Above and Beyond

Thea walked into the dining room to find its round wooden table littered with Teddy Bears, stationery, envelopes, and an array of colored pens. Benjamin sat in the middle of the table, surrounded by Brighton, Mack, Kippy, Mr. Fluffy, Letta, Sassafras, Shoshonna, and Mickey. They busied themselves intently scribbling notes, addressing envelopes, and checking off lists. Gracie, our winged Teddy Bear, hovered above them, lending her gentle support.

“I’m glad to see all of you being so industrious,” Thea commented. “What is so important that all of you have to work so hard on it?”

“We’re writing invitations to our annual Thanksgiving Dinner for everyone at the Valiant Teddy Retirement Sanctuary and Home,” Shoshonna explained.

“Oh,” said Thea. “I didn’t realize that Teddies ever retired.”

“Well, not voluntarily,” Mr. Fluffy told her.

“You mean they’re forced to retire?” Thea asked in amazement.

“Yes, sadly,” Sassafras said. “Though not without protest from their young wards.”

“What do you mean?” Thea asked.

“Often it’s the child’s parents who decide the Teddy is no longer welcome in the family,” Sassafras explained. “Sometimes children love their Teddies so much, they end up wearing the Teddies down. Large patches of fur get rubbed away, ears get chewed off, eyes pop out and even fall off. Sometimes an arm or a leg gets torn off. Oh, it can be horrible. Essentially they almost get loved to death.” The other Teds sniffled a little at Sassafras’s explanation. Brighton, Mickey, and Shoshonna each wiped a tear or two from their eyes.

“Not all Teds are lucky enough to live in a comfy and cozy place like we do,” Sassafras noted. “Eventually, the parents become concerned that the poor Ted might become a hazard for their child. Or maybe they just decide to replace the worn-out Ted with a brand-new one. Either way, the old Ted gets thrown away in the end.”

“That’s so sad,” Thea said quietly.

“Yes, isn’t it?” Sassafras asked. “But not every Ted who gets retired ends up in such sad shape. The luckier ones simply get retired by parents who decide their child is too old to be friends with Teddy Bears any longer.”

“Well, that’s not fair!” Thea couldn’t help saying.

“Of course not,” said Kippy. “But when has that stopped grown-ups from doing whatever they want?”

“Oh, I’m sure they believe they’re only doing what’s best for their children,” said Mr. Fluffy, patting Kippy on his left paw. “They just don’t know any better.”

“That’s why Benjamin has begun a campaign to educate human beans and Teds alike about the tragic origins and consequences of Ted abuse,” Brighton said, beaming proudly at Benjamin. All of the other Teds gave him a look of respect and admiration, too.

“Well, that’s very thoughtful and admirable of you, Benjamin dear,” Thea told him, reaching over and taking him in her arms and giving him a kiss and a great big hug.

“Thanks, Mommola,” he murmured bashfully. “It’s nothing, really. Anybody would do the same thing if they had the chance.”

“That may be,” Thea told him, giving him another kiss and hug, “but you are the one who’s doing it, and I’m very proud of you.”

“I’m not the only one working on the campaign,” Benjamin protested. “Everybody here is working on it, too. So are Biwi and Birnie and everyone else. Even Itsy and the little ones are doing their part.”

Looking up at the rest of the Teds, Thea added, “I’m proud of all of you. You are doing a very loving thing.”

Everyone looked bashful now. Mack began putting gold stars for all of them in his good behavior/bad behavior record book.

Thea set Benjamin back down in the place of honor in the middle of the table. As she did so, she happened to notice the camcorder on the table.

“What do you use that for?” she asked, pointing at the camcorder.

“That’s for the Lasting Memories project that Kippy started,” Brighton explained. “He and Letta use it when they ask residents at the Sanctuary to share their stories with other Teds and human beans.”

“So you’re recording their life stories?” Thea asked.

“Or whatever they want to tell us about themselves,” Letta said. “Sometimes they just tell a story about something that happened to them or someone they knew, things like that.”

“It must be very interesting to hear all of the stories they have to tell,” Thea said.

“Oh, it is,” said Kippy, “but some of their stories can be very sad, too.”

“Lots of them are sweet memories, though,” Letta was quick to add.

“And they can be very inspirational,” observed Mr. Fluffy.

“Might I hear a story or two?” Thea asked.

Letta, Kippy, Mr. Fluffy, and Sassafras looked at each other. Gracie floated a little lower to the table, then fluttered her wings and rose up closer to the ceiling. “If you want to,” Letta finally answered, softly. “But the ones we have available right now are kind of sad.”

“They’re very sad,” Sassafras interjected with concern.

“Are you sure you want to hear them right now?” Mr. Fluffy asked.

“Oh, my,” said Thea. “Well, of course I want to hear them. Especially if they’re very sad. I want to know about everything Teddies have to live through, even if it doesn’t make me feel very comfortable. There might be something I can do to help if I know more about the kinds of difficulties Teddies find themselves in at times.”

“That’s what Benjamin always says,” Brighton said, again giving Benjamin a proud look.

“Would you like to sit down while you listen to the story?” Mr. Fluffy asked Thea.

“Yes, perhaps I should,” Thea said, as she pulled out a chair and sat down at the table.

Kippy picked up the camcorder and pushed a couple of buttons. “This is Heddy’s story,” he told Thea. “She’s actually relatively young compared to the rest of the residents at the Sanctuary. But she…well, I should let her tell her own story.” So saying, he pushed the play button, and Heddy’s sweet little face appeared on the screen of the camcorder.

The fur of her small, honey-bear body must have been quite fluffy and soft at one time. Now it looked rumpled and compressed, but it still seemed to be all there, at least. Both sparkly little eyes were still in place, too, and she had both ears, although her left ear looked to be permanently folded forward against her forehead. Initially looking down and chewing her lips, she sighed, looked up at the camera and smiled tentatively, then in a small, soft voice began to tell her story.

“Jimmy was my second ward, really. Abby was my first. Her father brought me home from a business trip as a surprise for her when she was a little over one year old. I didn’t get to stay with her all that long, though. The family moved before she turned two, and I got left behind in the shuffle. Somebody rescued me and gave me to Goodwill, where Jimmy found me when his mama and he were shopping there.”

There was a moment of silence as Heddy seemed to look off in the distance behind the camera before she blinked a little and then took up her story again. “It was love at first sight for both of us, I think. He was five years old and a very lonely little boy. I found out later that he was usually a very quiet and unassuming little boy. It must have surprised his mother when he grabbed me up and begged her to let him take me home with him. She kept telling him she didn’t have the money to waste on a stuffed toy for him, but he wouldn’t give up.

“Eventually she gave in and let him carry me around the store while she finished her shopping. But once they got to the cashier, she tried to get him to give me up, and they ended up in a pulling match, with me in the middle. Luckily enough for me, the cashier lady took pity on little Jimmy and told his mother not to worry about it, he could keep me if he wanted, no charge. At first his mother didn’t want to do it. She said she didn’t take charity from nobody. But the cashier lady said it wasn’t charity; it was a gift to her little boy, and not to worry about it, the store wouldn’t miss what little money they wanted for me anyway. So Jimmy’s mother finally let him keep me. Oh, he hugged me so close when she told him he could have me!

“As we went out the door, I saw the cashier lady take some money out of her purse and put it in the cash register. I guess she was paying for me herself. That’s how I know some human beans can be angels.”

There was a long pause again. Once again Heddy stared off into the distance, hardly moving, except for the barest flicker of her right ear now and then. At about the time Thea began to think Heddy’s story had come to an end, she began telling it again.

“I’m glad the lady cashier was such an angel because I didn’t get to see any angels again for a really long time. Except for Jimmy, of course. He was my little angel.

“Jimmy and I were best friends right from the start. He had just turned five. He lived alone with his mother and his baby sister. And his mother’s boyfriend, if you could count him. He wasn’t around a lot of the time. Which was good because he was a mean man. Especially when he and Jimmy’s mother had been drinking a lot or taking drugs. Which they did way too much. Nobody ever paid much attention to Jimmy except for me.

“So Jimmy and I spent a lot of time together. He would talk about how he wished his real father would come back and take him and his mother and little sister away from all of it, so they could live happily ever after. I would tell him stories and tell him I loved him. And we would hug and cuddle a lot. A real lot. I think I was the only one who ever hugged him.

“It’s not that the grown-ups treated him really badly, other than not paying all that much attention to him. Just as well they didn’t because it was when they paid attention that he got in trouble with them. Usually they would yell at him. They hardly ever hit him. They hit each other more.”

Heddy became quiet again. This time, however, her snout twitched, and she grimaced at some memory. She looked close to tears for a moment, then composed herself, looked down at her lap, and slowly continued. “It was when Jimmy’s mother’s boyfriend started hitting his mother that Jimmy got the most upset. He would want to make her boyfriend stop, but he knew from past experience that he couldn’t. Every time he’d tried before, her boyfriend had hit him or thrown him across the room and then started hitting his mother even harder.  

“So all he could do was huddle in a corner, hide his head, and hug me as tight as he could. He would hold me so tight I could hear his heart beat with awful anger, fear, and despair. He rarely cried. I’m not sure he could anymore. But he hugged me tight against him and whispered, ‘Make him stop. Make him stop. Make him stop.’

“Finally someone called the police, who came and took his mother and her boyfriend away. Social services came and took Jimmy and me away, too. In the end he was sent to a foster family who decided he needed to make as clean a break with his past as he could. That meant getting rid of me, too, much as it broke Jimmy’s heart, and mine, too.

“I ended up in a garbage dumpster in an alley. I had about given up hope when I heard someone say, ‘Hey, little Teddie! Can you grab hold of my paw?’ When I looked up, there was a panda bear reaching down to me from above. Later he introduced himself as Biwi. He and Birnie and Itsy were out on their regular rounds of dumpsters, looking for retired Teddies, when they found me. They called James on Birnie’s Tphone, and he came and got us in the Teddy Bear College limousine. They invited me to come and live at the Sanctuary, and I’ve been here ever since.”

The room was very quiet except for the little click of Kippy turning off the camcorder. Everyone was dabbing at their eyes and clearing their throats. Thea got up and retrieved a box of tissues for everyone.

Sitting back down again, she said, “Well, that certainly was a very sad story.” Everyone nodded their heads, but no one spoke. They did not yet trust their voices. “So how is Heddy doing these days?” Thea asked.

“She’s doing really well,” Letta said. “She loves it at the Sanctuary. She says she has found a whole new family there.”

“She still misses Jimmy, though,” Brighton said quietly.

“And I’m afraid she still has bad dreams about those times,” said Mr. Fluffy. “She has a hard time hugging people, too.”

“Things will get better for her with time,” said Shoshonna. “Won’t they?”

“Things are better for her already,” Sassafras reassured Shoshonna. “She will have all the time and support she needs to make peace with the bad times she went through before she arrived at the Sanctuary. It may not always be easy for her, but she has the opportunity to make new and more positive memories for herself with the loving support of all of her new friends and family.”

Sassafras sighed. “Retired Teddies like Heddy are the hardest for us to help. Even those who come to us with a missing eye or torn leg can be fixed up almost as good as new by our Teddy doctors and nurses. They can still benefit from all the love and care we can provide them with, of course. Those that come to us with inner scars often take the longest to heal. But they do heal, with time and plenty of love.”

Thea looked slowly around the table, gazing deeply into each Ted’s eyes. “I am so proud of all of you,” she told them again. “I know that every Ted appreciates the value of looking out for the welfare of others. That's what you are all made for, after all.

“But what you’re doing with the Sanctuary goes above and beyond that. The help you give other Teds comes straight from the heart.”

“Every Ted at the Sanctuary has given above and beyond The Teddy Code!” Benjamin exclaimed. “They are an inspiration for us all. They deserve our love and care.”

“And they aren’t done giving even now!” added Mickey.

“Indeed,” agreed Mr. Fluffy. “They still go out on missions of mercy, visiting Old People’s Homes, hospitals, group homes…wherever there’s somebody who needs a hug and a snuggle. They are truly examples to us all.”

“They wouldn’t be able to continue their good work, though,” Thea observed, “if you didn’t provide them with the love and support they need.”

“Hey, Mommola’s right!” rumbled Mack in his deep, gravelly voice. “Every good deed we do when we rescue retired Teds and give them a place to live and make friends is doubled and tripled by all of the good deeds they do in turn!”

Mack’s excited outburst left everyone else speechless. He rarely spoke at all, let alone stringing together more than five or six words at a time. He must have just set a record for himself.

Just then Biwi’s Tphone, which was lying in the middle of the table, rang – or, rather, played a refrain from John Philip Sousa, and Brighton answered it. “Yes, but he’s very busy right now. What? On Thanksgiving? I don’t know. Let me ask him.”

Putting the phone on mute, she turned to Benjamin and said, “It’s the office of the Secretary General of the U.N. on the phone. They want you to give a keynote speech on Ted abuse on Thanksgiving.”

Everyone was stunned, not least of all Benjamin himself. Eventually, though, he shook himself and said, “Uh, tell them I thank them for the honor, and that I really would like the opportunity to bring these important issues before the international community. But I’m afraid I can’t make it on Thanksgiving day.”

Everyone gasped at that. Benjamin turning down the opportunity to be the center of so much attention?

But Brighton smiled at him and blew him a silent kiss. He smiled back, puckered his lips at her, and said, “Just tell them I have a previous engagement that’s very important to me. I wouldn’t dream of not attending. Perhaps another time.”

Brighton passed on Benjamin’s message, while Thea picked him back up again, kissed him, and hugged him tight. Everyone else beamed at him with a new degree of respect.

Putting the phone back on mute, Brighton turned to Benjamin and said, “They understand completely and respectfully ask if you could give the keynote address the evening of Winter Solstice, December 21.”

“Umm, yes, I think I’m free that evening,” Benjamin replied. “Tell them I’d love to do it, if I can bring a contingent of Teds from the Sanctuary along with me.”

After passing that message along, Brighton smiled suddenly, then told Benjamin, “They think that would be an excellent idea. In fact, they wonder if any of the retired Teds would like to tell their stories after you speak.”

Benjamin looked to Kippy, Letta, Sassafras, and Mr. Fluffy. Kippy said, “Oh, I’m sure we can find several of them more than willing to share their memories with the world.”

So that was agreed, and Benjamin, Teddy Bear College, and the Valiant Teddy Retirement Sanctuary and Home were given a venue to get the word out to the world about Ted abuse.

As Brighton said goodbye and got off the phone, Itsy’s voice rang out clear as a bell from outside, “Benjamin!”

“Oh, no, now what?” Benjamin grumbled under his breath.

The back door opened and Itsy, Lilly-pop, Sparkie, and Waldo came tumbling in. “We finded him, Benjamin!” Itsy called out.

“Yeah, we finded him!” the other three shouted in chorus.

Looking sheepishly up at his mommola, Benjamin walked over to the edge of table, looked down at Itsy and the other little ones on the floor, and asked, “Who did you find?”

“Him!” Itsy responded.

“OoOh!” Benjamin harrumphed. “Him who? What are you talking about?”

“Henry,” she said. “We finded Henry, like you said.”

“Henry? I don’t know any Henry,” Benjamin said, genuinely puzzled. Looking at the rest of the Teds on the table, he asked, “Do any of you know a Henry or what she’s talking about?”

Everyone shook their heads no. Then Shoshonna suggested, “Maybe he’s a turkey.”

“Oh,” Benjamin said quietly, then looked up sheepishly at Thea again.

“What’s a turkey got to do with anything?” Thea asked him, suspiciously.

“Oh, well, uh,” he hemmed and hawed. “Um, remember how I told you even Itsy and the little ones were helping us get ready for the Thanksgiving Dinner at the Sanctuary?”

“Yes, I remember,” she answered.

“Uh, well,” Benjamin responded quietly, “I kinda asked them to go find us a turkey for the dinner.”

“What? A turkey?”

“Well, that’s what you have for Thanksgiving dinner!” he defended himself. “So, uh, when Itsy and the little ones asked what they could do to help, I just sorta told them they could help by finding us a turkey for our dinner.”

“And exactly where did you expect they were going to find this turkey?” Thea asked.

“Oh, well,” he gulped and blushed, “I didn’t really think they would find a turkey. I just thought, um, that was something that would keep them…occupied while we worked on the invitations. And they would feel like they were helping out.” Looking up at his mommola, he quickly added, “I was going to tell her not to worry about it if she didn’t find one by the time we finished!”

“Yes, I’m sure you were,” Thea responded.

“Benjamin!” Itsy called up at him again.

“What!?” Benjamin snapped back.

“Do you want to meet him?” Itsy asked.

“Who?” Benjamin asked back.

“Henry!” Itsy replied.

“He’s here?” Benjamin asked weakly.

From outside the door they could hear a “gobble gobble gobble.”

“Oh, no,” groaned Benjamin.

But by this time Itsy had opened the door again. Standing right outside it was the biggest and most bedraggled wild turkey anyone had ever seen. “Gobble gobble,” he greeted them.

“Um, pleased to meet you, I’m sure,” replied Benjamin. Then, in a whispered aside to Brighton he complained, “We can’t cook him! He looks old! He’d probably taste really gamey!”

“Benjamin Bear,” Thea admonished him firmly, “don’t you dare even consider cooking Henry!”

“But what are we going to do with him?” Benjamin wanted to know. “Itsy’s already invited him to the dinner!”

“Surely, one plate more isn’t going to make a difference,” Thea observed.

“Mommola!” objected Benjamin.

“Tell him we’re looking forward to seeing him there,” she instructed him.

“Oh, all right,” he grumbled.

“I guess we’re having ham for dinner this year,” Brighton told everyone.

“But I like turkey!” complained Benjamin.

“It’s not what you eat for dinner that matters,” Thea told him gently. “It’s the company you keep that makes the day.”

“Yes,” Mr. Fluffy agreed quietly, “it’s a day we give thanks for the fullness of our hearts not our bellies.”

Looking somewhat abashed, Benjamin turned back to the door, squared his shoulders, and said, “We’re looking forward to sharing Thanksgiving Day dinner with you, Henry. We’re pleased you can make it.”

Brighton came over to stand beside Benjamin, put an arm around his waist, and leaned over to kiss him on the cheek.

“I for one don’t need a special day to give thanks for all I have,” said Thea quietly. Everyone at the table agreed wholeheartedly.

“Is dinner ready yet?” asked Itsy, and everyone laughed with full hearts.