Chapter 20 – Toys – August 2067
Anthony carried the two empty boxes into the play room in the house in which he and his siblings had grown up. "Here's two boxes to start," he placed them on the floor in the middle of the room. Beth was sitting on the floor by the dolls and doll furniture; Riv was sorting through various jigsaw puzzles in boxes; and Tali and LJ were pulling stuffed animals from one of the plastic storage bins.
Tali held up a red plush bear, "Anthony, look, your Ferrari bear!" He grabbed it from his sister and brushed some creases out of its fur.
"I wondered where he was," Anthony looked over the well-loved bear. His Abba had given him the bear when he was a baby; it had been his favorite toy for a long time. He looked at his older sister, "And, no, he is NOT going in the donation box."
LJ chuckled, "I hear you, bro. I still have my lion and every time Savannah threatens to toss him, I have to find a new place to keep him safe. That lion has too many memories to just throw him out…"
"I still have Kelev," Tali spoke quietly. "He's been through a lot with me… Chaim made him a special display." The plush dog that had been with her from her first Christmas was now in a wooden rocking chair just his size made with love by her better half. Kelev now sat on Tali's home office desk in a place of honor.
"Is that the dog that travelled from Israel with you, Tali?" Rivka was trying to remember, "Or is that the one Abba got for you in Paris?"
Tali glanced over at her sister, "I totally forgot about that other one; Kelev was with me when I was brought to Abba. The other dog, Abba bought for me to take out when we left the apartment; he didn't want me to lose Kelev, so he got me a travelling puppy. The two looked similar; I used to have the outside dog tell Kelev all about the places we went." She rummaged in the tote box of plush toys, finding what she wanted near the bottom. She held up the second plush dog to show her siblings.
"Chien! I think I'll take him home to Kelev…"
Beth watched her big sister cradle the plush toy in her lap and continue sorting through the tote. "Almost everything here as some memories connected to it; all these doll beds and the other furniture were made by Grandpa. How can we ever get rid of any of it?"
"And Ima made a lot of the doll clothes," LJ added. At his twin sisters' surprised looks he grinned, "What? I used to like to play with the dolls with you two. Remember that you always made me the dad? At least two of those dolls were given to me as well."
"I remember when the twins got their Bitty Baby dolls for their third birthday; LJ you cried because you didn't get a doll so Ima got you one for Easter that year. You took that thing everywhere; even named him Bruce. Where in the heck did you come up with that name?" Anthony chuckled at the memories.
"Hey, I was eighteen months old; I have no idea, to be honest," LJ retorted. "Didn't Ima make him overalls to match my favorite pair? The ones with the lion on the pocket?"
"Yep," Tali laughed. "You would have worn those overalls twenty-four seven if Ima had let you. I remember one time that you sat by the dryer waiting for the laundry so you could wear your overalls."
Riv held up a wooden tray puzzle with a lion that she'd found in the box of puzzles, "Speaking of lions, LJ; look what I found!" Her little (okay not so little) brother grinned when he saw the puzzle that had been hand-made especially for him.
"Leroy the lion; hand-made by Grandpa!" LJ took the wooden tray from his sister. "I need to save this for the grandbaby on its way." He looked around the playroom. "We could save most of the stuff in here for the grandkids, you know."
Beth looked up from the dolls, "We are planning to have family gatherings here for the foreseeable future; why not have toys for Ima and Abba's great-grandchildren? Almost everything here has some memory attached to it, from the books Ima and Abba read to us, to the Hot Wheels from Aunt Abby that Abba, Uncle Tim, and Uncle Jimmy always tried to play with, to the wooden puzzles, doll cradles, and games that Grandpa made. Let's just keep it all?"
"I'm thinking out loud here, but what if we used some of the memories of the toys and what they mean to each of us as part of the continuation of the Soul Mates project? I'd bet that our kids all have memories associated with many of these toys as much as we do," Anthony mused.
"Or we could tell the stories to the younger generation and you could record it," suggested Tali. "Just thinking about what we shared here now, I know we have a lot of different stories and memories to share."
"Yeah, that would be cool," LJ gave his brother a thumbs up gesture. "It would be adding to the video journal of our family for future generations, too."