You know, as a storyteller of this world, I often have difficulty deciding which story I should tell. There are so many worlds in this vast universe and so many people on each planet with interesting unique stories to tell. Also I don’t have any scale to rate the stories and decide which is the best. For me all stories are equally good. If you don’t feel the same then blame my narration not the story.
As I said I don’t know which story to choose. This is why right now I am wandering around on a random road of a hill station. I’m looking for something interesting that catches my eye. It’s afternoon time. There are a lot of people around me. Some are walking on the road, some sitting in their car doing… something. All of them seem to have interesting stories to tell. While I look around to pick my target character my gaze falls on it. Not on any person or any animal but on a hanging stuffed toy.
It’s a toy dog that has a string around its neck. The other end of the string is entangled in one of the electric wires running above the road. The wires are at least 10 meters above the ground with no tall buildings surrounding it. This makes me very curious as to how this toy got up there. You know what this means right? An interesting story.
Before we start I have to tell you about the way I look at this world. The man-made distinction of living and non-living is flawed. I don’t make such a distinction. For me, anything that has a unique identity is capable of telling stories and hence is alive. Be it a human, an animal, a star, a rock or a toy. For me all of them are the same. Which is why I can tell a story from the perspective of a toy as well. Think of this as one of those school exercises where you were told to write the autobiography of an inanimate object like an umbrella, a pen or a tree. What you used to do in it was to bring those objects to life using your imagination. That’s exactly what I am doing here. As a storyteller I am going to be this toy and then turn back time to find out how it got here. Let’s begin.
Right now, I am this toy simply looking down at the road. I reverse time going back a couple of hours, one day, then two days… still nothing changes. I continue this, for a couple more days in the past, still no change in the situation. This is boring. Let’s start the toy’s story from the very beginning.
For a toy, it comes to life when it shares a bond with its owner. That’s why the early days of this toy in a toy shop are in quick flashes. I see young kids approach me, they pick me up to play with me but then their parents come, they keep me down and then walk away. The same drill every time. I don’t understand why they do this. That is until this toy is moved to a rack in front of a mirror. Seeing the toy’s reflection I realize that from the start itself this toy is… ugly!
This toy is a black stuffed dog. But it’s not a cute looking one. It’s skinny with a long neck, short fur, buttons for eyes and a short tail. There’s no quality in this toy that would motivate a parent to give it to their child. That is why this toy stays in its place for a very long time. Then one day a fat kid walks towards me, I mean towards this toy. He has a wide grin on his face with steady predator-like eyes. I am able to feel his sinister intentions still I am incapable of doing anything in this form.
He picks me up by the neck and starts choking me. Using his fat fingers he pulls out a button. Then throwing me on the ground he starts stomping on me until the fabric tears and the cotton inside oozes out. Fortunately I feel no pain. Within a minute an employee sees this and so he stops this devil boy from hurting me anymore. Sadly, enough damage is done. So I am thrown in the reject pile of the godown that will be taken to the furnace to burn. For most of the toys in this pile, their fate has been sealed, going out with fire. But we know that this toy dog has something else in its future.
One night an employee of the shop steals this toy and takes me to his home. He fixes a different button for the eye and stitches all the openings. Then he hands me to his six year old daughter Naysha Sindh. She seems very excited to get this toy.
She hugs me saying, “He’s so ugly, I love him.”
Her words seem genuine as she gently places me on the bed before leaving for school. This begins the good times for the toy. Naysha belongs to a lower middle class family. Her father works at a toy-shop while her mother is a school teacher. That’s why they can’t give their young daughter a lot of gifts. The only toys and games she has are damaged rejects her father smuggled out of his workplace.
Still Naysha is happy with what she gets. This new toy dog is the closest thing for her. She keeps me with her all the time, taking me wherever she goes. She ties a string around the toy’s neck in order to walk me like a real dog. She keeps the toy with her while eating, sleeping and even while studying. Whenever she eats ice cream she tries to feed me as well.
Being very young Naysha is growing, learning new things everyday. She is developing new traits with every new experience and so am I. It’s as if the little girl and the toy are developing the same personality. So if Naysha loves choco-chip ice cream, so does this toy. If Naysha hates green vegetables, so do I. It feels strange to know that despite being an inanimate object this toy is developing a personality like any living human child.
Naysha’s early life seems to be very blissful, but no, there are cracks. The parents fight every day, usually over the fact that the man doesn’t earn enough. Naysha hears every argument her parents have, but she does not understand why they are fighting. Neither of her parents tell her why so she talks to me instead.
Hearing her speak makes me want to cry. But being a toy, I can’t. At this young age she is very impressionable, I can see it but her parents don’t which is why they continue to fight even when Naysha is present in the room. Further tragedy follows when Naysha’s mother walks out of the house and the marriage. She takes her daughter and Naysha takes me. Lot more confusing stuff happens in the months to follow.
The couple decides to get separated. There’s a legal battle for the custody of the child. Meanwhile her mother moves into another man’s house. During one of the court proceedings Naysha is called and I go with her. It’s painful to see her talk in front of the judge. Although I understand the situation Naysha doesn’t. All she says is,
“I love my mommy. I love my daddy. I want them both with me.” she cries.
All these changes are tough on Naysha fortunately there is one constant in her life, i.e. me, her toy dog. She talks to me every night going to sleep telling everything she did. A couple of months pass. It’s surprising to see how fast she grows up, accepting the reality of her situation.
This new guy who she has to accept as her father is richer, meaning Naysha gets her own room, her own bed and a closet full of new toys. Over time Naysha starts drifting apart from this old raggedy toy dog. The only times she takes me out is when she just had a meeting with her father. I spend more and more time in the closet. Sometimes weeks without seeing her. But that’s okay, so long as she is happy.
Then one day Naysha takes me out while she is crying heavily. She says nothing, she only cries hugging me tight, soaking me in her salty tears. Eventually she falls asleep. I didn’t learn what happened to her until a week later. It’s afternoon time and Naysha has gone to school. Meanwhile her mother and her step-father are packing her bag. They are having a conversation.
“Are you sure you have time for this?” asks the mother.
“Yes I do.” says the guy.
“But what about that very important meeting you were talking about the other day?”
“It can wait. Naysha needs this.”
As I hear the conversation it’s surprising how much this man cares for Naysha, despite not being her real father. In contrast to that Naysha hates him. I have heard many times Nyasha say to him, “You can never take my father’s place. Never! So don’t even try to…” As Naysha’s hatred for him grew, I too started hating him. I was convinced that he is the villain in the little girl’s story but now I am not sure.
Getting back to the conversation, the guy picks up and places me in the bag. Seeing that Naysha’s mother interrupts.
“What are you doing? Why are you taking that hideous doll with us?”
“It’s not a doll, it’s a toy.”
“Okay… toy. But I don’t want it anywhere near me or my daughter now that he is gone.”
“This toy is important for Naysha. It’s the last gift her father gave to her. She was sleeping with it the night we got the news of his passing. She might need it during our trip.”
“Really?! That man was selfish. He didn’t care for us when he was alive and he didn’t think about how his actions would affect his daughter when he killed himself. I have been covering his bad careless behaviour from our daughter for a long time, but not any more. Naysha needs to know.”
“She cannot.” says he, “For the foreseeable future, to Naysha, her father died in a car accident and this toy is for her to remember the good times with her father.”
“Okay fine… but I’ll throw it away if I see her carrying that hideous toy in a public place.”
“Fine.” said the man reluctantly agreeing to his wife.
Next morning three of them leave for the hill station to take a break from routine life. It’s the same place where I found this toy hanging. So I know what is going to happen. I am scared for its fate, but Naysha seems happy.
Her parents do everything to make sure she overcomes the recent tragedy. Naysha gets all her favorite things to eat like ice-cream, chocolate, jelly, etc. No veggies what-so-ever. They take her to play games. They take her for horse-riding. Naysha seems to be forgetting the tragedy of her father’s death, still she keeps me, the toy given by her father, close at all times.
While we are there at the hill station. Quite a few times our car passes that road. I fear the car might stop anytime and Naysha’s mother will throw me, the toy, such that it gets stuck on the electric wire. Thankfully no such thing happens. We continue with our fun activities.
Then one night during our ride back to the hotel they open the car windows to feel the pleasure of the cool breeze. In addition to that he opens the sunroof as well. All three of them are happily singing Naysha’s favorite song. Suddenly Naysha feels the urge to stand up and look out of the car through the sunroof. Unfortunately standing on the back seat she isn’t tall enough. So she climbs on the front seats such that her upper body is outside the car.
Naysha’s step-father is very careful to make sure that the car does not go above 40. Her mother holds her legs to make sure she does not fall. Meanwhile the couple is happy to see Naysha carefree and smiling. Naysha has her eyes shut, her hands open wide apart while holding the string of her soft toy in her hand.
She is loving this moment and so she says, “Go faster… Daddy… Go faster.”
This is a very important moment for the man, as never before did Naysha call him ‘daddy’. The couple look at each other with a smile on their faces. They get very emotional as the guy involuntarily accelerates the car. This is bad because that’s when the car hits a speedbreaker and with a sudden jerk the car jumps and little Naysha flies out through the sunroof of the car.
This instantly puts me in a shock. The event appears to slow down as I watch Naysha and her toy dog, i.e. me in the air. In that moment I desperately want to be the soft cushion Naysha lands on. Unfortunately the string around my neck gets entangled with the electric wire above and I helplessly watch Naysha plummet to the ground. The landing is hard for this cute little girl and she immediately falls unconscious.
I can see her bleeding from the head but she is still breathing. Her parents, although in shock, they are quick to pick her up and rush to the nearest hospital. While I stay hung in this place, all I hope is for Naysha to live. But I can’t find out what happens to her in this form. In a way that is good. After spending so much time with her, I don’t think I will be able to see her dye and not do anything to stop this.
That is why I just wait. Maybe in two-three days Naysha will recover and then she will come to get her favorite toy before leaving for home. A day goes by, two, three… With every passing day I get more and more impatient for not knowing what happened to Naysha. A week goes by.
Now I am no longer in the past from when I became this toy. I don’t know what is going to happen. Maybe she got better and then went home forgetting to take her toy. I’m fine with that. I’ll simply catch up with Naysha’s life some time in future. I guess now is the time to end this story. Now, is the time to leave this ah–
What is happening…?! Ahh! This toy… all of a sudden I feel the toy’s mind getting crowded! I’m losing control of it. Someone or ssaaaa… (gasps, gasps…)
Something has thrown me out of its body.
Oh god… it’s Naysha. Her body was unable to heal and so she died. Even though her body stopped functioning, her spirit still wants to live, so it got entangled with the only thing she shared a connection with, this old ragged toy.
I don’t understand why she would want that. Why not reunite with her father in the afterlife or move on to the next one? Instead she has chosen to stay inside this toy that hangs from an electric wire. The string around the toy’s neck is weak and can break at any moment. Still she is waiting… waiting for the right opportunity.
As a toy she can’t do much so I don’t know what she wants. Maybe she wants to be a toy that brings joy to some other girl or maybe she wants revenge for what happened to her and her father.
While she lived Naysha was a cute innocent girl incapable of harming anyone, but now I am not sure. I am actually scared. Ummm… I think… we should stop here. Yes… we should. Hopefully the next story I choose to write is a light-hearted comedy.
Thank you.
TO BE CONTINUED
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