Playing with Toys

As Russel Bushman, a highly-respected judge, opened the door to his son’s playroom, he instantly saw his wife trying to convince their son that he’s already tired and needs some sleep when in reality she was one who’s exhausted.

“John, your playtime is over. Come with mommy, let’s sleep. Look at you! Your eyes are dropping.”

“Honey, you’re the one with sleepy eyes.” Russel butted.

“Daddy!” John said happily and ran to his father to hug him.

Russel picked him up and walked towards where Magie, his wife, was sitting and sat beside her.

“Russ, John didn’t take his afternoon nap. He needs to go to bed. Don’t spoil him.” Magie said.

“But I want to play with the both of you. Mommy, Daddy, can we please play together? I promise I will nap after.”

The couple looked at each other and then looked into their son who was squishing all of his cuteness power and showered them with all of it for them to agree. Magie sighed and pinched John on his chubby cheeks.

“Fine. But only for a while. Understood?” Russel and John nodded in unison making Magie laugh silently.

“So? What do you want to play?” Russel asked his son. John went into one of his toy boxes and got two toy cars, one was a mercedez model and the other was a lamborghini, and a doll. Once he got those he ran to his parents and sat infront of his parents.

“This is yours” John said and put the mercedez car infront of his father. “And this is mine.” Putting the lamborghini closer to him “And this is yours mommy because you are a girl.” He said and gave the doll to his mother.

Russel suppressed his laughter which Magie noticed.

“You are such a discriminant. John? Are you discriminating mommy?” Magie said with crossed-arms while Russel is loudly silent-laughing.

“No. Daddy said that girls cannot handle things that require strength.”

Magie eyed his husband in the corner of her eyes, Russel knew his wife was mad at that moment so he just pretend to play the toy car and started making car noises which John did too. She picked up the doll and carried it like a baby.

“Poor doll. No one cares about her even though she did her very best to make everyone believe in her.”

Russel continued to move the car back and forth on the floor but stopped making noises. “You know, not all dolls can make a child happy. Others scares them and destroys their childhood and later on their future, that is why sometimes we need to throw them away.” He said

Magie put the doll on the floor and then made it walk like a puppet with her hands. When the doll inched closer to the toy cars, she spoke. “Well, it depends on the kid if he would be scared or be brave and still keep the doll. Right, John?” she turned to his son.

John nodded and continued playing, doing the same thing he was doing a while ago. Russel scoffed. “Keeping toys that can’t help you develop is a disadvantage and a burden. Right, John?” their son nodded. None of the both of them know that John wasn’t really listening and was just focused playing with his toy car.

Magie instantly looked at his husband in the eye. “How can you know if the doll is a burden to you when you don’t even take interest in her words and take her abilities for granted?” She was bouncing the doll synchronizing each bounce to each syllable of what she was saying.

Because she was a lawyer and her husband was a judge, they are both opinionative, they often have debates about contemporary issues and cases that enters their law firm. They mostly don’t agree with each other’s point of view.

“How can I take interest into the doll’s words when her computer-coded voice box is broken? How can I not take her abilities for granted when it’s clear that she can’t do anything?” Russel said slowly to annoy Magie.

“You can always fix something if you wanted to and teach them skills that will be helpful.” Magie said while giving a fake smile.

“I am not a handy man, I don’t know how to fix things. Honey, you can never teach skills to something that can’t even do simple maneuvers, especially because it is just a girly doll. And if you want it then play with it now and throw it later.”

On the other side of the wall, the maid is walking towards the door but stopped when she heard that her employers where inside and was talking to each other. So instead of entering the room to bring John his chocolate drink, she decided to eavesdrop.

“Do you really think you can just play with everything you want and throw it away when you don’t want it anymore? Do you think that dolls are just like paper, little creases and wrinkles on the side then you tear it into pieces and throw it away?”

Upon hearing this, the maid listening to their private conversation masked in playful arguments about a toy gave her a conclusion that Russel had a mistress. Not wanting to be caught and fired by her short-tempered employers she went to the kitchen and pretended like nothing happened.

“Paper is better than dolls because it can be used in everything and can be recycled. We can’t even use that doll to do something. It’s useless.” Russel said looking seriously at his wife.

John was still focused on his own business, not paying attention to his parents.

Magie was lost at words, she doesn’t know what to say. She’s out of arguments. “Well, it can make a person happy.”  That is the only phrase that came out of her mouth.

Knowing that she will lose this debate with his husband, she felt really horrible about the college girl. Russel turned down the girl’s internship in their law firm because he said that she doesn’t have the potential, skill, and strength to be in our law firm, she worked hard to be chosen for the internship. She was so excited at her first day, but the moment she was about to enter, the guard didn’t let her in and told her that her internship was cancelled. Magie saw the girl’s tears pour down from her big eyes. A girl full of hope and determination was instantly crushed before her and she did nothing.

“Honey, it may make a person happy at that moment, but that doesn’t guarantee that the person will make it happy forever especially because it is not beneficial. People are selfish if they need to be. If they know that something is not going to work out, then they will end anything that connects them from it to avoid being hurt even though it means doing it will give the doll a scar that even time can’t heal.” Russel, knowing that he wins this time sat closer to his wife and hugged her.

“Mag, sometimes it’s better to let go of something you don’t have yet.”