The Teddy Bear

The little girl had done an exceptional job cleaning up the room. Her siblings hadn’t helped in the least little bit, opting instead to sit and watch television rather than clean their room. However, the little girl had grown quite attached to the very nice man that her mother was dating, and wanted to make him proud.

         The man prided himself on his neatness and his ability to clean. He was trying to be a father figure towards the children and help out the woman that he was seeing. They had plans to marry in the future and he wanted desperately to be a good father to the children.

         Once the room was all cleaned up, the mother and her boyfriend took the kids swimming in the pool at his apartment. They made a whole afternoon of it, and the baby even took a nice nap under a beach umbrella.

         Once swimming was done, they all went into the house. While the kids were showering, the man made them all a wonderful spaghetti dinner from a homemade family recipe. It was so delicious that the kids ate two helpings each.

         Once dinner was done, and the man and woman had cleaned the kitchen and washed all of the dishes, the man gathered the children. They sat around him on the couch. He picked up one of their Children’s Bibles and spent the next hour reading Bible stories to them.

         There was a program coming on that they all wanted to watch, and it wasn’t going to end until around ten at night. He invited them to spend the night, and they accepted his invitation. When it was time for the program, they all made themselves comfortable in the living room and settled in to watch. 

         On commercials, the man played with the children, wrestling with them on the floor and tickling them. When the program ended, it was time for the children to go to bed. 

         The man and woman went to turn down the beds and tuck in the children. They got into a tickling match with the man, which lasted for about thirty minutes, with everyone laughing and out of breath in the end.

         Once the children were tucked in for the night, the man and woman settled down together on the couch. They turned off the lights, selected a movie to watch, and wrapped themselves in each other’s arms. They were truly happy and in love.

         After a little while of watching their movie, they paused it thinking they had heard something. They had. The children were still awake and goofing off in the bedroom. The man and woman headed to the bedroom once more, determined to get the children settled down to sleep.

         The couple returned to their movie, determined to settle in and finish it. They were cuddling and making out when they once again heard the kids in the bedroom. This time the woman was a bit irritated. The man had quite a bit more patience than she did. 

         He returned to the bedroom to put the children back to bed once more. Again, he tickled them and played a little. Again, he tucked them into their beds and told them goodnight. Again, he returned to the living room to join the woman on the couch.

         When the movie was over, they decided that they were going to head to bed themselves. They checked in on the children, who all appeared to finally be asleep. They retired to the bedroom and got changed for bed. They turned on some music to listen to, while they cuddled some more. After a while, the cd ended that they were listening to, and they decided it was time for them to go to sleep.

         A couple of hours later, they were awakened by a child crying. They both jumped up and went to check and see which child it was. They discovered that it was the little girl that had done all the work cleaning the room. She hadn’t brought a stuffed animal to sleep with (the others had) and now she couldn’t sleep because it was a strange place and she didn’t have a ‘baby’ to sleep with.

         The man and woman felt bad for the little girl. They went out and checked in the woman’s car, but there was nothing in there for the little girl to sleep with. They discussed the woman going back to her house to get something, but it was getting pretty late and the man was concerned about her being out that late.

         Suddenly, the man suddenly had a wonderfully brilliant idea. He began rummaging through some boxes in the living room closet. The woman had told the little girl to go into the living room with her so that the other kids weren’t disturbed. The woman asked the man what he was looking for. He asked her to wait – he would let her know when he found what he was looking for.

         Finally, the man located what he had been looking for, and he called the little girl over to him. He removed a small black teddy bear with a burgundy ribbon around its neck from the closet. He showed it to the woman and the little girl. He asked the little girl if that would do for her to sleep with.

         The little girl squealed with delight. She hugged the small bear to her chest tightly. The woman smiled and asked him what exactly he was doing with a teddy bear.

         The man smiled back. He explained that when he was in middle and high school he had been extremely bullied. He had dropped out, and his parents were concerned for his future. Not to worry, though, because he had gotten his GED and attended a local trade school / community college where he had earned not one, but two degrees.  The teddy bear had been a gift from his mother upon his graduation from college.

         The woman asked if he was sure that he wanted to part with something so special and meaningful. He said that he had no problem whatsoever allowing the little girl to have it, especially since she had cleaned the room all by herself. The little girl happily took the teddy bear and headed back to bed. The man and the woman tucked her in, and she went right to sleep. They returned to bed for a good night’s rest.