"Operation: Floor", as Jessie called, seemed simple enough. Step one was getting Sandy comfortable with jumping over to the bed, a relatively small gap. Next, they would try to get him slowly down the dresser from drawer to drawer. Easier said than done—Sandy's fear was deeply ingrained in his clay.
After Bonnie and her mom had left for Sunnyside, the other toys spread the pillows from Bonnie's bed onto the floor between the bed and the dresser.
"Not that we think you're going to fall," Jessie reassured Sandy as she explained the plan. "But it might make you feel a bit more at ease with the whole thing."
"Maybe," the wolf said, watching the procedure on the floor. Totoro sat down in the middle of the pillows, grinning upwards and holding his arms out in a gesture to show that he would be ready to catch Sandy if necessary. Sandy smiled back at the large doll in thanks.
"You see," Jessie said. "You're already much better with looking down than you were when you first got here."
Sandy smiled at her. "Yeah, I guess I am!"
"Okay, we're all set down here!" Woody called up from the floor.
For a moment, Sandy's eyes were wild with alarm, but he shoved it away determinedly.
"I'm ready, too," he said.
"Good." Jessie walked over to the edge of the dresser. "Now, you've seen all of us jump this far, even those smaller than you. You shouldn't have any trouble. Just bend your knees…" she demonstrated. "And jump!"
The cowgirl easily lifted herself across the gap, through the air, and onto the bed.
"Now it's your turn!" she called.
Sandy hesitated. Now that he was actually faced with leaving the dresser, it seemed just as daunting as it had the first day.
"Come on, Sandy!" someone called from the floor. "You can do this!"
Others quickly joined in with cheering him on. It felt good to have their faith in him, but it also made him a different kind of nervous. What if he let them down?
Buzz watched from the other side of the room, not cheering, unnoticed by everyone whose focus was on Sandy. He felt like a horrible person for not wanting the wolf to leave the dresser, but that didn't make him any more enthusiastic about the concept.
Sandy backed up a few steps, and then threw himself forward, pushing off of the edge of the dresser. For a few, nerve-wracking instants he was in thin air—and then he hit the bed and stumbled, nearly knocking Jessie over as she steadied him.
"You did it!" she exclaimed. The rest of the toys cheered.
Sandy stared blankly for a moment, and then his face split into a huge grin. "I did it! I did it!" he joined in the cheering, excitedly glancing back at the dresser, which was no longer a limitation.
Jessie threw her arms around his neck.
Buzz turned away, a small part of his mind wondering why the rest of him was so angry.
XXX
Getting back to the dresser had been no problem at all, and by the time Bonnie got home, Sandy was jumping back and forth from dresser to bed as though he'd been doing it his whole life.
"Tomorrow, we try going down, all right?" Jessie said before she hurried back to the toy box at the sound of Bonnie's footsteps.
"All right," Sandy agreed. Part of him was still afraid, but at the moment he felt on top of the world.
