AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘How much?’
Sophia felt suddenly coy. ‘Um, it depends. Some of them are a hundred bucks. But ones like these, will, they can go up to about a thousand dollars per toy.’
‘What? A thousand dollars?!’ The color drained from Wolf’s face.
‘Uh-huh. It’s painstaking work. Plus, I need to source specialist material — the kind of fabric that doesn’t really get made anymore. Which means some of it is in very limited supply. And the joints are a nightmare — sometimes I need to redo all five.’
‘Five?’
‘Yeah, you know: arms, legs, head. I mean, sometimes, if they have a tail it can be six joints which takes forever. It’s skilled labor. I’ve been practicing a lot.’
‘You know what — I can actually see why it’s so expensive.’ He looked over at the eight finished stuffies on her project shelf. ‘You do amazing work. Wait until I tell Rainer, though. He’s gonna freak out to hear it costs more to repair a teddy than a damn knucklehead engine.’
Sophia carefully cut another seam on the elephant. She’d done as much cleaning as she could from the outside. There were two patches of fur that she’d need to completely replace, but overall, she thought most of it could be saved.
‘You see this part here?’ she asked, pointing to one of the elephant’s feet.
‘That a hole?’
‘Yeah. This elephant used to have wheels. Probably was attached to a cart or something — very common for elephant toys in the Victorian era and a bit later.’
‘It’s mind-blowing to think about the kids that must have played with that.’
‘Yeah,’ she said, ‘I try not to think about it too much, otherwise I can’t handle the responsibility. This might be the last remaining link to the childhood of someone’s great-great grandparent.’
‘Oohhhhh,’ said Wolf, ‘just cleaned a really good bit.’ He paused for a moment. ‘Shame people can’t be restored the same way stuffies can.’
‘That would be amazing,’ Sophia said, stopping the cut. ‘When we get old, we could just have someone clean us up and patch us.’
‘I’d get some shiny new eyes. Maybe a new joint in my head.’
Sophia laughed. ‘I mean, I guess we do have hospitals. Although head joint replacement isn’t something I’ve heard of.’
‘Thing is,’ Wolf said, ‘with these guys, when you clean ’em up and make ’em glow, it’s like you’ve cleaned their soul, too. All the bad shit they’ve been through is just washed away.’
‘Mmmhmm,’ Sophia said. ‘Don’t think there’s really a service that could do that for people like me.’
‘Or me,’ Wolf added.
‘Bringing back our happy,’ Sophia said.
‘What’s that?’
‘That’s what I call my stuffie repair. Or at least that’s what I think of it as. Bringing back the happy.’
‘I love it,’ Wolf said gently.
‘So,’ Sophia asked softly, ‘when did you lose your happy?’
‘When I was a kid,’ he replied, quick as a flash. ‘For a long while I didn’t even consider that it might be possible to bring it back. It probably isn’t.’
Sophia thought back to the tattoo she’d seen on Wolf while he’d been asleep. ‘Can I ask you something personal?’
Wolf seemed surprised. ‘Sure.’
‘I saw one of your tattoos… It’s a heart with the names Kyle and Isabella in it. Who are they?’
A deep, long sigh. ‘Well, that’s where my happy is. With those two.’
