Take The Long Way Home
Lotso's Continuing Story
Dark was the night, and I lay awake. Well, in all honesty, it would be hard for you to get to sleep too, if you were strapped to the grill of a garbage truck. I have no idea how much time passed when I was on that thing. A week. A month. A year. But through it all, I managed to keep my body intact. The other stuffed animals that were on with me weren't so lucky. One by one, the elements poked and picked at them, and in due time, they vanished. Leaving only me to face the world. Alone. And on this night, the truck lay sleeping in the junkyard. I was warmed by a blanket of a billion stars; my only sign of the hope that lay within me, somewhere, deep in my stuffing. That night, my past reflected before me like the reflection on a shiny new AA battery. Everything I had become, the monster that my heart had hardened into. I was asking a million questions to my past self.
"Was it my mere presence that made Sunnyside the so-called prison that it was?"
"Was I protecting my fellow toys to the point that they would stay safe, or was I protecting the toys to the point that they could never do anything?
"How did I become so corrupt? Was this the real me, or was it just a shell of a soul that is more appealing?"
"Why. Didn't. I. Push. That. BUTTON!"
My pink furry body quivered at the thought of it. The animal I had become all this time was now just too overpowering to ignore.
"WHERE'S YOUR BOY NOW, SHERIFF?"
I didn't want to think about it. And yet, my own voice echoed within the walls of my fur. I could change. It would be hard, very hard, but nothing is impossible. It's not like I wanted to change anyway. What would everyone back at Sunnyside think? Would they forgive me, or would they just throw me out? Abandon me? Replace me?
My heart skipped a beat at the thought of being replaced. Again. Daisy. Daisy. Daisy was bad enough. I still would never understand why she only thought I was special. Kids would never think we were their real friends because they have real human friends themselves. Us toys are just for when they're not around. Daisy never would have thought that I was a replacement for a real human friend.
I also realized that night that there were others like me. Beforehand I had only thought about me, and how I was the only one of me there was. Unique. Special. When I saw that other me in her arms that night, it hit me. Hard. I was just a bunch of pink and white fur, enhanced with the smell of strawberries. There were millions of "me." Like stars. That infamous night, something did snap inside of me. I knew I wasn't just another star. But sadly, I took my role of being "The brightest star" a bit too seriously. I knew I was abandoned, a piece of junk, and in that case I would have just gone and thrown myself away, but I knew at the time that I had something to prove.
Turns out I had nothing to prove at all. I was just turned into a monster.
After all this complentating, my eyes became heavy, and I finaly fell asleep. I thought I would wake up to another day of mud, bugs, and all of nature's dirty things being thrown at my face. And I was right.
But on that day, everything changed.