Into the Box

They were all so excited about the move to New York. They kept prattling on about Broadway shows, grabbing a slice of New York pizza, and maybe going to Madison Square Garden for a Knicks game. What a wonderful three years it would be!

Brock wasn’t so sure.

He had listened to Emma’s mutterings about ‘which ones to take,’ and ‘sharing a bedroom,’ which sounded to Brock like a lot less room. Still, Brock couldn’t think of any good reason to speak up and drain their excitement. Maybe he was a worrywart, just like Big Pink Bunny always said. However, he could see that Wally was also worried, so he snuggled up to Wally, and promised that they would be together no matter what happened.

Moving day was Emma rushing around day. Emma picked Raggedy Ann, her oldest companion, to go in the suitcase with her summer clothes. Emma said, “if only I could bring all of you,” and began crying. Even those incurable optimists, like Big Pink Bunny, started to realize that something was up. Brock, just like all the rest, smiled his widest smile, made his plastic eyes shiny as possible, hoping to be picked to go. Instead, Brock was picked first to be stuffed into the storage box. Before she put Brock in, Emma gave Brock a long hug, and whispered, “I asked Daddy if I could take you, but he said that we didn’t have room for a big broccoli doll. I said that I would sleep better with you there, but he still said no. He said that you all need to be in a box, but we will all see each other again when we come back from New York.”

Everyone else followed Brock into the box - Big Pink Bunny, Wally (the wombat), Ellie (the elephant), Blackly Spookly (a halloween bat that still sweetly grinned like the rest of them), and many others besides. Emma kept putting in her friends, doll by doll, into the box, after giving each a pep talk and big hug. That was all very sweet, but Brock was getting pretty crushed down at the bottom, especially when Emma ran out of room, and had to press the last few in.

Big Pink Bunny decided to straighten out her legs, which led Ellie to complain, “You’re kicking me.” Brock had been kicked, too, but kept calm.

“Don’t worry everyone, this is just temporary,” said Big Pink Bunny. “I told Emma in no uncertain terms that this wasn’t proper living conditions, and we need to be unpacked as soon as we arrive in New York.”

“What did she say?” Wally asked, “did she agree to let us out?”

“She didn’t have to say anything,” said Big Pink Bunny. “She knew it was wrong. She could tell from my tone of voice that she better not cross me.”

Blackly Spookly spoke up, “you guys think this is bad. This is nothing. You have never been in a carnival game, and there was a giant metal claw that people use to grab us. How scary is that? Thank god I was given to Emma, instead of being thrown in the trash, or strung up for a Halloween decoration.” Brock nodded as Blackly Spookly recounted his origin story. Luckily for him, Emma had been watching this random guy at a truck stop who grabbed Blackly Spookly out of the machine with a metal claw. The guy was probably bored, so he gave Blackly Spookly to Emma. What a happy twist of fate.

II

They had been picked up, dropped, smushed in, and all over again, for what seemed like an eternity. Finally, they were placed somewhere, and the humans left. It was dark and cold, when everyone started speaking at once. “Where are we? I can’t feel my leg. Your eye is crushed into my tummy. Can you move? Where are the Broadway shows? Anybody got some pizza? New York sure isn’t what I expected.”

Big Pink Bunny took command. “Guys, guys, guys, please calm down. Don’t all speak at once. Emma knows that she can’t treat us like this, and she is probably fixing it right now.”

“How do we know that?” Wally asked.

“She promised,” said Big Pink Bunny.

“No she didn’t,” said Ellie, “she told me that she would see me after New York.”

“I couldn’t even understand her,” said Wally, “she was crying so much.”

“Exactly,” said Big Pink Bunny, “she knew that it was wrong. I told her that we wouldn’t stand for it.”

The others looked doubtful.

“Big Pink Bunny, I hope that you are right,” said Brock. “But I heard the same thing as Ellie. Emma promised to reunite with us after New York.”

Ellie, rather unkindly, stuck out her tongue at Big Pink Bunny.

Big Pink Bunny had had enough. “Oh, so now we are supposed to listen to mister glass half full. Great job, you old fool. Can you share any other of your patented ‘opinions’ to bring us all down?”

“No, no, no,” said Brock. “I hope that you are right, Big Pink Bunny, I really do. I just think that we have to be realistic, too.”

“So we should just give up hope?” Big Pink Bunny said.

“Not at all,” said Brock, “we just need to plan for the long haul.”

“Plan what,” asked Big Pink Bunny.

“Well, umm, I remember that Emma was playing an audiobook about something called zen,” said Brock. “There was some stuff about mindfulness and letting go.”

“Maybe we could let you go,” said Big Pink Bunny, to a raucous round of laughter. That felt good for everyone, well almost everyone, since they hadn’t had a good laugh in a while.

“Hey you on the top, look out of the hand holds, and let us know what you see,” said Big Pink Bunny.

“Not much,” they replied. “It’s pretty dark, and there is another case rammed in right next to us.”

“Do you see any box on top of us,” asked Big Pink Bunny.

“No.”

“Thank god for that,” said Ellie, “at least we won’t get crushed from above.”

“Can anyone see anything else,” asked Big Pink Bunny.

“It looks like we are up pretty high,” said someone. “Just dark and lots of other musty boxes.”

“Guys, guys, you think that this is bad,” said Blackly Spookly. “This is nothing. I remember in the factory the machine went haywire, and made a whole shipment of Halloween bats with frowns instead of grins. They had to destroy the whole lot of them. Those would never sell. This is nothing.”

Brock was surprised. Blackly Spookly had never told that story before.

“Ok, well, there is nothing to do for now,” said Big Pink Bunny. “We might as well just rest up until Emma comes to rescue us.”

They all tried to rest, and straighten out their limbs as best they could.

After most had fallen into slumber, Wally whispered into Brock’s ear, “can you tell me a bit more about this zen thing. We might need to pass some time here.”

III

The weather turned from biting cold to stifling hot. Cold was far better than hot, they all agreed, as they were wearing fur coats and stuffed together in a box.

“Hey Big Pink Bunny, when is Emma coming to save us?” Elllie asked.

“Soon enough, don’t you worry,” said Big Pink Bunny. “Quiet down, or I’ll advise Emma to just leave you in the box.”

“Can she really do that?” Wally whispered to Brock.

Brock shrugged, and used one hand to put his finger to his mouth to stay quiet, and used the other hand to hold Wally.

“It’s been a long time already,” said Ellie. “Anybody got any ideas how to pass the time?”

Wally said, “What about Brock’s zen thing?”

“Well, what about it Brock?” Big Pink Bunny asked. “It’s always fun to hear your half baked ideas.”

“Umm, I only heard the audiobook once,” said Brock. “It’s hard to remember.”

“Well, why don’t you try,” said Big Pink Bunny. “Then you can entertain us with the whole story.”

“Guys, guys, guys, don’t worry, this is nothing,” said Blackly Spookly. “I remember before I was a Halloween doll, I was a real bat. How I loved to soar on my wings. You can’t beat the rush of fresh wind. Just think of all your past lives. This is nothing.”

IV

The temperature turned biting cold again, which was welcome at first, but then extreme boredom set in. They had all adjusted their heads, arms, and legs to be as comfortable as possible, but this did nothing to ease the deadly dull.

While the others complained, Brock used his time to search his memory. Finally, he said, “Hey guys, I’ve got it.”

“Got what?” was the most that Wally could manage from his languid stupor.

“The zen thing,” said Brock. “I can remember most of the audiobook. I think that it can really help us.”

“Really,” Ellie said, “that would be wonderful. I reckon that we have at least half of our three year sentence to go.”

Brock tried to explain zen concepts like mindfulness, letting go of earthly worries, and ‘tracing back the radiance’ (a phrase he particularly liked) to refocus on yourself and your own mind to find enlightenment. The others, especially Big Pink Bunny, had lots of questions, many of which he couldn’t really answer, but Brock tried his best.

At this point, they were willing to try anything. Brock started leading them in daily (as far as he could guess) mediations. He wanted to start some chanting, too, but Big Pink Bunny took that over. Brock thought that Big Pink Bunny did a pretty good job on the chanting, although he missed a few things.

The temperature turned warm again.

“Wow, that really went fast,” said Wally.

“I know,” said Ellie, “I have been so focused on meditating that time flew by. I have learned so much about my past lives.”

Others complained, “yeah, it is helping but we still have a year to go.”

“Guys, guys, guys, this is nothing,” said Blackly Spookly. “That is just enough time to really immerse yourself in your past lives. Take me, for example. I learned that bats used to fly around looking for chocolate, not blood. We had the sweetest tooth imaginable. It only changed in the Middle Ages, when chocolate ran low, and there were lots of bodies about.”

That sounded a little fishy to Brock, but luckily he had let go of the need to judge others.

V

Another time of biting cold and stifling hot passed, and despite being pretty zenned out, everyone started to wonder if the three years were up. Things got all humbly jumbly as their box was taken down, dropped a few times, put up sideways (that really hurt), till they were put somewhere that had a familiar smell.

“I am so excited to see them,” said Emma. “I hope that they are ok. I don’t see any sign of water damage.”

Emma opened the box, and the afternoon sun was blinding. Emma took them out one by one, gave them a hug and said hello.

“Big Pink Bunny, so great to see you,” Emma said. “I hope that you were a good leader.”

“Indeed I was,” said Big Pink Bunny. “Thank god I came up with the zen thing to keep ‘em quiet.”

“Ellie, you look great. Did you get along with Big Pink Bunny?” Emma said. Ellie practiced some of her mindfulness techniques to stay quiet.

“Wally, you look good, too,” Emma said. “Did they take good care of you?” Wally nodded a grateful yes.

“Did you keep their spirts up with lots of stories, Blackly Spookly?” Emma asked.

“I was able to just give them a taste of my exciting past lives,” said Blackly Spookly.

Finally, at the bottom, was Brock. “I bet that you did everything behind the scenes to smooth everything over, and keep everyone’s spirits up,” Emma said. Emma gave him the longest hug. Brock just savored her holding him.