Raima Imran is the student of the Creative Writing Program by Author Ayesha Marfani. The author conducts online classes for the kids and this is what they have written during the class. The kids also practiced the art of storytelling. This is the original unedited work of the kid.

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Never Too Late

 

Kevin gazed at the final present. It was a present from his Aunt Leena for turning five years old. It was covered with a blue metallic wrapping paper and a pink ribbon with golden 5’’s on it. Kevin tore the wrapping paper and inside was a beige teddy bear. He named it “Teddy”. He knew right away that he and Teddy were going to be best friends.

All of a sudden, everything faded into a blur. And Teddy found himself staring at the ceiling while lying down on his bed.

Teddy jumped out of his bed and turned to his closet. He scurried out of the house and glanced around. “Empty as usual!” sighed Teddy as he crossed the road.

He peeped through the window of one of his friend’s house. Inside he saw his friend, Bunny the stuffed rabbit, sitting on the sofa looking glum because he wanted to be played with.

“Everyone ….” Thought Teddy, “Everyone in PettyVille is glum”.

He was right. PettyVille, the home for old toys who are not being played with anymore, was a gloomy place. The inhabitants rarely left their houses or interacted with each other. The weather wasn’t a big help either. It was always cold and gray.

As Teddy gazed at the small houses on the street, the chilly wind swirled around him, making him shiver. He remembered how he used to love the wind on his face when Kevin used to make him zoom all around the house on a toy airplane. He could never understand why Kevin gave up playing with him.

He nearly slipped on the wet road because he was too lost in his thoughts. Drops of rain came down splashing on Teddy’s forehead as he walked back to his house. His house was small and gray, just like all the other houses in town.

Before he entered his house, he glared at the hole that connected PettyVille to the real world. “My only hope to meet Kevin again is through that hole”, whispered Teddy to himself.

“No!” said Teddy, “It’s too risky … I can’t do it without a thorough plan”.

He glanced at the tiny shop a meters away. Maybe he could visit the shop to get ideas of how an escape from this gloom hole be made. So he went in.

The shopkeeper was a monster with six eyes. He didn’t talk at all. He just made gestures in response to Teddy’s questions.

Teddy sprinted back to his home. He rushed inside his house and flew towards his bed. He was hopeful but also exhausted and soon dozed off.

He startled awake as the first ray of light hit his face. The cogs in his head started spinning as he clumsily headed towards the window to examine the hole.

“Aha!”, Teddy cried, “There’s a nail sticking out from the edge of the hole. I can easily throw a lasso to grab on to it.”

After a couple of hours of fine-tuning, he came up with a spectacular plan. He was happy with himself. He could finally meet Kevin. At the same time, Teddy heard a creak from the door and he saw Kevin through the hole, tossing stuff around and mumbling something about not being able to find the TV remote.

Teddy woke up the next morning all excited because it was almost time to meet Kevin. He grabbed the lasso and hurried outside. He bumped into the fence and got scratched by a shrub in his haste. But nothing slowed him down. Upon reaching the hole, he threw up his lasso but it was only after a few failed attempts that it finally got hooked. He swiftly mounted and moved towards the top. Once he reached the top he leaped down into the real world.

Teddy heard Kevin watching TV in the distance, so he followed the sound to find him. As soon as he found Kevin, he jumped in front of the TV and shrieked, “Why won’t you play with me anymore? I never could understand why you stopped!”

Kevin did not reply for a long time and just stared at Teddy in fascination. When he did find his words, all that came out of his mouth was “What?!!, Whaaa … How?!, Who are you?”

This made Teddy even more agitated. He unplugged the TV and stuttered in anger “How can you not know who I am? I am your best friend!”

Kevin’s face turned red with fury and he screamed “I DON’T even care anymore. I am not a little child who plays with Teddy bears and monster trucks. Now go away. You are making me miss my program!” He stomped over to Teddy, snatched the plug from him and threw him all the way to the end of the corridor.

Pain shot through Teddy’s body but he somehow managed to get back on his feet and walked all the way back to his home. With a heavy heart, he limped towards his bed and sat down. He could have never expected what had just happened. But he felt even more determined to get through to Kevin and so he started pondering over a plan B.

He kept thinking, “If only I can make Kevin see what it is like down here in PettyVille! If only he could see what his carelessness is doing to all of us, I am sure he will change”. Just then an idea popped into his head. He had seen Kevin tweaking toy machines and had learnt a thing or two about them himself. He worked all night to make a machine that would help him carry out his plan. He seemed very happy about how clever his plan was. He couldn’t wait to carry it out.

After all the hard work, Teddy laid down on his bed and gazed at his amazing creation. He named it “The Shrink-a-majigger”.

He scurried outside with his masterpiece and tied a rope to it. Once again he threw up his lasso a few times until it was strong enough to carry the Shrink-a-majigger up. He used all his strength to pull himself and the machine up towards the hole.

He hopped down and saw Kevin, slouched on the sofa, playing a game on his phone. He crept up behind Kevin and shrunk him to the size of a toy.

“What do you want with me now?” screeched Kevin. “You’ll see.” was Teddy’s reply. He dragged Kevin into PettyVille while Kevin squirmed and kicked.

As Teddy hauled Kevin through the streets of PettyVille, Kevin saw a one of his toy robots, Buzzer, sitting alone on a bench staring into space while gray clouds thundered. It soon started to rain but buzzer did nothing to save himself from harm. He had the gloomiest look on his face. But he wasn’t the only one in town with that look. Everywhere Kevin went, he saw a sadness in everyone’s eyes. It was very troubling for Kevin.

By the end of it Kevin was almost in tears. “I didn’t know what I did that could cause all of this. I feel so sorry!”, he sobbed. Teddy put his hand on Kevin’s shoulder. “There’s no reason to cry,” he said softly. “Follow me”.

Teddy took Kevin back out of Perryville. He asked Kevin to stand straight while he hit the reverse button on the Shrink-a-majigger. Soon Kevin turned to his normal size.

Kevin was relieved to be back to himself but he did not leave right away. He hurriedly moved some boxes around from the corner of his room until he saw the dusty lid of his old toy box with a hole on the side. He opened the lid of PettyVille with a smile.

The sun started to shine brighter as Kevin took his old toys out of the box and remembered how much he loved playing with them. He thought about how foolish he was to think that he was too old to play with his toys. He now realized that you are never too old to play.

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