Shea...

I see the current trend is for abstract stories.. So decided to write one myself... Forgive me if you feel its relly pathetic!

Her bags were packed.. There was just an hour before she left home.. Everyone was fussing over her... Afterall, the only kid in the family was leaving home to join the university of her choice.. Appa was checking the carefully packed bags again.. Amma was giving out a list of do's and dont's breaking now and then to give her a hug when emotions threatened to drown her... Hari uncle and Nithya aunty had come with their family to give her a send off party... The large junk bags kept outside her room were probably the last thing in anyone's mind... In one of those large black polyethene bags lay Shea...

It was on her 3rd birthday when Shea entered her life... Hari uncle had bought her from the States.. She was a cute, snuggly, stuffed panda who had come in a big blue box and it was love at first sight... Shea had been a part of her since then... Infact the name Shea was given only a year later.. Till then it was only Bearie... Shea was her favorite cartoon character and soon Bearie became Shea... There was no night that had passed without her cuddling Shea and no meal without Shea beside her... The stubborn curry marks on Shea's bushy white tail proved the fact... On her first day of school, she had smuggled Shea to school to hold her hand when she felt scared... From then on, she had smuggled Shea to school as often as she could... It was because of Shea she had got her first friend in school... Lavanya... In her lunch recess when Shea had slipped out of her bag, a large-eyed girl with pony tail had picked Shea up and helped her stuff Shea back into her bag before Florence miss came to class... And they became best friends within a week... They had remained best friends till her middle school...

There was nothing that could have torn them apart.. Infact she had made her father drive all the way back to her grandma's house where she had by mistake left Shea.. Her first wish to the tooth fairy was a blue ribbon for Shea.. All was well till her thirteenth birthday party, when she had invited the 'coolest' girl in class home... Neethu had found her bond with Shea a little too childish... and very funny...Neethu had made a gesture of deep disgust at Shea's messed-up no-longer-white fur and had laughed out-right when she spotted the blue bow in Shea's ears...Embarassed, she had put Shea away in her cupboard that night... She drifted away from Lavanya to be a part of Neethu's gang... Shea was hidden in her cupboard whenever her friends came home... Gradually Shea was forgotten...

When the servant had cleaned her cupboard, she had discarded the 'old and torn' toy without a second thought...

If only Shea could think...maybe the thoughts would be "You threw me out of your life just because you had someone tell you that it was 'so uncool' to be seen hanging out with me... You find those stains that you made on me, which you once considered love-marks, now digusting... The fur that was messed up because of your constant cuddling, is now considered ugly by you... If this is what you call 'growing up', I'm thankful that I dont grow up..."

But then Shea cannot think... Can it???