Doll Stories
Help from a little friend !
October / 2000
Alicia wasn't looking forward to her appointment with her doctor to get her 4-year-old booster shots. She had received the first installment of her immunizations a few months earlier, and the memory of the pain was all too fresh and clear.
Screaming and fighting with all her might, sitting up on the doctor's bench, Alicia was momentarily calmed when I handed her a small bear as white as the first winter's snow.
"Hold onto him tightly and I'll hold you," I told her, my voice wavering and tears welling up in my eyes. "OK, Mama," she said, as she relaxed for a brief moment while the nurse jabbed the needle into her tiny arm.
She cried for a couple of seconds and suddenly stopped when she realized she was only getting one shot. "See, your special bear was there to help you," I said. "Can I keep him, please Mommy?"
She named him "Beary" and took him with her where ever she went. Most of the time, she would leave him behind, and the whole family would be on a Beary Hunt. He's no longer white, but more of a greyish color and his nose is a bit frayed.
Excited to spend the night at Grandma's house the other day, Alicia carried Beary with her wherever she was, packing her overnight bag with books, toys and whatever else she might need. Grandma picked her up before I got home from work that day, so when I arrived home, the house was uncommonly empty.
It was the most lonely feeling in the world to have the children gone and my husband off somewhere doing his own thing. At first, I had been looking forward to a night alone, with no screaming children, no husband demanding dinner.
That was, until I actually got home and was welcomed by silence. When I went to my room to change out of my work clothes, there was Beary on my bed, left behind, just like me.
While I used the free hours to be industrious, cleaning Alicia's room (and sneaking in some time on the piano), Beary was right there with me, the closest thing I could get that night to being with Alicia.
Angela Gonzales
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