Bonnie pressed her face into the monkey's stomach as the old man shuffled into the preschool. He was carrying a large cardboard box, and was instantly greeted by her mother. Bonnie didn't pay attention to the conversation and instead clapped the monkey's hands together, liking the metallic noise.
"Bonnie? Can you take this box to the butterfly room, please?" her mother asked as the man left. Bonnie groaned, but leapt down from the counter and started to drag the box down the hallway. As soon as she was around the corner, she dropped to her knees and started to rifle through the box. There was a delicate rattle as she tossed a toy piano aside, and Bonnie was very interested in that noise. She reached further into the box, nearly falling in, and grasped a silky pink material. Bonnie knew that whatever was attached to the material would be very fragile and very important, so she gently tugged the object free. It turned out to be a porcelain doll, with soft blonde hair, a feminine lace dress, and a beautifully painted face. The doll was attached to three sheep, just as beautifully sculpted as the doll herself. Bonnie was in awe of the doll; she had never seen anything so precious or beautiful. With just the tip of her finger, she traced the design of the doll's eyes and knew that she could not allow such a beautiful thing to be destroyed by her peers. Bonnie took a quick glance around the hallway to confirm that no one would see what she was doing and then raced into the butterfly room, leaving the box behind. Her heart pounding, she unzipped her backpack and hid the doll and her sheep inside. Then she raced back to the hallway and brought the box into the classroom.
If Bonnie's mother was suspicious of how carefully the little girl was carrying her backpack, she didn't show it. She simply drove Bonnie home and told her to go play in her room; lunch would be in a few minutes. Bonnie carried her backpack to her room and set it on her bed, almost fearful as she opened it. But the doll and sheep were still there and intact. Bonnie pulled the doll out of her bag and set her against the pillows, making sure that she was comfortable and taken care of. Then she heard her mother calling her, and she skipped out of the room. As soon as she was out of the room, the toys were all abuzz. They knew that there was a new toy in the room, but they couldn't see just what that toy looked like. Jesse, of course, was the most impatient of the group, but Buzz and Woody were being cautious in their approach. It was eventually decided that Buzz, Woody, and Jesse would make the first approach and determine if the toy was dangerous or not. The toys wrestled their way up the nightstand. Woody was the first up, and he couldn't believe what he saw. There was Bo, the same as she always was before, just sitting at the head of the bed with her face frozen in that permanent smile.
Stepping off the nightstand and onto the bed he said, "Bo?"
Bo stayed frozen. She had heard Woody's voice in her mind too many times to count, and this was just another one of those times. But when she heard it again and the comforter sank a little to her left, she jerked forward and looked around. And there he was, exactly as she remembered. She struggled to pull herself to her feet and said, "Woody?"
At that recognition, he rushed forward and wrapped his arms around her cold porcelain body. Bo felt an ache in her chest and she wanted to shed tears of joy but was denied the act. For years she was alone and scared, and now she was back in her best friend's arms. Bo was vaguely aware of the other toys swarming onto the bed, but she only had eyes for the cowboy clasping her to him.
Later that night, as Bonnie was sleeping, Bo told her story. After Andy's mother had sold her in a garage sale, Bo had gone to live at an old man's house. The old man had hoped to give Bo to his granddaughter, but the girl had been severely ill. By the time Bo and her sheep had been wrapped in a beautiful pink box, the girl was in the hospital. After that, Bo could only assume that the girl had died because the box had never been opened, and she'd lived in darkness for the next six years, left to her memories and loneliness. Jesse pat the shepherdess's shoulder, knowing exactly the sort of insanity and fear that would set in in the darkness. Woody hadn't let up on his hold around Bo's middle, and he wasn't showing any signs of doing so. His girl was back, and he never wanted to let her go.