The Search for Shiny Things: Part 6

It took quite some effort, and the loss of some more stuffing, but eventually the teddy got untangled and to the entrance of the hovel, where the hermit crab sat, staring silently at the destruction. The teddy had held on to the yarn of a possibly quite but not really brown color, and held it out for the hermit crab.

The hermit crab shook its head. "That is not the right color," it said.

"I'm sorry about your beautiful hovel," the teddy bear said. "All the soft yarn made it quite homey, but now I suppose, not so much." The yarn was still soft, of course, but it was difficult to live in a place where every step got you tangled stuck.

"Please just leave," said the hermit crab.

"Ah, I would but if I lose more stuffing I may not be able to walk all the way home, where the moth could sew me together, and then it will never be Christmas." The last part was a lie, of course, but the teddy was at this point quite desperate to be stitched together.

"Never Christmas?" the hermit crab asked and eyed the teddy. "We can't have that. Caring for one's home means paying great attention to the holidays. I had already planned the pattern for a red and white house." So the hermit crab took two more needles from its back and the yarn that was less and less brown each time the teddy looked at it, and now seemed decidedly more purple, and stitched up the teddy's leg. "You know," said the hermit crab, "the more I think about it, this hovel was quite homey with the knitting up."

"I think," said the teddy bear, "your parents would be proud of such a home. No need to carry it around on your back if it's that well cared for."

"I shall put it all up again and come to a decision," the hermit crab announced. "I shall knit many decorations, and make it as homey as I can, and we shall see if it is good enough."

It was a shame that the teddy could not linger and get some of those decorations. "I must continue searching for a tree and many shiny decorations, for our house, so that we can have friends," the teddy said, testing the patched up leg. It could be that the leg was even better than it had been before, and now it had a pretty purple pattern. "If you would like to come and visit us, it would be an honor to have a hermit crab or a hedgehog or whatever you decide to be."

"Good luck on your search," said the hermit crab. "If I am not too busy with the knitting, I may consider your invitation."

And so the teddy continued and found the road again. Looking back at the headless giraffe, the teddy patted its mended leg. "I helped," the teddy thought, although exactly what it had helped to accomplish was yet to see.