Once upon a time, there was a box. This box was known throughout the better part of the universe, and generally brought hope and wonder and destruction and death wherever it landed. It was painted in murals and carved into cave walls. It was one of the most common themes, yet also one of the most overlooked.
It was not overlooked in more places than on a little ball of dirt and grass called earth. Ironic, as the universe would have it, because that was where the box would spend most of her days. It's where she spent all of her days now, actually.
She sat in a run down junkyard. Most say she had been there for centuries, others decades and some would walk past, never noticing her or knowing of her own magnificent stories. She did not look so magnificent, not as she used to.
Her once bright blue had faded to a dull gray. Her wood starting to splinter and various plants growing from various places. Children would play in her junkyard, daring each other to try and open her locked doors. They would touch her happily and lean against her while they drew and grew and talked to their friends about ridiculous childhood fantasies. There were so many memories that stuck onto the rotted wood and rusted interior.
She wasn't always like this. She used to be loved, oh so very loved, so very long ago. She was loved by many and few, but none more than the boy who stole her and ran away. They ran for many years, never stopping, never getting bored. The boy had become a part of her, and she him. She had sworn to protect him and be his eternal companion, and he her.
The boy who used to run around in her, so full of life and smiles and wonder. The smiles dimmed and the life faded, but the wonder remained. Always running, always trying new things and helping people. The boy who had sworn to protect the universe, to fight the monsters most denied were there. The boy who saved everyone just a few times.
But that was also the boy who died, and left her so alone in the place where it all started.
But every now and then, a man in a blue coat would visit her. A man with a smile as bright as the boys, a man who had the same wonder and life. When the man came around, that was when the children would leave, their parents ushering them inside.
The man would would sit against her doors, legs out and not saying anything. Sometimes he would stay there for hours, sometimes minutes. But every time, every single time he left, the man would caress her side and lean in as though he was telling her a secret.
"Thank you," The man would smile. "For everything."
And walking to the end of 76 Totter's lane, the man would disappear, off to fight the monsters and save people and bring wonder, just as the boy had before him.
Home is with the people you love. She was the boy's home once, long ago in another time. But with the man around, she was starting to think she could be one again.