|
|
|
The Land Of Lost Toys
Reader Star Rating: 
Kat Morris
Childrens-Stories.net Terms of use: you may view online and freely print a single paper copy of the entire story page for your own personal domestic private use, individual qualified Teachers may also freely print additional paper copies for teaching purposes within their own educational establishment. Any other use is strictly prohibited without prior written consent by letter from us, please see the contact us button above.
SYNOPSIS:
When Molly's favourite toy Joy is thrown into the bin, new dolly Hailey and a punctured ball called Bobby hurry to rescue her. This story is a fun adventure where new friendships are formed, and where the toys learn that nobody is perfect, but they are loved just the way they are.
Joy was Molly's favourite toy, and the pair were inseparable.
If you saw Molly then she would be holding the brown bear tightly, either around its waist or by the paw.
She took that beloved bear everywhere she went, even to bed, for she could not sleep without it.
Nobody knew, not even Molly - but Joy also adored Molly.
The brown bear's beady eyes would blink at night and she would watch as the other toys stared, feeling rather jealous of Molly's and Joy's relationship. Some of the toys were played with so little that they had started to form a layer of dust from their seats on the shelves, and even though Joy had Molly, the thought of all the other toys and what they thought of Joy made the bear feel very sad.
Then one day, whilst Molly was at school, the toys peered over the shelves and out of their boxes and looked at Molly's bed, stunned at what they saw.
Molly had left Joy behind - but that wasn't the most shocking thing to be seen. Joy was missing an eye.
It was black and shiny and it sat on the window sill, where Molly's mother had put it that morning whilst she promised Molly that she would try to fix the bear.
"She left you behind!" Hailey, a plastic doll with cotton-candy pink hair, exclaimed as she looked back and forth between the black eye and the brown bear.
Joy moved slower than a sloth as she examined the toys' stunned faces around her, putting her paws on the spot where her eye had once been. She felt frightened, but she didn't want the other toys to know.
Suddenly there were footsteps coming up the stairs. All the toys scurried back to their homes and froze, hidden in the shadows as Molly's mum stormed into the room.
"Hmm, what to do with you," said Molly's mother, picking up Joy by her ears. "Your rather old. And Molly is getting too old for you. Perhaps I should buy her something new."
Molly's mother left the room, taking Joy with her.
"Oh no!" squealed Ally. She was a toy tiger that sat on the end of Molly's bed. "She's going to throw Joy away, what should we do?"
"Forget her," King Lucas snorted from the wooden castle. "She's off to the land of lost toys."
"The land of what?" said Hailey. She was relatively new, and had only been played with a handful of times.
Molly seemed to like her, but nowhere near as much as Joy.
"It's where the toys that get thrown away go. Only Bobby has ever returned from there, and he told us all about it."
Hailey looked up. Bobby was a toy ball that had big eyes and a wide mouth, and a puncture on his head that made him look more than a blob than a ball. He sat hidden under the bed, looking like a black and white jelly fish within the dusty darkness, hiding from Molly's mother so that she wouldn't throw him away again.
"It's very dark," said Bobby in a deep, sad voice. "there are buildings and mountains for miles, where those binmen take you to. There are black shiny mounds everywhere, and the smell of the place is foul.
We are not alone; the place is filled with broken toys - everywhere!"
The toys in Molly's room let out a horrified gasp.
"They call it the land of lost toys because once you're there, you can't find your way out!
Toys who end up there are only toys who are unwanted, unloved, forgotten. I remember, as I lay on one of these mountains, staring up at the sky, I saw the stars light up the sky, and they reminded me of Molly's light up trainers.
I just knew that I had to get back to her. But - what was the point? I was better off there, in the land of lost toys, than here, wasting away under the bed!"
Bobby looked sadly away. Hailey looked around at the tearful toys and had an idea.
"We have to save her." said Hailey.
"What?" King Lucas exclaimed.
"Joy is Molly's favourite toy! She makes her feel safe and - and Molly won't be able to sleep without her! If no one wants to help me that I'll save her by myself!"
"I'll come with you," said Bobby, sliding along the floor. "I can help you get back, and hopefully Joy too."
Without another word, Hailey and Bobby climbed out of the toy box and into the hallway. Hailey climbed all the way up the bannister and slid down it, landing on the door mat at the base of the front door next to Bobby, who had slid down the stairs like a slinky. Molly's mother turned at the sound of the thud, and saw that Hailey was lying on the doormat next to her leg.
Molly's mother picked up the doll, then the leg, and then the punctured ball and sighed.
She went out to the bins, and threw Hailey, Bobby and Hailey's leg into the bin as the bin lorry rolled by!
Hailey felt very frightened inside the dark bin lorry, but she tried her best to be brave. She needed to go save Joy!
"Joy!" Hailey shouted.
"Where are you?" Bobby shouted, but neither Hailey or Bobby could find the bear.
Suddenly the bin lorry stopped and WHOOSH!
Hailey and Bobby came spilling out of the lorry, along with lots of stinky rubbish.
The sun was setting, making the sky look the colour of strawberries.
Hailey stood up and could see mountains and mountains of rubbish, piled high and stretching for miles and miles towards the orange sun that was low in the sky.
Hailey stayed close to Bobby as they looked around.
They could see broken, unwanted things everywhere - but to Hailey's surprise, some of the things she saw were not rubbish at all, and it made her feel very cross.
"What is it with adults and a need to tidy up?" said Hailey, looking at a bent piece of cardboard that said SHOP on the side in red crayon.
"How cruel," said Bobby sadly, looking at a fort made of cardboard and masking tape that was now flattened and ripped, "to throw away a child's castle. But you see, as children get older, they loose their imagination."
"That'll never happen to Molly - will it?"
Bobby said nothing. He slid over black bin bags and past a broken toy train who was looking for its missing wheel.
"What do we do?" said Hailey. "What happens if we don't find Joy?"
But there was no need for Bobby to answer her - Joy was wandering around with a blackened banana skin on her head and one of her feet stuck in a tin can, looking lost and afraid.
"OH Hailey! Bobby!"
Joy was so happy to see the other toys. She leaped into the air and gave both Hailey and Bobby a huge hug.
Then she started to sob.
"I thought nobody would come and save me!" Joy cried. "I thought nobody liked me!"
"That's not true, Joy!" said Hailey.
"We all love you because you make Molly happy! We've come to get you because she won't feel safe without you!"
"I must get back to her!" said Joy. "But how?"
"We wait for the bin lorry, and we get back inside." said Bobby.
"Are you mad?" Joy exclaimed, taking the banana skin off her head as Hailey tried to pull the tin can off Joy's foot.
"It'll stop seven times. On the last stop, we get out - and we'll be back outside Molly's house!"
"Well - if you're sure." said Hailey.
"AHH!"
Hailey had pulled so hard on the tin can that it shot off of Joy's foot and sent her flying down a mountain of rubbish and into a pile of old moth-eaten clothes.
She looked up and saw Bobby and Joy looking down from the top of the mountain.
"Hailey!" Joy gasped. "Can you get back up?"
"I - I don't know," said Hailey, but she looked at her one leg and knew it would be an incredibly difficult task to get back up the mountain to her friends.
"You have to try Hailey - for Molly!" said Bobby.
"I - I can't!" Hailey cried. "You need to find the bin lorry - go on without me! I'll be OK. You need to get back to Molly. Especially you, Joy."
Bobby and Joy looked at each other.
"But - you're Hailey's new toy!" said Bobby. "She will miss you."
"She won't want me anymore," said Hailey sadly. "Not with a broken leg. I'm smelly, and my paint is chipped.
I was once a perfect doll - and now? Well, now I'm not."
"Do you really think she'd stop loving you," said Bobby, "even though you're not perfect?"
"I've lost my eye, but I know Molly still loves me." said Joy. "She was beside herself when she saw that I was broken. But she didn't want to throw me away. She wanted to help me, she wanted to fix me. That's what people who love you do. They don't give up on you. And we won't give up on you either, Hailey! Don't you see? You're perfect just the way you are! You've come all this way to save me - do you really think we'd leave you behind?"
Joy held onto Bobby and stretched him down along the mountainside as far down as she could, holding him toward Hailey like a rope for her to hold on.
"Please try and climb back up," Bobby begged Hailey. "For Molly, who has always loved us for who we are."
Hailey smiled. This was true. Molly was the best child in the world - Hailey could never leave her!
Hailey climbed up the mountain. It was a very difficult climb, but she was determined to get back to her friends, and to make sure that they returned safely to Molly's house.
Hailey was so close to Bobby. She stretched out her hand.
"Just a bit further!" Bobby whispered. "Come on!"
Then, all of a sudden, bright lights lit up the night sky, and the mountain began to move.
"Hailey!" Joy shouted as she tumbled around. Something large and very noisy was making the mountain cascade down. When Hailey looked up, Joy and Bobby were gone!
"Oh no!" Hailey gasped. "I have to find them!"
SWOOSH! SWOOSH!
Hailey looked behind her to see what the new sound was.
In the distance was Joy, sliding along the slopes of rubbish that were still rolling down like an avalanche, and she was sitting on top of Bobby, skidding towards Hailey with an outstretched paw.
Hailey grabbed Joy's paw and sat on top of Bobby. They slid from side to side down the slopes, trying to get away from the advancing avalanche that was making the ground shake.
"HOLD ON!" Bobby yelled as he shot into the air, spinning around in the star-studded sky.
Hailey landed with a thud next to her friends. When she opened her eyes, she found herself away from the loud rumbling sounds of the rubbish being moved by huge noisy vehicles, and was tucked safely inside the old box labelled SHOP.
"Phew, we made it." said Hailey.
"Wait; I hear something," said Bobby nervously. "Everybody freeze!"
Suddenly the box labelled SHOP was opened, and a pair of hands grabbed the three toys.
Hailey was looking up at the face of a man who had several wrinkles on his face and small beady eyes as he looked at the three toys piled in his hands. His thoughtful gaze finally rested on Joy's collar, and he read the inscription on her tag attached to her pink bow:
I am lost! Please return to Molly Meyers, 119 Greenery Road.
"Hmm," said the old man, and he took the old box of broken toys and headed towards a little crooked shed that was next to a big green skip...
The next night there was a knock at Molly's door.
"Hello," said Molly sheepishly, her eyes red and puffy. She had been crying all day because she really missed Joy.
"I believe these belong to you." said the old man, beaming.
Molly looked into the old and crumpled box and beamed at the three toys inside.
"JOY!" Molly gasped, grabbing the bear which now had two gleaming eyes. One of the eyes was blue, the other brown, but Molly didn't mind. She thought Joy's new blue eye looked really cool.
"I put some tape on the puncture," said the old man, showing Molly the ball. He bounced it on the pavement and it went really high. The ball had a huge smile painted on his face.
"Bobby!" Molly cried happily. "I haven't seen you in ages!"
Molly held Bobby whilst the old man showed Molly the final toy.
"I repainted her," said the old man kindly, "and I tried to find another matching leg for her but I couldn't find anything in my workshop."
Molly smiled at Hailey's new leg. It was made of metal and it had three small nails at the joints which helped the leg to bend in different places.
"She's perfect," said Molly. "Thank you for fixing her."
"You're very welcome," said the old man. "I can see you love your toys very much."
The old man left, and Molly raced up to bed, playing with Bobby and Hailey for a while before settling into bed with Joy.
Hailey looked proudly at her new paint and her metal leg, and Bobby bounced excitedly on the shelf.
Joy looked up at them both from Molly's bed and smiled, and the other toys smiled back, delighted to see that Molly was happy now, as they all drifted off to sleep.
The End
If you enjoyed this story, there are many more in our collection, to register please
Click Here
to register for more stories.
Click Here to Register for more Free Stories.
Story Rating
If you've already registered please rate this story below from your own point of view. Click one of the radio buttons next to a star below and then enter your registered email address. You can only rate each story once.
Story star ratings shown (2 to 5 stars) are the average of all rating scores to date, these may not update immediately subject to browser and local cache settings, in some cases it may take a few hours.
Thanks for your interest and happy reading.
|
