Envious, Chapter Five

Shattered

Slinky's assumption had indeed been correct; Woody did not sleep at all that night, due to the fact that he was trying to devise a plan to get to Sunnyside with Bonnie in the morning. He had to slap himself though when he remembered that tomorrow was Show-And-Tell and that Bonnie had been planning to bring a certain red-haired cowgirl to show to her class. It would be pretty easy for him to get Bonnie to take him to school with her, as long as Jessie went along with his new plan.

 "Oh come on Jess, will you just do this one simple little thing for me?"

 "Woody, I'm not hiding from Bonnie so that you can get her to take you to school with her! I can talk to Barbie for you if it's really all that important."

 "But she specifically asked for me to come. I need to be the one to go."

 "But why can't we both go?"

 "Because Bonnie's mom won't let her take more than one toy to school with her, you know that."

 The cowgirl sighed in defeat. "I guess I'll do it then. But make sure it doesn't happen again," she said as she retreated to the closet so as to hide before Bonnie awoke.

 "I'll see what I can do," he said, rolling his eyes a little. She could be so frustrating sometimes. But I guess that's the job of every little sister, to frustrate their older brothers, he thought to himself.

~

 "An accident happened, and... she was shattered."

 A collective gasp came from the toys who originally belonged to Andy. A silence fell over the room, and an air of confusion was over those of Bonnie's toys who had never heard of Bo.

 "Wh-what do you mean? What happened to her?" Jessie asked, the shocking news slowly beginning to sink in.

 "I... I don't want to talk about it."

 "Please Woody," Jessie persisted. It hurt not knowing how her friend had died.

 "I said I don't want to talk about now! Just let me be alone!" He said angrily and walked off, finding a lonely spot underneath Bonnie's bed where he could grieve in peace.

 Jessie began to sob (without actual tears of course, since toys don't have the physical ability to shed them) on Buzz's shoulder. He tried his best to comfort her.

 Dolly quietly walked up behind Buzz and said, "I'm sorry, but I don't understand what's going on here. Who is Bo?"

 "Well you see," Buzz explained, "Bo Peep was a Porcelain doll who came with a lamp.She belongs to Andy's little sister, Molly. She was Woody's girlfriend."

 "I see. But why wasn't she with you guys? What happened to her?"

 "She was sold at a yard sale almost... five years ago, I think."

 "Oh," Dolly responded. That was a familiar story to her. "Will he be okay?" she asked, referring to Woody.

 "Eventually," Buzz replied. "Let's just let him have some time."

 "I wish he would tell us what happened," Jessie said wistfully.

 "He will when he's ready to, I guess," said Buzz.

~

 "Enough is enough," Dolly said to Buzz, sounding something close to indignant. "He has been under there for almost three days now. No one has seen him, and we still don't know exactly what happened. Someone needs to try to talk to him, at least to make sure he's okay."

 "I'd do it," Jessie said, "but considerin' the way he's been actin' towards me lately I doubt I'd be able to get anything out of him. I can't for the life of me figure out what's goin' on between me and him."

 "I should talk to him," Buzz volunteered. "Just give me a minute."

 The space toy lifted up the covers that were draped over the end of the bed and went under in search of his friend. He spotted the cowboy sitting up against the wall at the head of the bed with his arms hugging his knees. Buzz sat down next to him.

 "Are you alright? Everyone's worried about you," he said, a look of concern etched into his features.

 "No... no I'm not," Woody answered honestly. "I used to sometimes dream about seeing her again. And we were so close. It almost happened."

 "Woody, what happened to her? Everyone wants to know. We were her friends too. We need to know."

 Woody gave in and began to tell the story.

~

 The mood among the toys of the Butterfly room was rather somber, Woody noticed. The kids were at recess now, which provided him the opportunity to finally speak to Barbie about her note. After searching for a few minutes, he found the plastic doll sitting behind the dream house. Her demeanor matched that of the rest of the toys; she seemed sad or upset about something.

 "Barbie?" Woody said, getting her attention. "I got your note yesterday... " As Barbie came over meet Woody, he noticed that she had been crying. Becoming slightly alarmed, he asked, "What's wrong?"

 Just take a deep breath, she thought to herself. You can do this.

 "Woody..." she began rather hesitantly. "Bo Peep showed up here at Sunnyside yesterday."

 Woody was completely and utterly shocked by this news. That was the very last thing he had expected to hear. He couldn't speak for at least five whole seconds.

 "But... how?" was all he could say once he finally had his voice back. "Where is she? And why do you look so..." 

 Before he could finish what he was saying, it clicked inside his head. Something happened to her. Repeating his earlier question, he asked, with a tiny quiver of fear in his voice, "Barbie... where is she?"

 Barbie bit her lip. "Let me tell you what happened," she began.

~

 The sun was shining. Birds could be heard singing their beautiful songs outside. It was a wonderful morning. Nothing about it suggested to Barbie that this would be possibly one of the worst days of her life. 

 The day started out very normal. Kids were playing with the toys, who had gladly been freed from the iron paw of Lotso' Huggin' Bear only about two weeks ago. Everyone at the daycare went about their business. It seemed to be just another average day at Sunnyside.

 That is, until one of the teachers, Mrs. Anderson (Bonnie's mother), came into the Butterfly room during recess. Under her left arm she was carrying a somewhat large brown box, and in her right hand she held a cell phone, which she had pressed up against her ear as she listened to and talked into it.

 Barbie, who, along with the other toys, had become inanimate when the teacher had entered the room, couldn't figure out who the person on the other end of the phone was, other than that it was who ever had given Mrs. Anderson the box she was holding.

 "Yes I did, Roger dropped it off over here just a few minutes ago... Thanks so much... I can't wait to show it all to Bonnie..."

 Mrs. Anderson gently set the box down on a table in the classroom. It was obvious from the way she had handled the box that something easily breakable was inside. She then left the room, still talking on her cell phone.

 Why would she leave that box in here? It doesn't look like a donation, Barbie thought. She wasn't usually the curious type, but she decided that she wanted to see what was in that brown containment device. The other toys gathered around her to watch as she walked over, climbed onto the table and opened the lid of the box. What she saw in there was something she had never thought she would see again. There were some little girl sized clothes, some books and few games, and a lamp that came with a gorgeous porcelain shepherdess doll and her three-headed sheep.

 "Bo?"

 "Oh my goodness... Barbie!"

 "Bo, I... I can't believe it!" Bo stood up inside the box, and the two of them embraced each other.

 "How did you end up here?"

 "It's a long story," Barbie explained. "But the gist of it is that Molly donated me almost two weeks ago."

 "Oh, I'm so sorry," Bo said, almost sounding sad. To think of her little Molly growing up...

 Barbie sighed. "To be honest, I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner. But what are you doing here? It seems a little stupid for someone to give a porcelain doll to a daycare full of little kids," she observed.

 "Oh, I'm not being donated to the daycare," Bo explained. "The mother of the little girl who bought me at that yard sale, Lily, was going to give some of Lily's outgrown clothes and things to her friend who works here, Mrs. Anderson is her name I think, and Lily decided she was ready to say goodbye to me. Bless her heart, she grew up so fast... Anyway, I was put in this box with all the other things and Lily's father dropped it all off here for Mrs. Anderson to take home."

 "Did you say you're going with Mrs. Anderson?"

 "Yes, why?"

 "Well, Woody, Buzz, Jessie and Andy's other toys are living there now!"

 "Oh my... but how? Why?"

 "Well... it's part of the long story, but I guess I'll have to tell you."

 "Why don't you come inside the box and sit down?" Bo suggested.

 "Alright," Barbie replied as she did just that.

 "So, what's the story?" Bo asked anxiously.

 "A couple weeks ago, Andy was getting ready to head off to college..."

~

 Barbie paused for a moment, nervous about telling the next part of the story.

 "So," Woody interjected, trying to move the narrative along, "you told her what happened to us, then what?"

 "We talked for maybe an hour. I told her all about Molly and Andy, and she told me about Lily. She said she couldn't have asked for a better owner. And she was so excited about being reunited with you and everyone else."

 Barbie paused again to take a deep breath, then continued.

 "Then another one of the teachers came into the room, and I got out of the box as soon as possible so she wouldn't see me in there. Then she accidentally knocked the box over. Bo fell out, and... shattered into a million tiny pieces on the floor."

 Woody of course didn't have an actual human heart, but he could've sworn he felt something in his chest come to a stop at that moment.