muse

What is the longest time you ever waited for someone or something? Why did you wait?

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The funny thing about an exercise such as this … it isn’t necessarily the most accurate answer, but there’s always that first answer that pops into your head. I figure that’s the one I should go with, regardless of whether or not it technically meets the criteria.

For me, that answer is a little pink teddy bear at a neighborhood toy shop in Paris. I remember the first day I saw it pretty vividly. It was on a metal shelf above my head. At that time, most things were over my head — I was only six years old or thereabouts. The bear came in a cylindrical plastic bubble with a little rope handle on the top. bear’s. It was made of very fluffy pink synthetic fur, longer than your average teddy bear. It had equally long fuzzy fur on it’s white belly. The muzzle was also bright white and it had a little black nose and shiny brown eyes, those stuffed animal eyes that seem to be really expressive and alert even though you know they’re made of plastic.

I seem to remember the shop as cramped, and the logo as having something to do with a blue train or boat. Whatever it was, I’m sure it isn’t there anymore. (Paris is a strange city for me still … everything looks much more familiar if I kneel and view the world from about three feet lower.) Oh how I pined over that little pink bear! We were going to see Paris together, the bear and I. I went to the shop reguarly to take the plastic container down and carry it around with me, even though I couldn’t buy it. My parents told me that I could save my allowance for it if I really wanted it. I saved and saved and saved. It felt like ten years, although I’m sure it was only a few weeks.

When I had enough francs saved up, my parents took me to the shop with the little blue train-boat to buy the bear. I swear now, it feels as though there must have been angels singing when I walked out of that shop. I opend the plastic cylinder with such care.

Incidentally, I’m pretty sure I still have that bear. He’s in a box somewhere but I know I’ve stumbled across him recently. And the bear still makes me smile, even now that the tummy is a dingy gray, the arms are slightly misshapen, and the fluffy fur is matted with time. Some things will always be as lovely as the day you first saw them, you know?

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 14th, 2007 at 11:45 pm and is filed under ARWA 301, Writings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.