Once upon a time, there was a girl named Thalia. It was six days before Christmas. She was in her room, playing with her doll's hair, and whistling too. That night, when she was reading The Long Winter, which was the book she always reads every night, right before she went to bed, she stuck out her tongue at her doll. She didn't like her doll very much. Soon she dropped off to sleep, like dropping off a mountain when you're sky diving, or like when you are jumping off a diving board into a pool. But anyway, despite those things, she got very, very sleepy, and then she went to sleep, obviously.
Five days later, it was Christmas! There were five presents under the tree for her. She didn't ask for much. And even if she did, she would only get half, and she liked that. The first present she opened had green wrapping paper with polka dots. It was a new basketball. The second present was a beautiful picture of the sunset. The third present was a new lamp. The fourth present was a new coloring book. The fifth present...oh oh oh! was a LITTLE STUFFED ANIMAL!
Years later, they eventually moved. They had to get rid of a lot of stuff. But they didn't get rid of Squeak. They did get rid of her basketball because she was tired of sports now!
As years went by after they moved, Squeak needed reparing, because he got burnt on the stove and because he got played with a lot and got very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very worn out.
When they first moved into their new house, the first thing they got was the bed. The mom and the dad slept on the couch, which was the second thing they bought. They had three kids in the family: Jason, Alexander, and Thalia. Thalia was the youngest. The only one she was older than was Squeak. Squeak was now very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very worn out. He lost one of his button eyes, his bow came undone, he was stained all over and very patched up. When they were all settled into their house, Thalia finally got her own bed.
Thalia shut the door of her room when she was going to sleep. She remembered something. She had left Squeak in the car. She could not sleep without him. Her dad was going to the skating rink. He was just leaving. Thalia jumped out of bed in her underwear, running out into the street to stop her dad.
"DAAAAAD!" she called. Dad stopped the car. He thought it was some random stranger hobo.
He got out and said, "Hey man, your dad isn't around here anywhere, and you'd bet--" He stopped talking.
"Dad, I need Squeak," Thalia said. So her dad got back in the car and handed Squeak to Thalia.
Thalia was so thankful to have Squeak back that she even said her prayers that night. (She usually doesn't do that.) But she could barely go to sleep, even with Squeak, because she was 14 years old now and she had to go to high school and she was really scared about it. She had never left the house without mom or dad before, except when she dated that hobo in Hollywood.
After they had lived in their house for a couple of years, they had to do a yard sale and move. Thalia hadn't helped with the sorting of give-away and not-give-away. When she was just browsing the aisles, as her mom was trying to make a deal with this weird lady, she found Squeak in one of the boxes! She said, "MOMMM!"
Her mom stopped talking to the weird lady and looked over at Thalia, and said, "Whaaat?"
"Why did you put Squeak in the donate box?!" Thalia said and began to cry.
Her mom looked at her like a cow standing in the middle of a railroad track looking at an oncoming train, and she said, "Because you're 14 years old. You don't need a stupid stuffed animal anymore. Plus, you're going to high school, and all the other girls and boys will tease you. But you can keep it."
The next day she went to high school for the very first time in her life. Because she couldn't go when she was eight, obviously. In her suitcase she brought you-know-who. I'll just say it anyway, Squeak. A few weeks later, the other girls in high school started to notice that she always carried around a little stuffed animal bunny. Guess what they did. I'll just tell you. They took it from her! They carried it all around recess saying,
Little Miss Tattletale
Squirming like a beached whale
Wanting to tell on us
But you cannot trust
Little Miss Tattletale
This went on for weeks and weeks until they finally got their diplomas. She was glad to be home in her own snoring bed with her brother Alexander.
When she was 16, she married a handsome young muscular man. They lived very, very happily together. Thalia had something in the back of her suitcase but she had forgotten what it was. After she had five children she finally decided to clean out her old suitcase from high school. The first thing she opened was the old spiderweb-filled back pocket. She found Squeak. She hugged it and hugged it, just like she had all those years ago.
The End
