...and Cecil

When I was a baby I was given a teddy bear. It was black and white with button eyes, and a nose made of pressed metal. I had that thing for about four or five years. It was always around my bedroom or in my bed. You might say it was my constant companion. That is until one day it got thrown away. Time had not been kind to Teddy. Both eyes were missing, it had a pervasive aroma of piss, and the nose was rusty for the same reason as the aroma. I suffered from SBDSS, or Small Bladder Deep Sleeper Syndrome. Anyway getting back to Teddy, when my mom threw him out, I didn't miss him. When my teddy bear era was over, it was over.

Saturday afternoon and there is somebody rapping at the front door. The dogs immediately go into a frenzy of barking as I open the door to a startled deliveryman. While I sign for the package, Mark comes bounding into the living room.
"Is that for me?" He is all excited.
"Uh, yeah." I answer as he grabs the package out of my hands.
In a matter of moments Mark has the box open and is pulling out a child's toy. It is a creepy little boy doll. It has a beanie with a propeller on top, and a pull ring that makes it talk.
"Oh my god, Beanie. It's my Beanie! I found him on eBay."

As he excitedly checked the doll for damage or flaws, Mark explained why he was so ecstatic. It turns out that he had something called a Beanie doll when he was a little boy. He loved that doll, possibly more than anything. When he was eight years old he returned home from school one day to find that Beanie was missing. His mother told him that Beanie had fallen out the window of their Bronx apartment and disappeared. Assured by his older brother that the neighborhood had been searched, Mark accepted the fact that he would never see Beanie again. He believed that until last Saturday.

"Really, you believed that story?"
"Story, what story? That my doll fell out of the window?
"Yes, that story. Your doll didn't fall out of any window. You were an eight year old boy, with a doll. Think about it."