Rex crawled back into Bonnie's backpack as quietly as he could. The sun was coming up and the alarm would go off soon, waking the little girl and her parents. He needed to be back where she had left him last night before she woke up.

Bonnie had only been allowed to bring one toy on this trip and he was honored that she had chosen him, but during the day he had been lonely, too. They had left early yesterday morning and driven in the car all day. Bonnie had set him beside her on the car seat and he had watched clouds pass by out the high car windows while she colored and sang and listened to her mother read stories.

For the first hour, he had enjoyed the excitement of the whole thing, but the novelty had quickly worn off and he had wished he had something to do besides stand there on the seat. The stories Bonnie's mom read were entertaining, but she had to stop reading often to not get car sick.

Now they were at a motel where they had spent the night. He had crawled out of Bonnie's backpack when the family fell asleep. At first, the room had been eerily quiet, but after a little while a soft noise had come from a large tote bag Bonnie's mom had brought into the room with her. Throughout the day in the car she had pulled things out of it every few hours for Bonnie - a new coloring book at one point, a box of raisins at another, cling stickers to play with on the car window at yet another.

Rex had been scared when the noise started. What if there was a new toy in there? A big scary toy? He had fretted and worried until a teeny, tiny toy girl had pulled herself over the edge of the bag. She was so little that she could have fit into his pocket (if he had one). The doll wobbled on the top edge of the bag and looked around the room.

Woody would tell me to make this new toy feel welcome, Rex thought. He summoned up as much courage as he could and waved at the tiny girl.

"Hello!" he greeted enthusiastically (if you ignored the slight tremor in his voice). "I'm Rex. Who are you?"

The girl looked startled and had almost fallen back into the bag, but she managed to steady herself.

"Hello," she replied finally, waving her tiny hand. "Where are we?"

"We're in a motel," Rex explained. "Bonnie and her parents are asleep, though. Have you been in that bag all day? Are there other tiny people in there?" Rex was curious now that it was becoming clear that the new toy wasn't scary.

"Well," she said, "there's me and my dog. We live in a house that closes up like a compact, but it popped open when the bag was moved, so I came to look around!"

Rex and the tiny girl had sat by the window all night and he had told her about all the toys waiting at home for them in Bonnie's room. When the sky began to turn pink, he had given her a boost back into the tote bag and watched her disappear before wiggling his way back into Bonnie's backpack to wait for the new day to start.