before. The extra money would probably help a lot but it would be such a disruption to the family. The kids would be coming home to an empty house every day after school and I just wouldn't feel comfortable about that. I know I'm only making half the money I was making on the assembly line but let's hold on just a little longer. If things don't improve after the new year then maybe you can look for a job. In the mean time if we continue to budget our money very carefully and we don't have any major unplanned bills we can get by. Annika is just going to have to understand that we can't help out.”
Two more times that weekend Annika approached her parents regarding the school toy drive and after the second time she realized that there would be no Barbie doll for the poor kids, at least none donated by her family.
Back in school the next Monday, Annika asked her friend Brittany if she had spoken to her parents about the toy drive. “Yes,” said Brittany, “and my mom says she's going to buy a real nice toy to donate.”
“So's my mom,” chimed in Maryann from her desk in the next aisle.
Annika turned in her direction. “Really?” she asked but before Maryann could answer, Mrs. Tolliver called the class to order and they began their spelling lesson for the day. Once again Annika had a hard time paying attention. All she kept thinking was, “I'm going to be the only one with nothing to bring in.”
“It's not fair,” Annika said as she sat on her bed later that evening. Emily sat quietly at the other end of the bed taking it all in. “How come I can't give something for the poor kids like everyone else?” The note from the school lay open in the middle of the bed and she picked it up and began to read it again. As she read, her eye caught something she had previously missed. The note said, “a new or like new toy”. Annika felt a surge of hope as she thought, “Maybe I have something almost new that I can give.” She began to think of her toys. What did she have that was almost new? One by one she mentally rejected each toy due to some broken part or obvious wear. After a few minutes she gave up. “I don't have anything nice enough to give,” she said aloud and then she looked up and saw Emily sitting at the other end of the bed. She stared at her for a moment, the thought swirling in her head. “No!” she said, “not Emily.”
That night as she slept, Annika had a dream about Christmas. In her dream there was a little girl who was crying. Annika was holding Emily and she asked the girl why she was crying. The girl said, “All my friends are getting toys for Christmas but my mom doesn't have any money to buy me a Christmas present. I wish I could have a nice doll like yours so I would have something to play with.”
Annika's first impulse was to say “no” but she felt so sorry for the little girl that she finally took Emily and extended her at arm's length. The girl took Emily and hugged her and rocked her and thanked Annika over and over again. Annika awoke sobbing.
The next day after school, Annika got a wash cloth and began to clean Emily so she would be like new for the toy drive. She removed the dolls clothes and washed her face, arms and upper body. Then she washed her legs and turned her over to view the bottom of her feet. Sure enough, there it was. On the bottom of Emily's left foot were the initials, “A.C.”
Annika remembered when she was six years old and had just learned about initials in school. “Annika Cook, A.C.” her teacher had said. She was so excited that when she got home that day she put her initials on everything that was hers and even a few things that weren't. She remembered taking off Emily's left shoe and sock and carefully printing “A.C.” on the bottom of her foot and now she sat there wondering if she would be able to wash it off so she could give Emily to the toy drive.
She rubbed and rubbed Emily's foot and the initials finally began to fade. After a few minutes they were still there but barely visible. When she was sure she had removed all that she could, she dried Emily and redressed her. She looked like new.
As the rest of the week passed, Annika wavered back and forth. One moment she was determined to donate Emily to the toy drive and the next moment she would change her mind. Then Friday finally arrived and she had to make a choice. She once again thought about the poor kids with no Christmas presents to open and that made her sad. She also thought about her friends Brittany and Maryann who were bringing in new toys and she didn't want to be the only one without a toy to donate.
She took a brown paper shopping bag emblazoned with the Madison's Supermarket logo and into it, she carefully placed Emily. She felt very strange as if she should give her a kiss goodbye or maybe say some prayers over the carefully sealed bag. Her brothers saw her carrying it as they walked to school that morning but something in her demeanor told them not to ask her what was in the bag.
When Annika walked into the classroom she carried the bag so Mrs. Tolliver could see that she had brought in something for the toy drive. She took her seat at her desk and began to look around the room. “That's strange,” she thought, “I don't see too many packages on the other students' desks.” She looked at Brittany and Maryann but they were staring straight ahead with nothing on their desks. Annika felt betrayed. She began to count the number of students with packages. Of the twenty students in the class she counted five, including herself, who had packages. She couldn't believe it. “Only five out of the whole class,” she thought, “and I was worried about being the only one with nothing.”
“Good morning children,” said Mrs. Tolliver, “Everyone who has a toy please come up and place it in the box next to my desk.” Annika hesitated but then she realized that Mrs. Tolliver saw her bring the bag into the classroom and she had no choice but to put it in the box.
She went through the rest of the day as if in a dream. She was upset not just because she had given away Emily but also because her two friends had lied to her and falsely influenced her decision. It was a very quiet walk home from school that Friday and Annika didn't even care when Jason hit her with a snowball. That night she stared down at the empty spot on the bed where Emily should have been and cried herself to sleep.
The next morning at breakfast, Annika was very quiet and her mother began to worry that possibly she was sick. “Annika, what's wrong?” she asked.
“Nothing mom,” she responded, but her mother came around the table and put her hand on her forehead to check that she wasn't running a fever.
Finding no fever, she worried that something else could be wrong, possibly something that Annika was afraid to tell her. “Annika, you can tell me what's wrong. That's what moms are for. What's bothering you honey?” she asked.
Annika told her about Brittany and Maryann and how she gave Emily to the toy drive because she felt sorry for the poor kids with no presents and didn't want to be the only one without a toy to give.
When she finished her story she began to cry again. Her mother felt terrible for her and also a bit guilty for having side stepped her request with a “We'll see.”
“What can I do?” she thought. She realized that because it was so close to Christmas, the toys were probably already gone from the school and in the process of being prepared for distribution. “Besides, I won't be able to reach anyone at the school until Monday and by then, for sure, it would be too late.”
“Annika,” she said, “I know how much you loved Emily and what she meant to you but somewhere out there is a little girl who has a lot less than you do and needs a doll like Emily to hold and to love just like you did. But, if you didn't give Emily up, she would never get that doll because her family is too poor to buy her one.”
“Emily wasn't just a doll. She was my friend,” said Annika in a small voice.
“I know,” said her mother, “but there's no way we can get her back now. And besides, what you did was a very good thing and sometimes God rewards people who do very good things. Maybe you'll get another doll that you'll like just as much as Emily.” Annika appeared to be unconvinced but her mother didn't know what else to say and so the conversation ended there.
For the next three days Annika remained glum but that Wednesday morning beg
an the Christmas break and with no school for the next ten days her mother thought she detected an improvement in her spirits. “Time heals all wounds,” she thought, “She'll get over it eventually.”
The next day was Christmas Eve and around noon that day, it began to snow. It wasn't much of a storm but it snowed enough to make the roads slippery for the evening commute. Annika's father was coming home from work that evening and like everyone else he sat in his car wondering why the line of traffic was moving so slowly. “There has to be an accident up ahead,” he thought as he watched the falling snow flakes glistening with reflected light from the street lights. “You get a dusting of snow on the road and some people forget how to drive.” Just up ahead he could see an off ramp but he couldn't get there without driving on the shoulder for a short distance. With police and emergency vehicles everywhere because of the accident, he didn't want to chance getting a ticket so he sat in the slow moving traffic for another twenty minutes until he reached the off ramp and escaped the stalled expressway. Though he was still on the other side of the city he felt that he could get home more quickly taking the city streets and was in fact almost home when suddenly, something appeared out of the