Velvet Christmas
Unexpected
Something happened, something that upturned everything in the nursery.
The velveteen rabbit wasn't sure when that something started to happen because it didn't happen right away.
No, as velveteen rabbit thought back, there were little signs that an inevitable occurrence would occur within the nursery, something fated to happen, yet none of them were pretty prepared.
After all, nobody in the nursery expected Teddy Ruxpin to lose his voice.
Yet, there it happened when Rachel set Teddy Ruxpin aside one day.
It, of course, wasn't the voice that all the good little toys in the nursery could hear, but instead, the voice Rachel listened to late at night, the voice that the people in the house could hear, and Teddy Ruxpin had no control over what he was saying.
"No. It's the same thing repeatedly," Velveteen rabbit concluded one day. "It depends on what tape Rachel puts into him, but it is always the same stories."
Of course, there had been signs of Teddy Ruxpin's voice that Rachel could hear sounding strange and not at all in line with the voice that only the toys could hear. The change in how Teddy said wasn't apparent at first, but then it was as more and more words started to sound funny to the point that even Rachel and those who cared for the young child who played with the toys in the nursery pointed this out to each other.
"Does Teddy Ruxpin need to go and see a doctor?" Velveteen accidentally let slip. "It is starting to sound like he's caught one of Rachel's colds."
"Oh, oh!" Monchiichi called out. "Don't come near me, Teddy, because I don't want to catch your cold! Rachel tries hiding me in a corner every time she sees me because she doesn't like me. She'll dislike me even more if I catch your cold."
"It's not a cold," Teddy Ruxpin said, amused while seeming older and wiser despite not being like the brightly wooden rocking horse who had seen multiple generations of children. "Toys can't catch colds, Chi."
"No," one of the Barbie dolls on the shelf said, likely staring out from behind the celluloid that prevented Rachel from actually playing with the toy, or at least Velveteen Rabbit assumed the Barbie was as she couldn't see the toys up on the high shelf from where she was.
"You don't know that," Velveteen Rabbit said.
"Don't you remember what happened to that Barbie?" another Barbie said.
"Oh, what, Barbie?" Monchiichi said, becoming quite excited, their squeaky voice seeming to grow even more squeaky as the strange toy grew increasingly eager.
"Yes, what Barbie," Velveteen Rabbit said.
"Oh. Yes," the Barbie cleared her voice, although now that Velveteen thought about it, she didn't know there was a difference in their voices, and she might be assuming they were different toys. "You weren't here. Nor was Teddy Ruxpin."
"She's right, you know," another Barbie said, the fact she referenced the other Barbie letting Velveteen know for sure a new Baribe was speaking. "That was what I was saying about Rachel not loving her toys. Not unless they were up here on the shelf, because it should be obvious after what happened to that Barbe?"
"That Barbie?"
The colorful rocking horse let out a sigh. "It's a Barbie that isn't here anymore because that toy broke."
"Rachel broke the toy."
"That she did."
Again, Velveteen couldn't tell what Barbie was speaking, although there were little hints at times that a different one was talking.
A sigh came from the colorful rocking horse and then a neigh. "Let me clear this up. Rachel didn't break her toy."
"Yes, yes she did," a Barbie on the shelf said.
A thought crossed Velveteen's mind that she hadn't heard any Barbies on the floor, yet when she looked down, she didn't see any. Thus there wasn't any way for them to protest anything the upper shelf Barbies were saying, possibly because they were still asleep in their case from when the nanny came through and put them away. Or at least the stuffed toy assumed they were sleeping, as that is what the nanny and Rachel said about her toys when she didn't put them away, that she should put them to bed so they could get a good night's sleep well.
It didn't work, and the nanny had to put them to bed instead.
"It was another child who came over to play," the colorful rocking horse said. "And they were the one who wasn't kind to their toys."
"It's still Rachel's fault," one of the Barbies on the shelf insisted.
"There really is no getting through those thick, plastic heads of yours, is there?" the colorful rocking horse said, but if the bright rocking horse was human, the velveteen rabbit was sure she'd be shaking her head.
"I think there is a difference," the rabbit said. "I don't recollect any toys getting broken, but that doesn't explain where this Barbie went."
"In the trash, in the trash," chorused many toys.
"What is the trash," Monchiichi said.
"The place no toy returns," one of the toys from the corner said.
"The toy version of hell," another said.
"What is hell?"
"A not nice place filled with fire," another toy said. "And you get chained, like Marley and Scrooge."
"Who are they?"
"Characters from a book."
"I thought it was a movie."
"It's both," the colorful rocking horse sighed, and that was that.
At least it was until Teddy Ruxpin's voice wouldn't work anymore, and Rachel was upset that he couldn't tell her stories anymore as she'd become used to having him tell her stories every night so she could fall asleep. She caused a great commotion, tears brimming in her eyes. "I can't. I absolutely can't. I need my stories."
"Who says you need Teddy Ruxpin to tell you stories when you have a grandfather right here?" said the old man who sat in the rocking chair. He nodded to the nurse as the nurse set Teddy Ruxpin aside. "Bring me the velveteen rabbit. The book about the toy as well."
"Are you sure?"
"Rachel's parents are out tonight, so I am watching, but I am quite capable of telling stories," the old man chuckled. "My nanny, my dear Rachel, once told me I was too good at telling them, letting my imagination get the better of me, but I'm sure that I'm sure that the stories in my head were quite true."
"Don't be silly, Grandpa," Rachel said, letting out a sniff as the nurse came over and—
The velveteen rabbit was surprised to see that she was picked up and brought over to Rachel, and yet—