"She could be anywhere by now," Slink's guttural voice said.
"She couldn't have gotten far," Woody answered.
"You're thinkin' pre-op," Mr. Potato Head cut in.
"No! I saw her. She wouldn't even cross the street." Suddenly Woody's hand intercepted the leaves and pulled back a handful, and the pair peered at one another. "I thought so."
"Why do you care?" she growled.
"We're all going to Sunnyside now. If you want a ride, it's your last chance," Hamm told her.
Woody stepped back as she begrudgingly climbed out of the foliage. The sky was dark, and the night was dimly lit with a fading sunset. The sky was amazingly clear and a wind lifted her stray hairs, making her glad she couldn't feel the cold on her porcelain skin.
"Look...What that human did was awful. I know that," Woody said. "But if he hadn't done it, I'd have to sleep with one eye open. He knew where we were going!"
"And that much is your fault," Jessica told him.
"Do you know what he did to me?"
"I don't care! What you did was far worse. Letting him be ripped apart, like it was nothing, like...like it wouldn't have mattered if it was the machine or your own two hands!" She stared incredulously at all of them, secretly satisfied when they reacted to her words. "You should be ashamed of yourselves! Why would I go anywhere with you?"
"What else do you have?" Rex asked.
Jessica rounded on him. "You especially. I hate you! I've known you less than a day and I literally despise you."
He cowered in fear, while Buzz watched her in detached amazement. Would all toys eventually face the same emotional destruction?
"Jessica, please. You've been in a box for forty-three years; the world's changed. It's scary! Even for us, but you..." Woody's words ran out.
The toys were all staring at her again. She averted her eyes, glowering at the car tires.
"You asked for my help," Woody finally said.
"That was before." She turned and walked a few feet, coming to a dead stop when a car zoomed past.
"Preach independence all you want, but it's not gonna aid you a smidge if you can't even cross the street on your own," Mr. Potato Head told her.
Jessica whirled. "I can cross the street!"
"Then go ahead," Mr. Potato Head baited.
She didn't move, except to evade his eyes.
"Or...go back to storage where you belong," he added, and hoisted himself up onto the car floor.
The other toys stood where they were, watching as Jessica slowly stepped off the grass and onto the pavement. She took a few steps, looking both ways.
"CAARRRR!" Mr. Potato Head suddenly hollered, and Jessica hurried back toward them, stopping when all was silent. His chuckles made her blood boil. She stormed toward him, ready to disassemble him.
Woody stepped in front of her. "No, wait. Michigan is a big place, and we're all - "
"Michigan," she hissed. "I'm in Michigan?"
"Yes..."
She turned, craning her head up to look at the towering street sign. Then, suddenly, she began to run across the sidewalk.
"JESSIE!" Woody yelled, startling all of them. She came to a stop and turned to look back at him. Remembering what she was, she looked at all the houses in the neighborhood before slowly retracing her steps to him. "Like we said, you're safe with us. But if you get reckless and risk getting caught, it's on every toy," he reprimanded. "Wherever you're going, Andy can get you there safer. And faster," he added, and she was quick to reconsider.
That was how, a few seconds later, Jessica found herself hoisting herself up onto the car floor beside the other toys. After his friends helped pull Rex aboard, Andy shut the car door and got into the driver's seat. "So where to?"
Jessica slumped anxiously against the seat. "Woodward Avenue!"
"Do you have any idea where that is?" Andy asked.
"Yeah."
"Come up here and navigate."
Jessica obliged, sitting atop the headrest of the passenger seat so she could see the road. It only took a few minutes, and her face lit with joy as she read the street sign. Andy drove slowly until she told him to stop, and she opened the car door, dropping out onto the curb. Looking up at her old home, she walked slowly toward the old, small and cozy building.
"The yard is bigger than the house!" Mr. Potato Head observed.
The other toys ignored him. Their attention was focused on Jessica, as she made her way carefully through the quiet yard.
As she walked, she looked down at herself. The grass was wet, and being half her height it was seeping through her clothing. Pushing through the blades she stepped onto a rock near the window, grabbed onto the windowsill and hoisted herself up close to the ledge, peering inside. The room was dimly lit with a lamp, but forty-three years had changed a lot. Nothing was familiar, except her own reflection.
She dropped to the grass and had to catch her balance before she could continue exploring the property. She clung to a tree as a neighbor drove out of his garage and paused to close the garage door before driving away. When the coast was clear she released the tree and walked beside her old house.
The patch of dirt swung around the smaller tree in the exact shape she remembered, and she dropped to her knees and sank her porcelain fingers into the dirt.
The Prospector's hat was the first thing she unearthed, and she grabbed it like a lifeline, throwing it beside her and greedily continuing to claw the ground. When her fingers touched cloth she buried her fingers into the cold, soft dirt and seized his muddy arm.
He was pinned there, but her bottomless determination eventually won and she was able to yank him from the clutches of a tangled mess of roots. He was as unresponsive as if she were a human. He stared at the dark night sky with the lifeless look of the unsouled. There was no smile on his face, no sparkle in his eye. Not even the kind with which he was manufactured.
She shook him. "Prospector, it's me! It's Jessie!"
Nothing. No response. From behind she heard the familiar clump of cowtoy boots.
"Prospector?"
No answer. She looked up at her less worn mirror image. "He's not responding."
"Talk to him anyway," Jessie advised. "He can't die; he's wool."
Jessica leaned closer to the Prospector, putting a hand on his cheek and turning his head so he faced her. "Sorry I took so long getting back. Stuff happened...a lot of stuff. Hey, you there?"
Woody came up from behind Jessie. "Come on, cowgirls, it's getting late."
"I just got here. Back off," came Jessica's sharp response. She dusted the Prospector off. "Hey - "
"Don't bother. He's gone."
"What do you mean?" Jessica asked.
"I mean, he lost whatever it is that makes us toys alive."
"That can happen?" Jessie gasped.
"Yeah."
"Can he...can he come back?" Jessica asked.
Woody didn't answer. He couldn't.
So Jessie filled the awkward void. "Wh-what makes us alive?"
Woody offered his hand to Jessica. "Will, I guess," he said, as Jessica reluctantly let him help her to her feet.
The trio made their way back to the waiting car, and Jessica hesitated only a moment before getting in. They were making their way toward Sunnyside when she broke down, falling against the car door and covering her eyes with both hands. "He was so good," she wept.
Woody sat next to her. "What was he like?" he asked gently.
She lifted her head. "He was like you."
The toys were quiet. Each of the Davis-Anderson toys knew how creepy Jessica was, but with the street lights flashing through the dark car it only increased the effect.
"It'll be alright, darling," Mrs. Potato Head tried to comfort her. "He's your friend - "
"It won't be alright, you don't understand..." Jessica paused, trying to get her shaking voice under control. Finally she had the strength to go on. "I buried him there."
Whats and whys swept through her captive audience.
"Well, I - I dug the hole and insisted he go in. I was trying to protect him...I told him, promised him, that I'd be right back." Her faraway look hardened and her voice became cruel, "But this group of teenagers found me and abused me. They burned my eye away and threw me into the neighbor's yard and his dog...came at me." Her good eye found Woody. "My Woody helped me get away. But the dog got him. I watched from my hiding place as he got ripped to shreds."
Woody exchanged a grim glance with his friends.
"Why would they do that?" Buzz asked.
Jessica shrugged. "They were just killing some time."
The lights came back onto her face and stayed there as Andy slowed to a stop, and Woody looked up ahead to see a red traffic light.
"It's alright now. You're safe," Buzz's voice brought Woody's attention back to their new acquaintance.
She stared eerily at him. "Don't lie to me," she said, and the car pulled forward and she was cast back into darkness.