doodleandstories: Ellie the Elephant

Ellie the elephant was a toy owned by a little boy named Jerry.
Ellie’s skin was made out of plain pale yellow cotton cloth, and she had beady eyes that were made of what could have been a very tiny solid black marble that was cut into halves.
Ellie’s tail was made of what looked like a piece of white cord string, and Ellie wore a puffy little laced dress.
Nothing more was special about Ellie, except that whenever Jerry went, he brought Ellie along.

Ellie was so proud of herself to be Jerry’s favourite toy, and she kept boasting about it to her friends.
Her friends had reminded her not to behave so smugly, yet she just would not stop bragging.

‘Jerry likes me so much, today we went to the park, and he kept telling me stories all along the way’

‘You should not be so proud of yourself, Ellie. It becomes quite annoying,’ said Tom the wooden stallion.

‘For one thing, it is bad enough that Jerry does not play with us as much as he plays with you,’ squeaked Rudy the grey haired wheeled mouse with a long pink rubber tail from the corner of Jerry’s bedroom that night.

‘Aren’t you afraid that someday he might find another toy that he will prefer more than you?’ asked Olive the puffy white owl wisely from the toy box.

‘You are all just jealous that Jerry prefers me more than all of you,’ replied Ellie from the bed where she sat.

‘Olive has a point, Ellie,’ said a quiet voice from the shelf.
A little teddy bear was speaking, his right eye was missing, and his left ear was a little lopsided. ‘Haven’t I told you I was his favourite toy until he got you for his birthday present?’

But before Ellie could reply anything, Jerry came in to the room. ‘Ellie, let’s go to bed, we shall sleep in Mum’s room tonight,’ Jerry said sleepily and headed for the door holding Ellie’s hand in his. Ellie beamed to her friends.

The next morning, Jerry woke up with a surprise.
‘Good morning, sweetheart, we have a surprise for you ...’ his mother’s voice woke him up.

‘Mummy! Daddy!’ Jerry jumped out of the bed, and in his excitement knocked Ellie to fall through the small gap in between the bed and the bedside table.

‘Open up,’ said Jerry’s father handling a box wrapped with red ribbon.

Jerry opened the box and beamed at a brand new train set complete with little trees, sign posts, and its long lane that he could build at will.

‘Thank you!’ he leapt forwards and hugged his parents.

‘We think that you have been old enough now to be able to construct such train set,’ said Jerry’s father.

All along that day, Jerry was so busy playing with his new train set. So was he the next day, and the day after, and the day after, and perhaps even months after that day.

Ellie did not know how long she has been trapped in that dark corner under Jerry’s parent’s bed for it had felt like a very long time. All she knew was that Jerry had seemed to forget her. He never did come to look for her, and she was so sad and lonely.

Her friends were right all along, and she felt really bad. Somehow Ellie was also grateful that she had been trapped in Jerry’s parent’s bedroom so that she could not hear what her friends might say now.

One day, after what felt like a very long time, a little hand came and touched Ellie’s head, and Ellie felt that she was lifted at last!

She hoped it was Jerry, yet Ellie then heard a voice she did not recognised, ‘Mummy, what is this?’ came a little girl’s voice.

When Ellie was turned around, Ellie then saw that the little girl was Jerry’s little sister, Jemima. She seemed older than the last time Ellie saw her.

‘Oh, it’s your brother’s old elephant. I thought it’s been lost for years. It’s filthy, dear, where did you find it? Let’s give it a bath, shall we?’

Then Ellie was bathed and her dress was washed and ironed. Ellie was clean once more.

However, what makes Ellie the happiest was that now she had a new friend, she was now Jemima’s favourite toy.

Jerry also seen her now and then now, and he did not appear to forget Ellie at all.

Yet, never again would Ellie brag about herself to her toy friends, and her toy friends liked her even more now. Even Tom the stallion was nicer to her now.