Thread Bear

 

           Susie waited patiently, sitting on the edge of her bed, clutching her favourite teddy bear.

           She looked down lovingly at Thread Bear, her well loved, and very old toy. He stared up at her with that blank button eyed expression that said so much and yet so little.

           "Don't worry. It won't be long now" she said reassuringly to her friend.

           Thread Bear looked back at her lovingly. His button eyes always knew just the right expression to give her.

           Susie loved Thread Bear. Her mum had told her he was very old and had once belonged to her great grandmother, who had then passed him down to her daughter, who had then given him to her daughter and so it went.

           She always remembered what her mum had told her whe she had had first seen her favourite toy.

           "Susie, I want you to meet someone." her mum had said one day out of the blue.

           "I've been keeping him for you."

           With that she had produced this small brown teddy bear, his drab brown fur almost worn away, his arms hanging by the merest threads. His ears were worn around the edges, strands of stuffing poking through. His belly looked far too lumpy to be cuddly and his nose had worn away, exposing the white threads beneath.

           And Susie remembered his eyes. His black button eyes. It was as if they came from a different bear. They were shiney. No wear. No tear. Just shiney new buttons. And they seemed to be smiling.

           She remembered how her mum had sat him carefully on her own lap, making sure his legs were neatly placed, the bear facing her daughter.

           "Now I want you to take good care of him Susie", his mum had said, smiling. "He's very old and very special"

           "What's his name?" Susie had asked, transfixed by the small brown bear her mum held tenderly in her lap.

           "Oh he's a funny old bear darling" her mum had said. " He's had plenty of names. We've all given him our own." Susie remembered how she had given him a little look. Loving and sad, both at the same time.

           "So what will you call him Susie?" she had asked.

           Susie remembered looking at the little bear and it was almost as if he had spoken to her. She had instantly known what to call him.

           "He's a little thread bare isn't he?" she asked.

           "Is he?" her mum had grinned. "I hadn't noticed"

           "Actually, he's not a little thread bare, he's my little Thread Bear."

           Her mum was smiling.

           "I know darling. He always has been."

           With that, Susie remembered her mum turning Thread Bear to face her. She'd smiled and yet her eyes seemed strangely sad.

           "Now you take good care of her, you hear me?"

           Her mum had held Thread Bear for a few more seconds, staring into his sown on eyes. And then she'd sighed.

           Then she'd simply turned him around and held him out towards her. She'd said nothing. Just held this battered toy in her out stretched hands.

           And Susie's life was never the same.

 

So here she sat, on the edge of her bed.

           Thread Bear sat in her lap.

           The room was in semi darkness, illuminated only by the pale glow of the moon through the window. Shadows danced around the walls.

           The kids were in bed. Her husband away.

           It was time. The time she always knew would come. The time she dreaded but at the the same time dreamed of for her beloved Thread Bear.

           She remembered the adventures. The laughs, the unexpected, the magical...the path she was chosen to follow.

           She looked down at the well loved, moth eaten bear sitting in her lap.

           Tears welled up in her eyes.

           "I love you."

           Wiping away the tears from her eyes she sat the bear on her lap, facing the wall. She straightened his legs and held his head up on his floppy neck.

 

It started as a small crack in the wall. It creaked and splintered, snaking from the floor to the ceiling. The crack widened, the plaster on the walls falling to the ground. Light streamed from the now gaping hole.

           "It's time for you to go home" Susie said quietly. She smiled and lowered her beloved Thread Bear to the floor.

           "Goodbye,"

           She stifled tears.

           "I'll miss you so much"

           She looked lovingly at the bear on the floor, tears now streaming from her eyes.

           Light danced from the gaping hole in her bedroom wall.

           Thread Bear lay on the floor.

           And Susie waited.

           First it was an arm that twitched. Then a leg. Maybe next it was even a ear. But twitch after twitch, the small moth eaten bear came to life.

           He stretched and contorted his body and slowly stood upright.

           He swayed a little in his new found freedom.

           Susie smiled down at her life long friend as he teetered on his well loved furry legs.

           Thread Bear stared at the floor. He seemed be studying every hair in the carpet.

           He then looked up. Left. Then Right. His button eyes narrowing at what they were seeing properly for the first time in 242 years.

           Thread Bear looked up at Susie.

           "Thank..." he coughed. His little body convulsed.

           He tried again.

           "Thank you....Susie" he said, finally.

           She didn't know what to say. He has been a part of her life for so long, he had shown her wonders...

           "I knew you would do it" the little bear said

           "I knew you could break the spell." He coughed one last time. " It took generations but the curse has been lifted. Thank you Susie. We always knew you were the one."

           And with that, the small thread bare toy turned and faced the now gaping hole in the wall. Light streamed from it, creating ghostly shadows on Susie's bedroom walls.

           Suddenly he stopped.

           He turned around, his button eyes fixed on Susie.

           "This isn't right" he said. Thread Bear shook his head and thought. His brain was clouded by centuries of spells. He shook his head, his ears flailing.

           "You have to come with me" he said.

           Susie was prepared for anything but this.

           "I can't......"

           "Of course you can" said the bear as the light streamed from the crack in the wall.

           Susie trusted Thread Bear with her life....she owed him everything.....but she stared at the gaping hole in her wall.

           The little bear walked towards her. He beckoned her down to his level. And then he took her hand in his mitten like hold. Soft and secure.

           "Please....come and see my world." he said.

           Susie stared into those clear black shiney button eyes. Eyes that smiled at her with a love and radiance she had known from no other.

           "Thank you Susie"

           She watched as her little Thread Bear smiled. She has always known, deep down, he was smiling, but this was the first time she had seen it.

           "Oh and one other thing" the little bear said quietly.

           "Yes?" Susie waited as the enchanted toy looked at her.

           "Please pick me up..I need a cuddle."

           Susie nearly cried with joy as she picked up the small brown moth eared toy whole generations of her family have loved.

           As she cuddled her friend she stared at the crack in the wall.

           Thread Bear riggled in his loving embrace and turned to look at Susie.

           "It's my turn Susie. I know you trust me. Let me give you back what you gave to me."

           It only took one look into those button eyes she had loved for so long to make her mind up.

           She picked him up and clutched him to her chest.

           She looked down lovingly at the bear.

           "Are you ready?" he asked

           "I have always been ready"

           And with that Susie and her Thread Bear entered the crack in the wall.

           The corridor before her was long. Dark and scary. But she had Thread Bear. Her beloved Thread Bear.

           And she was sure she could hear cheering ahead....