Work Text:
When I was little, I had lots of toys. Woolly was my favorite. He was my spider cuddly toy.
I liked my toys. Woolly liked my toys too. I made him houses out of my toy bricks, and gave him rides in my toy car. We had tea in my little house.
I learned to share my toys with my friend Angel, with Woolly's help. Sharing made my toys new and fun again. When I went to Angel's house, she shared her toys with me.
Angel's toys were different. She had cuddly toys, but no spiders. Angel and I made them bounce on her bed. We bounced on her bed, too.
Angel had toy trains that went choo-choo! We pushed her trains around and played with her dollhouse. Woolly took up a whole room of the dollhouse, like he was a giant spider. Angel made the little dolls act scared and run away.
Then Angel showed me one toy that I didn’t like at all. It was a toy bear, and it moved on its own and blinked its eyes. It went to sleep.
Suddenly, it woke up!
I didn’t know what it would do. I hid in the other room with Woolly.
“Hey, Tig,” Woolly said. “You’re not scared when I move and talk,”
”You’re not scary,” I told my spider. I knew what Woolly would do. Woolly always helped me think through my problems and cheered me up. He never made scary sounds and jerked his legs around.
“Angel’s bear isn’t really real. It’s a robot, with motors and batteries.” Woolly spun around. He didn’t have a battery box.
“It’s okay to be scared. You never know what a robot will do. But Angel’s robot only does a few things. It gives hugs,”
Woolly hugged four legs around himself.
“It drinks from its bottle and goes beddie-bye..” Woolly pretended to drink, then snored.
I smiled. It was funny when Woolly did it.
“The robot won’t really come alive. It won’t hurt you. So go for it, Tig! Have fun caring for Angel’s baby bear!”
Yes, I thought. It’s just a moving cuddly toy.
I ran back to Angel, ready to play. I fed the bear a bottle and put it to bed.
The bear woke up again. When it saw Woolly, it cried out.
“It’s only my toy spider!” I told the bear, and stroked its head. When we were done, Angel turned the bear off. It became like any other cuddly toy, but less cuddly with all the hard robot bits inside.
I don’t like robot toys, but I like playing with Angel. I love Woolly.