Under the desk

Once upon a time a small girl named Ariana was cleaning her room before going to bed. She took her toys one by one and carefully placed them on the shelves and in the boxes she had under her bed. She knew that Mister Blue Rose didn’t really agree with Misses Bottle-Nose so she made sure the teddy bear and the truck weren’t sitting side by side.

The last toy she took was her Bunny, the toy she had been sleeping with since forever. Bunny was a small, well, bunny. He had superpowers and always kept her safe, even in the dark room, after her mom would shut the lights off. Bunny was a small toy so she could carry him to the kindergarten and play with him whenever. Bunny was a dirty bunny, but she would never let him be washed in the washing machine, because, what if he drowned?

Ariana’s mother would take Bunny away and wash him once a week, when Ariana was asleep and she would tell the little girl that she saw Bunny going through a portal that was under her desk and when he came back, he was clean! Ariana believed her every time and wondered how do the toys open that portal and where do they go?

Well, this is the story that will answer those questions and many more you didn’t know you had.

One night, Ariana fell asleep earlier than the usual. Her mother was surprised to see how the toys were in their places and the girl fell asleep with the lights on. Of course, she was holding Bunny really tight as she was, probably, dreaming of the portal.

After her mother left, Mister Blue Rose got up from the third shelf and jumped off right on Misses Bottle-Nose. She woke up and angrily yelled at him:

- Can you watch it?! Every single night we live the same story! You are a heavy bear, you’re hurting me!

Mister Blue Rose replied like he couldn’t care less:

- It is NOT my fault you’re just standing there when we’re supposed to go! What would you rather me doing? Jump on Ariana and wake her up?

They fought all the way to the desk, as the other toys were waking up and stretching their legs and paws and wheels. Bunny woke up and tried to slowly move away from Ariana’s embrace and after so many “ohs” and ufs”, he finally got away! As soon as he reached the desk, the magical portal opened and all the toys jumped in. 

Behind the portal there was a toys’ world and every toy in all of the corners of the Earth would meet there every night to play together and talk about their human friends. In this special night, they are having the autumn picnic for the toys that will be donated at the Autumn Fair. They are really sad they have to leave their houses and their human friends, but also really excited to move on to the next child that will love them and play with them again. Usually, the toys that go the Autumn Fair are toys that teenagers forget in boxes who-knows-where and haven’t played with them in ages. So, now there’s their chance to be played with again.

Bunny is really happy he didn’t go to the Fair in over forty years! Ariana’s mom used to play with him when she was little and she kept him in her bed until Ariana was born and then he got to sleep with baby too. Now she’s big enough to play with him and his favorite game is “tea time”, when the little girl arranges her room like a restaurant and invites all sorts of toys to drink her special tea. It’s the same game he used to play with her mom when she was little, a long time ago.

Around 5 AM, when parents wake up to go for a run or to go to work, the toys go through the portals again and place themselves back in the places they have been left the night before. But in this special night, they all forgot to check the time and when one of them finally did… it was half by six in the morning! What a terrible thing had occurred! What if one of the parents went in their child’s room to kiss him or her good bye and there were no toys in the room?

They all ran right back to their places and as Mister Blue Rose was trying to get to the third shelve, Ariana’s father stepped into her room to kiss her good bye so the teddy bear froze and fell right on Ariana’s sleeping face. She woke up in terror because Mister Blue Rose was, indeed, a really big bear, but her father sat next to her and held her until she calmed down and went back to sleep. He took the teddy bear and placed him in a box under the bed and slowly left the room.

Mister Blue Rose came out of the box and whispered:

- That was close!

Misses Bottle-Neck started laughing and exclaimed:

- Now you can fall on me no more! Welcome under the bed, you big blue bear!

After Ariana woke up the day went by as it usually does but, at dinner time, when she and her parents were eating, she asked:

- How did Mister Blue Rose fall all of a sudden?

- I don’t know, her dad replied. Did you place him safely on the shelf, like I taught you?

- Yes, I did, the girl responded.

- Maybe he didn’t manage to get back up there after he came from the toys world, her mother added. You should keep him in one of the boxes under the bed; it will be easier for him to come back in time.

- I agree, said her father.

- I will do that tonight, Ariana said after she took the last piece of broccoli and ate it.

The dinner continued with the family laughing about the unfortunate moment and before Ariana went to bed her dad checked all of the toys to make sure no one will fall on his daughter again.

As the night came, the toys started going towards the portal. Around 1 AM, Ariana woke up because she was thirsty and she saw a light coming from under the desk. She crawled towards it and noticed her cars weren’t parked on the side of the room. She also saw the toys were no longer on the shelves and she thought that it was the doing of the magical portal her mother had told her about. She decided to go through and, lucky her, she was small enough to fit in!

When she crossed over to the other side of the portal, all of the animals that were playing, running around, laughing and talking had stopped. She was scared and happy at the same time and then she saw Bunny and ran towards him. She was upset he had left her alone in the dark and asked him if he went there every night.

Bunny unfroze and took her hand. He explained that since the toys were created, they would have this space to enjoy playing with other toys. But they could only do it at night, so the grown-ups wouldn’t find out about their magic. They would freeze during the day as the children would play with them and, after everyone’s asleep, they would come here, in the toys’ magical world. He asked her to keep this secret like he had asked her mother when she has had followed him there a long time ago. Ariana realized that her mom wasn’t just telling a story - she was there!

Bunny took Ariana back through the portal and tucked her in. He sang her favorite lullaby and went back to the toys world where he decided, together with all of the other toys, to install an alarm in the houses so they would know when somebody is about to wake up. If so, they could run home in time.

When Ariana woke up, she went to her parents’ room and told her mother she went through the portal. That day, they drew together this magical world of toys on all of Ariana’s walls because she wanted her toys to feel at home even when they’re not in their own world.

At night, after tucking Ariana to sleep, her mother went back to her room to write this story about her daughter and Bunny and the portal under the desk.