Tikku’s Stories
The Toy Trouble
Children’s story
Tikku had been playing with his new shiny trucks, and his cool bat and cricket ball. He had not played with any of his other toys, in weeks.
His old toys kept in his toy box, were getting a bit bored. So, one day they all decided to have a meeting to discuss the politics of selection, mainly the what, the why and the who gets to be Tikku’s favourite, type questions.
The most vocal was the dog-eared book, as it had so many words, and the quietest one was the old ball, faded and a bit pinched.
They all sat in the box cramped up and were quite fed up!
They all wanted to play and be played with! They said.
The book📚 of rhymes that used to be a favourite every night, was fluttering with rage, the cover page was flushing red, and on every page, there was a word of anger.
Why?
And every toy was filled up with rage,
“Why is Tikku not playing with me?”
The ninja turtle 🐢 which no longer had its tail 😳 was trying to pacify them by answering these questions.
Yes, we all love Tikku.
Yes, we are neglected.
No, we don’t know why.
Oh, maybe we know.
Shrieked the little spider 🕷 man.
Yes, because, there are new toys all the time.
The superman 🦸♂️ was having his afternoon nap. So, he had missed all the commotion. But he picked up the mood of the whole congregation quickly and said,
Tikku gets a new toy every month, and then, he forgets the old ones.
Tikku hadn’t touched Mr superman in weeks!!
The sound of Tikku and his trucks going vroom, vroom coming from outside, pained each one of them. As each of them had been there with him, as his favourite once. Tikku was laughing and talking to his green truck.
The faded orange ball just rolled out of the box, saying nothing. But its pinched sides and droopy demeanour said it all!
We can’t do anything!
But then something did happen. Mum happened to come towards the room may be to check if Tikku had made his bed, and she almost tripped over the ball. She bent down and picked up the ball to put it back from wherever it had slipped out. And then she saw all the sad faces, and sad pages peeping from the box! She couldn't believe that Tikku had so many toys and books that he hardly played with as he hadn't taken any of these out of the box in months.
Maybe he is too old to play with these.
She took each one of the toys and the books out and put them nicely near Tikku’s bed. Just next to Oreo.
Oreo, the puppy, with a chewed-up ear, with its one eye 🐶 brimming with tears sighed. It used to be Tikku’s every night companion, till, yes, till Tikku got his cricket bat! Now Tikku was sleeping with his bat in the bed. Oreo had been sitting patiently just on one side of his bed, the whole night, waiting!
Calling Tikku, Tikku, Mum left the room, and everyone looked at each other nervously. What was happening?
Then she came back with a basket that she left near the door. Really worried they all waited for Tikku with an abated breath!
After some time, Tikku came and sat down next to the toys. Picking up each and every toy one by one he started talking to them.
“You were my favourite when I was so little”, he said to the ball. Then he picked up the ninja turtle, and then the Mr Superman, and this is how he talked to each one of them, and then he started to put them in the basket.
“I loved playing with you all. Thank you all!”
And now all of you can go and make some other kid happy!
Tikku was a bit teary. Mum took the basket from him. Tikku still had Oreo in his hand.
Mum looked at Tikku and smiled, “My baby!” and left the room.
Tikku quickly put Oreo on his bed. “See you tonight”, he whispered and ran after his mum.
Thanks, Ravyne Hawke for the right prompt, “Back to school” — that helped me finish this idea I had for my next Tikku story.
Creative Expressions: Weekly Prompts August 7–13 | by Ravyne Hawke | Artique | Aug, 2023 | Medium
Thanks editors of Promptly Written.
And my lovely, loyal readers who enjoy my children’s stories, I’m so thrilled to bring yet another Tikku story to you to enjoy!
Those who haven’t read my Tikku stories, please take a look. Here is a link to the collection.
List: Childrens stories | Curated by Neera Handa Dr | Medium