written for the kh_drabble community
Challenge: [216] Once Upon a Time
Title: The Lonely Memory and the Jumping Heart
Wordcount: 442
Notes: No spoilers. Based on The Missing Piece Meets the Big O, so apologies to Shel Silverstein. The characters in this story are a Dusk, a Rhapsody, a Large Body, a Heartless, and a Mushroom, in order of appearance.
Once upon a time there was a little silver memory who wanted a heart. There were others like him, without hearts, and there were hearts wandering about without memories, and he wondered if he could find a heart of his own.
He came across a tiny heart in a pointy hat. It flitted about his head, and the memory asked, "Are you my heart?"
The tiny heart said, "I'm sorry, but I'm so small, if I were your heart, I would get lost!" And it flitted away.
The memory came across a large, round heart with a turban on its head. The memory asked, "Are you my heart?"
The large heart said, "I'm sorry, but I'm so big, if I were your heart I think you'd break!" And it trundled away.
The memory came across a spindly heart with copper coin eyes. The memory asked, "Are you my heart?"
The heart cocked its head this way and that, thinking as hard as a heart could, and said, "I don't know, but I think we might fit."
The two held hands and were joined, and were very happy until many weeks later, when the heart said, "Ouch! What are you doing?"
"What is the matter?" the memory asked.
"The space in here is getting smaller!" the heart said.
"I'm sorry," the memory said, and tried to make more room, but the more the memory worried, the smaller the space for the heart became.
"Ouch!" said the heart, and the memory worried. "Ow!" said the heart, and the memory was sad. "Oh no!" the heart said, and popped out. "I can't stay if you can't make room for me!" the heart said, and used its spindly legs to run away.
The memory was very sad. He wandered the world, but he stopped looking for his missing heart. He wandered and wandered until one day he met a funny heart in a funny hat who was jumping up and down.
"Do you need help?" the memory asked politely.
"Don't need help," the jumping heart said.
"Are you looking for your memories?" the memory asked.
"Don't need them," the jumping heart said.
"But aren't you lonely without them?" the memory asked.
The heart stopped jumping and looked at the memory. "Can make my own. You should try." And the heart jumped away.
And the silver memory thought about this, and he thought about the jumping heart, and then he jumped, and he jumped, and he jumped so high he grew dizzy from the height, and when he hit the ground the little memory without a heart laughed and laughed and laughed.