All that Andy asked his relatives for as a birthday present was spare change. He wanted something to keep Evil Dr. Pork Chop busy.
"He can count his money when I'm not playing with him," Andy explained to his mother, "So he doesn't hurt Woody when I'm gone."
"Woody will be fine, Andy." Mom remarked, "They are all toys."
But, for at least a week after his birthday, Andy charged to the mailbox each day. He wrought change from estranged grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins all over the country. All of it was collected in Hamm. By the next weekend, Hamm could barely move!
"What are you going to buy with all that money?" Dad asked while Andy paraded around the house with his bank.
"Do I have enough to get a new toy?" And asked at once, dumping the lot of money onto the living room carpet.
"You got new toys for your birthday, right?"
"Yah... but I wanna pick one out and buy it by myself."
A date was set for Dad and Andy to go to the toy store.
Hamm and I accompanied Andy on this venture.
It was warm and sunny within the toy store. Its many windows served as perfect lighting for display shelves and cases.
Andy strolled slowly through each aisle, reading the price tags of each possible candidate. He made sure that I got a clear view of each toy as well. He valued my opinion greatly, and asked me several times whether or not I 'wanted to be friends' with the ones he considered.
"Daddy! Daddy look at this one!" Andy found a particularly fierce-looking dinosaur on a display shelf.
He was a sandy brown in color, with maroon streaks across the scales on his back. His eyes were golden and mysterious. Andy stood in awe, and shook Hamm, as if that would count the money he held.
But it was Dad who discovered the price tag.
"I don't think you can afford this dinosaur, Andy. Maybe this one instead?"
Dad reached for the green dinosaur that shared the display shelf. He had a dent in one of his feet (oh, the horrors of being a demo toy) and one scale chipped off of his tail. But he was smiling, at least.
Dad was expecting disappointment from Andy, but he was much mistaken.
"Wow!" Andy stretched the word into several syllables, "I can afford that one? Dad, he's so cool!"
"We need to find the boxes, Andy. Look around on this shelf here."
They searched. And searched. Andy did a lap through the surrounding aisles too, but it was useless.
"Looks like they ran out. Not your lucky day, I guess." Dad placed the smiling dinosaur back on his shelf.
Andy sighed until he was hit with his most brilliant idea yet.
His eyes shot open.
"Can I buy this one?" He picked up the demo and examined it, "He isn't too broken."
"Let's see what they say." Dad was thrilled. He never expected a child to be so easygoing when it came to toys. Andy didn't want the latest, most advanced toys. It seemed he was perfectly content with those from yard sales and demo cases.
After Andy counted and recounted his change at the register, he and Dad were on their way home.
Woody, whose seatbelt was too loose, was able to sneak a look at the dinosaur who sat alone in a plastic bag. No label, no box, no price tag. Clearly, toy-stores weren't as glamorous as he was led to believe.
Andy charged through the front door and made sure his mother observed the dinosaur from every angle.
"I'm gonna go upstairs and play with him right now."
"Okay, sweetie... I'll call you down for dinner." Said Mom, grinning.
Andy wrapped his arms around Hamm, Woody, and the nameless dinosaur, who'd already been stripped of the bag. He nearly stumbled up the stairs and shoved his door open.
In a mad rush for the toy-box, Andy had another epiphany.
"You need a name!"
He immediately stopped in his tracks and sat, cross-legged, on the floor. I ended up somewhere next to the closet door and upside down. The dinosaur was set in the center of the room, and Andy studied it.
"I think you're a tyran...ty... Maybe I should call you just 'Tye'... no, that's not a scary name."
He thought a moment longer.
"Oh, Tyranno...saur...us Rex! That's the kind of dinosaur. Your name can be Rex."
Once that was decided, Andy gathered the rest of his toys and placed them around Rex.
"Everybody, this is Rex and he is a really scary dinosaur. You need to be really careful to make sure he won't eat you. But I will feed him every day."
The announcements were rapped up and I was introduced personally. Andy struggled to make me shake Rex's hand, considering the length of his arms.
"Andy!" Mom's voice crept up the stairs and under his door, "Dinner time, Andy!"
Without a word, Andy dashed from the room.
Rex's beady eyes scanned his surroundings. I let go of his hand and started naming off the rest of the company.
It wasn't hard to notice that his arms were twitching. He blinked frequently and kept checking around the door, which Andy left cracked open.
"Are you okay, Rex?" I asked, stopping midway through introducing Slinky, "Andy will be right back..."
He nodded then promptly shook his head.
"Well, which is it?" Hamm inquired.
Slinky looked concerned, as did Bo.
"Are there any other dinosaurs here?" He finally decided to ask.
I shook my head.
"Nah, sorry. Everyone here is something different, so far. Maybe Andy will get one for Christmas..."
"That's okay." Rex said softly, "I don't really want another dinosaur. I'd be afraid of them, I think."
This somehow morphed into the story of Rex's own sad past. He was excited to be selected as a demo toy at the shop, but his eagerness quickly turned to fear.
Children were often too rough with him. He recalled being fought over once, stretched to his limits by a greedy set of twins. His tail, thanks to that incident, was detachable.
When Rex's audience thought he'd reached the worst part of the story, they were quickly proved wrong.
"Then, they got this new model of dinosaur and put him in my case too. And no one would play with me anymore. All the kids that came by thought he was so much better. And they'd make us fight. I never won. After a few months without sales, the store cleared the shelves of my kind. I was hoping they'd take me too, but they never came to get me..."
Slinky sniffled.
"No one here is gonna hurt you, Rex." Bo peep assured him, "You'll be the scariest toy in Andy's room."
"Andy seems nice..."
"He is, Rex." I said, "He saved me from a pretty bad life too. You'll fit right in."
"Then it must be my lucky day."
And Rex smiled.