the story of james

When daddy was a little boy, he had a teddy bear. That teddy bear was named james. It wasn't that daddy and james were inseparable, but still, he loved that teddy bear. As daddy got older, he began to take an interest in other toys such as He-Man and Star Wars and GI Joes and Transformers; he began to play soccer and baseball. He also began to spend countless hours devising ways in which to avoid being unprovokenly attacked by uncle tony. Daddy may have been spending less time with james, but he always kept the bear on display in his room -- a stoic sentry guarding the memories of a younger boy. One Christmas, daddy decided he would give james, who had been a faithful compainion over all these years, to his kid sister, katie. He thought it would be a nice loving gift from brother to sister. As daddy remembers it, katie did not quite see it that way and was none too impressed with the obviously second-hand teddy bear. That was the last daddy saw of james. Years later, if asked, he would've speculated that james stayed somewhere with his mother and was lost at some point in one of their moves. Or perhaps katie took it with her back to Kansas City and there it remained, in a box or closet, just another stuffed animal.

decades passed.

Then, one night, a few weeks after little henry finnegan was born, daddy came home and walked into the living room and there on the chair, after all these years and across all those many miles, sat james. Needless to say, daddy was in quite a state of disbelief and his mind raced -- who had sent james? where had he been all these years? He found his answer by the front door. There sat the package in which james had arrived. The return address said it all -- Goodland, KS. It was from aunt katie. Not only had she kept james the whole time, but the sentimentality of the gift had not been lost on her. Enclosed was a note to baby henry. Katie explained how she had kept james close to her as a reminder of an older brother who lived hundreds of miles away but still loved her, and that she was now passing along the bear to him, so that he will have a little piece of an aunt who loves him but lives so far away. Seeing james again and reading that beautiful note from katie had a pretty strong effect on daddy. To borrow a phrase from the sports guy -- it was pretty dusty in apt 10F that night, pretty dusty indeed.

Now james has a new home and a new owner, henry. And one day, when he's a little bit older, daddy will sit henry down and tell him the wonderful story of james.