The Bottom Shelf Review

Eloise was scrambling down a junk pile filled with objects once loved that now lay forgotten when something out of the corner of her eye caught her attention. It was a half-buried dark wooden chest, with the most intricate carved details that Eloise had ever seen. The carvings were small shapes or letters that lined the edges of the chest. It looked old, very old; however, once Eloise had wiped off a layer of dust, she noticed that it was in far better condition than the other objects sprawled around her in the large town junkyard. Eloise called her friend over. Callahan was a boy from the neighborhood. He was eight years old just like Eloise, but his birthday came two months before hers, a fact that he didn’t let her forget. When Callahan scrambled down another nearby junk pile to stand next to Eloise, his tall figure seemed to emphasize Eloise’s small size.

“W-W-Whatcha find?” The boy asked. Eloise picked up the chest to show him. It was big and heavy, requiring all the strength in her small arms. Callahan immediately tried to open it, prying at the two small cupboard-like doors that were at the top. It wouldn’t budge, and Eloise eventually stopped him, afraid he’d break the pretty chest.

“I think it’s locked.” She pointed to the little keyhole. “We’ll look for the key later. Let’s take it back to the fort.” The fort was their secret place. The other neighborhood kids teased them. They didn’t have the cool toys or new clothes that the other kids had. Eloise didn’t know what to say or how to act when she met new kids, and Callahan’s slight stutters made the other kids laugh. They never confronted the teasing, instead retreating back to the safe comfort of their fort. The fort was a small area in the shed that sat behind Eloise’s house. They had cleared away some of her father’s clutter, strung up old sheets, and covered the floor with pillows and anything else they found that was comfy. It was in this fort that they made paper pirate hats, fought imaginary dragons, and dreamt of a magical bright future. They passed two houses on their way to her home, it was just up the road a little way. They lived in a small town where the houses were separated by trees or an occasional garden. It was a little run-down, but Eloise didn’t notice, it’d always been that way for the short eight years of her life. They placed the chest down; it had taken both of them to carry it back. Without the key to open the chest, it was quickly forgotten near their other treasures.

They never did get a chance to look for the key together. The arrival of the chest started a chain of events that spiraled down into a dark depression. Callahan’s father lost his job, and their plans of always being together and collecting enough treasures to become a king and queen were ripped apart as suddenly, Callahan was ripped away from Eloise, his family moving away to a faraway place that had more job opportunities. He’d promised he’d come back when he was older, and Eloise smiled for him. He’d forgotten many of his promises in the past and she doubted he’d remember this one. Then, more tragedy struck. Eloise’s father died in a work accident. She’d never forget the day it happened, she’d returned home to find her mother, usually so happy, crying in a lump on the floor. Her father was a strong man. In Eloise’s eyes, he was invincible. Which was why it was so hard for her to understand how a falling ten-foot-long steel pipe could take him away from her. Eloise’s mother changed, and with her, the little house she considered to be home did as well. The smell of fresh flowers and homemade food vanished, replaced by the smell of something rotting and dust. The hallway lighting had dimmed. One of the lightbulbs had burnt out.

It was quiet now, her mother often leaving for long hours at a time with old men Eloise had never seen before. She’d noticed that her mother dressed up in her nicest clothing and put a lot of stuff on her face when she met with the men. Her mother, always bright and ready to give a hug, was now unstable, flying from silence to anger at the smallest of Eloise’s doings. On multiple occasions, she’d seen her tired mother hunched over the kitchen table surrounded by mail with bold black and red printed words that Eloise couldn’t read. Every day, Eloise’s world seemed to become duller and duller, the color seeping out of it. It took her a few days to realize that it didn’t just seem that way, it was actually happening. The deep green of the trees became a mucky green-gray and the blue of the sky just wasn’t as blue.

In her loneliness, Eloise spent more time in the fort and the town junkyard. When she found a metal key in the junkyard with the same innate carvings on it that the chest had, she remembered the pretty chest, now buried in her treasure pile. That evening, as another old stranger appeared at their front door, Eloise retreated into her fort, wrapping one of its blankets around her for some semblance of the warmth she could no longer find.

Eloise aligned the key to the keyhole. Would she find treasure in the chest? Maybe a rose that never wilted? She’d read a story with a rose like that once and now wondered if her mother would like one. She unlocked the chest with the key, struggling to lift the heavy lid at the top. She peeked over the wooden front and frowned, inside was a dense white smoky mist that covered the bottom of the chest and curled up and out the now open top. Eloise was quite puzzled by the thick mist in the chest. She was cautiously raising her hand to reach inside when two small black beaded eyes poked through the mist to look back at her. Eloise jerked back. A small animal with short, fluffy cream-colored limbs climbed out of the chest; it looked up at her with its wide, dark eyes. It was a Teddy Bear. A Teddy Bear had just climbed out of the pretty chest!

“Hi?” Eloise whispered. The bear didn’t answer back, just tiling its smiling head to the side. “I’m Eloise.” She tried again. This time, he held out its nubby little arms towards Eloise. She hesitantly picked him up, holding him away from her body. He looked and felt just like a normal Teddy Bear, yet he moved on his own. He looked old with slightly tangled fur but was overall in good condition, similar to the chest he had climbed out of.  After a silent minute of observing, Eloise set him on her lap, and he immediately clung to her waist, hugging her. It was an odd thing to feel once again. It didn’t have the bodily warmth that her mother’s hugs had, yet it had a different kind of warmth about it. This was the start of a great friendship. With no other friends, Eloise found herself spending a lot of time with her Teddy Bear. They’d make mud pies or wild berry soups for each other, and when she’d enter the quiet, dark house to sleep, he’d sit by her on the cold bed as she told him about all her treasures. They stayed up late into the night, telling each other secrets and planning heroic adventures. He didn’t talk like she did, but she could understand him. Slowly, the color returned to her world, and she was happy again.

One day, when the rain fell heavily from the sky, Eloise and her Teddy Bear went outside to play in it. Almost immediately, something horrible began to happen to her Teddy Bear. He moved slower as the water seeped into his fluffy body, weighting him down. Within a few minutes in the rain, he couldn’t move, his limbs too heavy to lift. Eloise rushed him back into the shed, where she wrapped him in blankets, and they waited for him to dry. After that, they avoided the rain, but they still found ways to have fun. They’d dance around together; her Teddy Bear seemed to float when it jumped around, making the girl giggle. The only time their fun had to stop was when the Teddy Bear had to return to its pretty chest. If he stayed in her world too long, his eyes would turn dull, and he’d sleep more and more. Once Eloise wanted him to stay and he slept the whole day away, she was afraid he wouldn’t ever wake back up and placed him back in the misty chest, closing the lid and promising to never do that to him again.

Time had little meaning to Eloise nowadays. She spent as much of it outside the small empty house playing with her Teddy Bear as she could. Most of their time was spent in the fort with the pretty chest and other treasures. They’d make paper hats together and draw maps to ancient treasures or unexplored lands. Life was a blur of childhood fun.

It was a sunny day with a strong breeze when Eloise first saw it. The mist of the open chest had turned a dark charcoal, and out of it slithered a dark creature. Like her Teddy Bear, it had a furry texture; however, it was matted and struck out in areas like spikes. Its arms ended in the same round nubs that held her hand in comfort during long nights. White eyes and black pointed teeth stared back at hers before it unfolded its wings and disappeared into the shadows of the ceiling. Eloise stayed out of the shed more often after that, taking her Teddy Bear to the town junkyard instead to look for more treasures.

“Teddy, this is where I found your chest. I was really lonely without you. I’m happy you’re here now.” She said one day. They spent a lot of time in the junkyard, only entering the shed when it was time for her Teddy Bear to return to his chest. She’d see the dark creature sometimes, slipping in or out of the shed when they’d arrived or left. She thought it looked like a dragon and it had a habit of eating up the color of the things around it. It didn’t give either of them trouble and Eloise was happy to ignore its existence… at least for now.

Eloise entered the living room and froze, her mother was hurriedly collecting her keys, purse, and other items of importance while seemingly unaware of anything else around her.

“Mommy! The dragon hurt you. He’s taking your color!” And indeed, Eloise was right, her mother looked withered and her color all but sucked away.

A weak sigh escaped Eloise’s mother. “Listen, Eloise, I don’t understand why you act like this, but I have a lot of important things that need to be done right now so how about you just go find something to play with?” Her mother’s voice came out tight like a rubber band stretched to its breaking point.

“But the dragon-”

“There is no monster! Don’t you understand? THERE. IS. NO. FREAKING. MONSTER!” Her mother shouted, finally turning to Eloise. The hardness in her eyes contrasted with the dark smudges beneath them. Eloise took a small quivering step backward. “Do you ever stop playing pretend? You’re constantly getting into all this nonsense. It’s too much! You need to stop. Go make a friend, a REAL one, Eloise, and let me get back to my work.” With that, she spun and disappeared through the door.

The next morning, she found her mother collapsed on the floor, the dark outline of the dragon hovering over her prone body. Her horrified scream seemed to startle the dragon, and it vanished through the window. She ran to her neighbor’s house, shakingly repeating that her mother was hurt and was lying on the floor as they dialed the police on the landline. While her mother was taken away to the hospital, she hid.

Eloise couldn’t ignore the dragon monster any longer. “We have to trap the dragon back into the chest,” she said. Her gaze fell on her Teddy Bear. He was smiling up at her like he always did. Her heart ached. Did he not realize? “You’ll have to go back into the chest too. You can’t stay here forever.” Her Teddy Bear nodded, his eyes falling to the ground. Eloise drew in a breath. He did understand. She pulled him into a tight hug, her eyes watering as she realized that this would be the last time she’d see her Teddy Bear, for it was much too dangerous for the dragon to be left out again. She picked up her paper pirate hat and placed it firmly on her head, her Teddy Bear followed her action, placing his paper hat on his head. They were off to fight a dragon.

Eloise snuck into the shed. It was quiet and she couldn’t see the dragon. A movement in the shadows of the ceiling rafters told her it was in there. Then it became visible, black pointed teeth snarling at her from above. It had grown much larger than it had been the first time she’d seen it. Originally, it was about the size of her Teddy Bear, but now it was almost larger than she was. It lunged, and she ducked behind a cabinet, screaming, “Now, now!” Her Teddy Bear outside the shed turned the valve in front of him, and within a few seconds, cold water was spraying out of the hose in Eloise’s hands. The dragon dodged the first blast of the water but was caught up in the second. It struggled, and then its thin wings couldn’t hold up the weight of its drenched body. It fell. Eloise was on top of it within a moment, tangling a blanket around its heavy body. It wiggled and squirmed violently, and then her Teddy Bear was there to help her pull the thrashing blanket toward the open chest. Something painfully squeezed her heart when they arrived at the chest.

She turned to her Teddy Bear, and with an overwhelming effort, managed to say, “Bye Teddy.”

Her Teddy Bear grabbed the ends of the blanket and saluted Eloise. Then he was gone, jumping into the chest, pulling the blanket containing the dragon with him. Eloise slammed the chest shut. Locking it, then clutching the key in her palm she curled up and sobbed.

When she visited her mother in the hospital, her mother had gained some of her color back. Her mother wept, much like she had not long before. She pulled Eloise into a hug and kept apologizing. Over and over again she said that she’d be better from now on and that she’d never leave Eloise alone again. Eloise told her that it was all ok now because the dragon was gone.

Her mother chuckled lightly through her still-flowing tears. “You and your imaginary monsters.” She clung to Eloise tighter, the warmth of her bodies easing both of their sadness.

 The next time the neighborhood kids teased Eloise, she didn’t retreat, she held her ground. As the years passed by, she aged into a beautiful young woman, and on one cool autumn day, a knock sounded on her front door. When she opened it, she saw Callahan. The lany boy she’d known as a child had grown into a strong man with a smile so bright, it lit up his whole face.

“Hey, Eloise, I’ve missed you. I’m back, j-just like I promised.”

The pretty chest stayed with her all her life; the key always looped around her neck. On so many occasions, she’d sat in front of the chest, considering opening it, but she never did.