Geppetto's Toy Shop

Dark fog lightly dusted the empty streets. The sky held a deep blue hue that lightened as it reached to the full moon that shone down upon the small town. Almost no one dared to venture outside when the night came around. Living in the valley of fog restricted the movement around the town when it all set in. But on the edge of town in a little shop, a toy shop to be exact, one could see a small man locking up to go home to be with his family. With the jingling of a bell and the turn of a key in a lock he had disappeared into the fog in the direction of his house. 1

The inhabitants of the store watched in silent stillness as he disappeared, and as soon as he was out of sight the room came to life. For this was no ordinary toy shop, the toys inside were magical and came to life every night when everyone had returned to their homes. Toys of all kinds enjoyed the nights, in a great extravagant fiesta of all sorts. But this wouldn’t be much of a story without an adventure now would it? You see all the toys got along for the most part, but in the small back corner of the store in a rigid old box there lived the toys that no one wanted. Yes, the rejected toys.
The first of these was a male wooden doll that was very detailed in its make, but the old toy maker had forgotten to make eyelids for the poor doll, so he was not able to close his eyes and this made it hard for him to sleep. So day and night Winslow was made to stay awake in the old box for all of his toy life. Of course he was not without friends thankfully, such as Andy the boy rag doll who simply longed to be accepted by the bigger majority of the toys, and by that one special girl rag doll. Who could forget Charles, who had a painted up face and wore funny clothes and shoes, the clown doll who had always felt uglier then the rest of the toys. Marx the smallest of them all who simply just wanted to feel useful for once, a blue army soldier left behind by a kid, and the only blue one in the store.2

Princess Adelaide the most special rag doll and toy in the store, who only wished to have a sense of safety and security. She stayed locked in the giant castle in the store, just to stay away from the danger of being with the other toys. She hadn’t been out since she was first made and brand new. No one could blame her, because no one wanted to leave this store behind, even if it was to make a child happy. They enjoyed their existence with each other and the toy maker too much to risk it all with toys that could be mean and cruel to each other.3

On this particular night the four rejected toys sat on the edge of their box as they watched the rest of the store enjoy their night, not even glancing in the direction of the corner. It was just like any other time, and the looks on their faces were always so glum, that even the children that came into the store who happened to venture the corner felt sorry for them. The poor toys with each of their needs, constantly longing after something they needed, but no one could call them selfish, because they weren’t. Always willing to help those, who didn’t even care to throw a simple statement of gratitude back their way.4

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The door shook violently and in a sudden rush of chaos the toys fought to make their ways back to the places they belonged. Although when the stranger entered the shop the toys seemingly lost their magic becoming still again, but watched the man with weary eyes. He moved about the store with a sneer on his face as he glanced this way and that as if he was looking for something. Then his brown eyes rested on the small rag doll sitting in the window of the castle tower and his hand immediately grabbed the doll.
Princess Adelaide let out a small gasp and squeak as she was so roughly lifted from the very place that had been her safe haven for a long time now. Immediately the rest of the toys strung into action and attempted to thwart the thief’s plans, but it again was utter chaos with no one to lead them. And the stranger was easily able to get through and head into the back workshop of the store. Which the toys called the ‘Creation Room’ and no one dared to go back there, for an unknown fear of what they would discover.6

Winslow, Andy, Charles, and Marx still sat in the back corner watching the chaos and once again wishing for the things they needed the most. They each had an eye on a different part of the disaster. Winslow on the baby dolls that still lay sleeping on their shelf as he wished to get some shut eye for himself; Andy on the door on which the stranger had taken the love of his toy life and disappeared. Charles on the beautifully hand crafted clown dolls that lay below arguing about what to do next; and Marx on the toy soldiers who could not decide on who should be the leader. 7

Suddenly an idea had struck the little blue soldier, as he looked back to his friends who all still had the sad faces they always had. “You guys! I’ve got it! We can save Princess Adelaide and the rest of the toy store!” he exclaimed excitedly as he for once perked up from his depressing mood. But his friends did not stir, they were all off in their own little worlds. “You Guys!” he tried again, a little louder this time, and they finally looked in his direction with confused faces. “What is it?” they all chimed in together. And the small soldier explained to them a plan he was sure would prove to the rest of the toy soldiers that he was truly a useful toy. 8

Even with the strange looks from the other toys the four climbed down from the post and made their way around the toy store to gather the things they needed as fast as they could. In the creation room, strange noises could be heard as the thief was obviously looking for something, and the cries of the princess dimmed that they were almost inaudible now. With a collection of marbles and a jump rope, the four had met in front of the doorway to the creation room, where they could now see the thief fumbling around in the toolboxes. Apparently finding what he needed he gave a small chuckle as he turned toward the table where they could see Princess Adelaide was laid on. A knife glinting in his hand, they all gasped as they were unaware of what he was going to do.9

The thief made an incision, and pulled out a small jewel that glimmered in the light of the desk lamp. It was then that the magic of the toy shop was suddenly whisked away and gone. The toys fell deathly still where they lay and the store looked as though a massacre had occurred. Every toy in the store was gone, all except for the four toys that now stood watching the event unfold. They were above all confused and their eyes were glued to the sight, until they heard the footsteps behind them. “Now!” they all shouted at the same time as Charles and Marx released the marbles onto the floor, and Winslow and Andy pulled the rope across the span of the door. 10

Slipping on the marbles the thief let out a gasp as his feet connected with the rope and it sent him tumbling to the ground. The toys smiled as the thief looked down at them and then blacked out from the impact. Andy quickly made his way to the small jewel in the thief’s hand and pried it from his fingers. As soon as it was in the toy’s possession, the store came to life once again. All the toys looked about, and finally realizing what happened started to cheer and crowd around the three toys that stood near the doorway of the creation room. 11

With all the celebration the toys were throwing everything in the air, and it just so happened that a small doll blanket landed on Winslow’s head. When everything became dark he realized that he finally had the answer to all his problems. Excusing himself from the crowd he took the blanket and finally got some shut eye. Charles was overtaken by the excited crowd of toys until someone’s hand pulled him out and away. When he looked at who the hand belonged to, he had found one of the beautifully made clown dolls, who showed him that he wasn’t ugly and that it’s what’s on the inside that counts. The Green and Tan soldiers were the first ones to get to Marx’s side as they invited him to stay with them from now on. But there was one toy that hadn’t gotten all his wishes.12

Andy now sat on the creator’s desk next to the lifeless body of the rag doll he loved. He held the ring in his hand as he was lost in everything that had happened. Though he tried many times, there seemed to be nothing he could do to bring Adelaide back to life. As the world outside started to get lighter, Andy lay down to Adelaide and went back to being a lifeless dolls. The whole toy store slowly moved about returning to their places, some with a new member of their kind, and all with four very brave heroes. Within all the excitement no one had noticed, Andy or Adelaide missing.13

The door opened and the little old man from before walked in to find the marbles, jump rope, and thief still lying on the floor. Immediately calling the police, he got them on their way over and then went to work cleaning up the marbles. As he finished he looked up to see the two rag dolls lying on the desk. He quickly hustled over to them and lifted them in his hands. Noticing as the jewel fell out of the boy rag dolls hand he quickly got to work fixing the girl rag doll with the jewel back inside. 14

It was then that the bell on the door jingled and the police had entered, the man set the two down as he went to deal with the police and tell them what he knew of what had happened. He watched as the men dragged the thief out of the store claiming things like “I swear those toys were alive!” and “It’s their fault.” And the police simply just rolled their eyes for they didn’t believe in such things. But the toy shop maker knew the magic of the toys in the store, and so he went back inside to finish fixing the girl rag doll and then gently set the two dolls together on the shelf.15

With the click of a light switch, the jingle of bells, and the turn of a key, the man was gone once again. But it was early and the toys were surprised as the watched him disappear a different way this time. Slowly and cautiously they came to life, but there was no sign of the old man coming back at least not for awhile. So they moved from their positions and began to party once more. 16

Andy awoke when someone patted his shoulder, looking over he saw Adelaide and jumped for a minute. “But I thought…But you were…But…What?” he stammered trying to take in the sight. “I know but the toy maker fixed me once again.” She said smiling at the confused rag doll. “Really? That’s great! Oh but I guess you probably should return to the safety of the castle once more.” He said a little disappointed in realizing she would go back to not talking to him once again. But the girl rag doll simply just smiled and stated, “I don’t need a castle to keep me safe, only a hero that I can call my own.”17

Epilogue
Winslow, after getting many days of sleep was able to finally enjoy a new found energy and join in with the other toys in the wild partying. Eventually Geppetto realized what had happened and made some eyelids for Winslow so he could sleep without the blanket. Andy and Adelaide were married and became King and Queen of all the toys, and there was much rejoicing. Andy was finally accepted by the rest of the toys, and finally by the doll of his dreams. Adelaide realized that the only safety she needed was that of Andy’s brave and heroic ways. Charles had finally found someone to show him that everyone is beautiful in there own way, and that what’s on the inside counts more than what’s on the outside. He went on to become a teacher for all of the little clown children on how to become incredibly creepy and start scaring people, as well as how to make people laugh. “It’s all in the face” is his motto. Marx was accepted for his differences and nominated as leader of the army soldiers, and now trains them just in case a thief ever tries something again. Oh and old Geppetto continued to come to the little shop in the mornings to make more creations, but he turned it into a museum so that all the toys could stick together and not have to worry about going anywhere. Last but not least, there were no more rejected toys.18