The Teddy Bear
On a gloomy Sunday morning in 1989, an eleven year old boy with short, black hair skips down an empty pavement in an attempt to hurriedly reach his mother's shop. Seeing the shop from afar, he picks up his speed. Unfortunately, whilst doing so he clumsily trips onto the pavement, scraping his palms. Attempting to calm the burning pain in his hands, he starts to blow on them when he notices something sat in the bushes.
Sitting up, he shakily starts to crawl towards it, despite the pain in his hands. When he finally arrives within arms length of the item, he notices that it is a worn out teddy bear. He reaches his hand toward it, quickly grabbing it with a smile on his face. He then picks himself up off of the pavement and starts sprinting towards the shop.
Arriving in front of the shop, he opens the door with the teddy bear still clutched in his hand. He walks towards the back of the store, where he finds his mother hard at work. Walking up to her, he shows her the bear. When she looks up to see him standing there, she’s taken aback by the bear in his hands.
Before getting a chance to ask him where he got it, he proceeds to tell her exactly what had happened mere moments ago on the pavement. While continuing to ramble on with his story, she gently takes the stuffed animal from his hands and starts to examine it. Realizing that his story is quickly coming to a close, she waits before asking him if he’d like to help her in sewing it up.
Now beaming with excitement, he rushes to gather supplies, momentarily forgetting his injuries. When he goes to sit beside her she grabs his hands with a worrying look. He quickly lets her know that he’s fine and returns his attention to the task at hand. She joins him reluctantly.
After spending a couple of hours mending the bear, they finish. Satisfied with the final product, the boy thanks his mother and rushes out of the room to clean his injuries, leaving the bear on the table. With the boy gone, she finally checks the time, seeing that it’s nearing opening time. As she gets up from the chair, the boy rushes back in and asks her a question that caught her off guard.
He asks her if they could give the bear to a friend of his rather than keeping it for himself. Taken aback by this request, she asks him why he wants to give the stuffed animal away. He then tells her that his friend's parents recently split up, and that he would like to give him the bear to cheer him up. Surprised by her son’s kind heart, she agrees and watches with a smile as he rushes out of the shop with the bear, pushing past the first customer of the day in order to give his friend the gift.
