls get out of their boxes and mess with me. I know that you try to leave the door open, and stuff, but your mom closes the door all the time and I’m lonely. I need human interaction. I feel like I’m getting progressively dumber because I don’t get to talk to anyone.” Blanket explained gesturing emphatically. “I have had a lot of time to think, and I have a plan. Let me tell you about it. Blanket leaned in and draped his arm over Abbey’s shoulders and told her what he had in mind.
Blanket paused, holding his pencil above the pink construction paper he’d hidden away on the closet shelf after sneaking it out of the craft center on one of his late night forays to the dining room where he would go and talk to Sally the dog after everyone had gone to bed. She would sit and listen and turn her head to one side or the other, and most of the time he felt better after their chats, but he still missed all the fun he had with Abbey. He still lived in her room, but in the closet, up on the shelf and she never got him down to hang out with anymore. She had a new love now, One Direction, whatever that was. Her room was covered with pictures of some boys and she listened to horrible music all the time. It made him want to cut his ears off, but he could never get his hands on the good sharp scissors, so he hid his head under the baby clothes that were up on the shelf with him. And he wrote his story so that others might benefit from his pain, or so that it could be read into evidence when Abbey’s mom was brought up on charges of blanket cruelty.
It had all started innocently enough. One night at bedtime, Abbey and her mom had another conversation about Abbey’s teeth, specifically about the ones that weren’t growing right because she was still sucking on her first 2 fingers at night.
“Abbey, I know you think it’s going to be fun to have braces, but I promise you, it will not. It hurts. It hurts to get them on, it hurts to get them tightened, and it hurts to get them off. You cannot chew gum the whole time you wear them. They are not fun.”
“Wait. You can’t chew gum when you have braces on?” Abbey sat up straight in bed. “I didn’t know that.” Abbey loved to chew gum; it was one of her favorite things to do. Blanket was lying next to her in bed and he started paying more attention, usually these conversations just made Abbey mad, and didn’t last very long, this one was starting out differently.
“No, there is no gum chewing with braces. There are other things you can’t eat with braces, if you’d like I can print you a list, but gum is a big one. I know that you are trying very hard not to suck your fingers, but you do it while you’re asleep and you don’t even mean to. I think maybe we should try that plan we made a little while ago.”
“Okay, mommy, I think I can put blanket away. I think it will be okay to go to sleep without him, and then maybe I won’t suck my fingers anymore. Can he stay in my room though? I don’t think he would like to be too far away from me.”
“Abbey, I think that is a good idea, maybe you and blanket will feel better if he’s close by.” Abbey’s mom, turned out the light, and left the room; she had taken blanket from his cozy spot on the pillows and stuck him on the lower shelf in the closet.
“Abbey, psst, hey Abbey. What in the heck do you think you just agreed to? This isn’t like before when you agreed that I would stay home and not ride to school in the car. This isn’t like all the times you agreed to leave me at home on field trips, and vacations and other fun stuff. This isn’t like the time that you agreed you would only hang out with me at bedtime. That was all total crap, and mean, but I let it go because you were getting older, and getting cooler, and you had to worry about your rep. I get it, it’s cool. But THIS IS COMPLETELY NOT COOL!!” Now Blanket was raising his voice. “This is basically saying ‘Sayonara Blanket, it’s been real, it’s been fun, but I don’t need you anymore’ well that’s just fine, because you know what, I’m just fine up here on the shelf. There’s an Elmo blanket and, and, this Big Bird lamp, and oh look, here’s a Barbie head, see we’re chill. So there.” And with that, Blanket turned his back on Abbey’s astonished face and lay down to go to sleep.
The next morning, came and Abbey got up to get dressed for school. She climbed up on her desk chair and told Blanket good morning, but he was still mad and kept pouting, giving her the silent treatment. Abbey gave him a squeeze and left for school. He stewed all day about their argument. They’d never spent the night angry at each other. Actually, they’d never spend the night away from each other at all. When he caused the spectacle at the wedding, they’d laughed about the scary photographer, and when he got stuck in the tree, Abbey had rolled her eyes, but gotten her dad to save him. When he got them in trouble for staying up late to watch TV, Abbey had taken the blame without a complaint. Blanket was pretty sure he understood what Abbey’s Mom meant the night that she’d stood in the doorway after Abbey fell asleep, and said, “I just can’t believe that she’s not my baby anymore. Where did the little girl go who asked for naket, and chockynik? Where is the little stubborn toddler who spent 45 minutes putting on her own tights because she had to do it herself? Watching her grow up makes my heart hurt sometimes.” At the time Blanket thought Mom had gone nuts, but he totally got it now. His heart hurt and he missed the Abbey that he fell in love with.
Abbey came home from school that day and sat on her bed and worked on her homework. The television was on and Blanket watched her from the shelf in the closet. He wanted to call out to her and hear about her day, but he was afraid she wouldn’t want to talk. He was afraid that she’d ignore him. So he sat silently on the shelf and watched this big girl. She still had the freckles she had when she was 2 and wandered out of the yard with the dogs and away from the house. She still had knobby knees and bruises on her shins like she did when she first learned to walk. She still had the space between her teeth that used to accommodate the 2 fingers she sucked on all the time when she was little, and still did when she was asleep. But now superimposed on that face was the face of grown up Abbey, and he knew that he would only be able to see the little girl Abbey for a little while longer and then only grown up Abbey would be there. Maybe this was for the best, say good bye now. All at once, like ripping off a band aid. Get the hurt over now and then learn to like life on the shelf. It could be worse; he could have ended up put away in a tote somewhere. Or donated to charity, or taken apart for spare yarn. He shuddered at the possibilities. There were many more days like this, and the times when Abbey checked on him came farther and farther apart. And now that he was up on the shelf, he didn’t even get occasionally used as a blanket for the Brother. Before he knew it, it was getting warm outside again, the season was changing and he was still on the shelf.
So now the question was, what would he do with himself? He’d been recently repaired, and felt young and spry and too fit for retirement. He may have lost his youthful color, but not his vim and vigor. Then he realized, that he had been looking a gift horse in the mouth this entire time. A way to be relevant, a way to be active, a way to get off the shelf. The Brother.
He didn’t have a blanket yet. Well, he had blankets, but he didn’t have a Blanket, a companion, a compadre, a partner in crime. He was flying without a wingman, and it was time to remedy that situation. But this plan would require careful execution. JT had already demonstrated a preference for soft fleece blankets; he’d rejected the yellow imposter version of Blanket. There’d been a very long week when Blanket had tried to mentor the new brother version, but it just hadn’t worked out. Yeller, as he was called by the toys and Blanket, had been adamant about cleanliness and proper behavior, refused to be cuddled at night, only wanted to be draped decoratively on the rocking chair, hated being called Yeller and had been stuffed out of sight by the longneck dinosaur and Raggedy Andy.
Maybe it would be best to forget trying to mentor a new blanket, there had been hundreds of other blankets in this house, and not once had any of them expressed an interest in being friends with any of the kids. They were all content to lounge about and get used a few months of the year and then hang out, doing absolutely nothing. Well, except the Cubs Blanket, he was forever wandering around the house, throwing salt over his shoulder and muttering about spells to break the curse and making some kind of sacrifice to the baseball gods. Crazy, that one was.
What Blanket needed to do was become JT’s Blanket, his buddy, his companion, his go to soother. He waited until Abbey got home from school that afternoon and when she walked into the room he pounced. She shrieked and it startled Blanket, so he clung to her face and she stumbled over the rug and crashed into the Lego table sending several carefully constructed structures flying. Abbey and Blanket crashed into the bed and fell down.
“Oh my God, are you serious? You’ve been up there sulking seriously for months and today you pounce on my head and scare the crap out of me and we fall down, and make a mess. What is with you?” Abbey crossed her arms and gave Blanket the stink eye.
“Okay, maybe not the best move, but come on. I’m out of shape. Look at these arms, they haven’t seen action in forever, I’ve lost muscle tone, you’re going to have to take me to the Y, and buy me some Creatine, or whatever that shake mix stuff is from GNC, I saw an infomercial. You know, you could get me Hip Hop Abs while you’re at it. That Shaun T guy is built. Wait, I forgot; I had something to talk to you about.” Blanket had been rambling, but now he remembered what he was up to.
“Here’s the thing, I cannot take one more day in the closet. I am going crazy in there. It’s dark most of the time, it smells like feet and I am sure that at night when I’m asleep those creepy porcelain dolls get out of their boxes and mess with me. I know that you try to leave the door open, and stuff, but your mom closes the door all the time and I’m lonely. I need human interaction. I feel like I’m getting progressively dumber because I don’t get to talk to anyone.” Blanket explained gesturing emphatically. “I have had a lot of time to think, and I have a plan. Let me tell you about it. Blanket leaned in and draped his arm over Abbey’s shoulders and told her what he had in mind.
Love this! Can't wait to find out what happens in the next episode!!!!!! :)
ReplyDeleteKerri ♥