Miranda took her time walking down to the basement, melancholy getting to her. The trip had been so healing. Getting back in touch with her childhood friends, spending the days gossiping, laying by the lake, and just spending time together, as their lives were beginning to change and grow. But the vacation was coming to an end; tonight was her last night with her girlfriends.

Down in the basement, some old toy boxes sat out by the couch. Relics of another life. A rush of memories flooded Miranda as she sat next to them and picked through the boxes. Each new old toy had its own history, and Miranda was awash in the fun she used to have. She picked up a plush red heart, a bit faded, but still soft and full. She wasn’t sure why it was here or where it came from, but vaguely remembered the stuffed bear that it had once been attached to.

Miranda squeezed it close to her chest. It was an odd, cathartic, thing, pouring all her emotion into that plush heart. She closed her eyes and wished she didn’t have to leave; this was home, not that small apartment across the country. A warm, comforting feeling flowed through her as she sat there.

Opening her eyes, Miranda sighed and started to put the heart back down. Or, tried to. The heart, she found, was sewn into her. Startled, she jumped at the sight of herself. At her new mitten hands with cute toe beans. At the sight of her body, wrapped in a furry tan suit. At her plush curves she now bore.

She couldn’t believe it, could barely understand it. People didn’t just become toys, but there she was, a teddy bear for the world to see. Panic welling within her, she struggled to think of a solution to a problem she was never prepared for. But before she could figure out what to do next, the universe intervened. The basement door flung open, and a pounding tromp of feet came down the stairs.

Miranda’s eyes went wide. Her friends couldn’t see her like this, she had to…she wasn’t sure. As the footsteps came down the stairs, Miranda felt lighter and lighter, weaker and weaker, snuggling into the couch cushions, her arms and legs resting instead of running, until she fell perfectly into the form of a teddy bear.

“I swear she came down here a minute ago…” Kenzie said, the first one down, coming into view a moment after all the strength had gone out of Miranda.

“Well, she wouldn’t just leave without saying goodbye.” Sarah said, wine glasses clinking in her hand.

Miranda had no idea what to think, what to do. What would the girls think, seeing the life-sized teddy bear with their friend’s face?

As it turned out, not much. Kenzie approached her, “Aww, cute bear!” she said, sitting next to Miranda, adjusting the teddy’s plush body. For a moment, it was like normal. Just the three forever friends sitting together and chatting. Until Sarah booped Miranda on the nose. There was no recognition that the childhood friend and the friendly toy were one and the same.

The night’s round of yapping, laughing, and drinking began, and soon Miranda couldn’t really understand the words her friends were saying. They were like the voices of the adults from those old Charlie Brown cartoons. What they were saying was a level above her now; human concerns. But she understood the feelings. The joys, the frustrations, the venting, the delirium.

And Miranda understood when she was used. When Sarah absently snuggled her plush while listening. When Kenzie used her as a pillow, laying in Miranda’s lap. When they posed her. When they threw her, sharing Miranda just like they had always shared their toys. It was a crash course in teddy bear life.

When the night ended and Kenzie and Sarah surrendered to the need to sleep, they went upstairs and left Miranda alone in the room that had forever changed her. Her plush body slumped again into the couch cushions, her mind awash with the feelings of being played with and used. Not unpleasant feelings. Slowly, she felt her strength returning to her. Perhaps she could start to move again. But she ignored that feeling, for now, and embraced teddy bear life.

Maybe she had accidentally found a way to stay right where she belonged.