A Toy Story
Luke sat at his work bench, staringat the picture in front of him. It was a picture of a woman in the type of plain flowered dress that was so common in the 1970's. One couldn't say that she was beautiful in a physical sense, but somehow one got the impression that she was a beautiful person in the ways that really mattered.
Luke spent a lot of time looking at this picture. The woman in the photograph was his mother. I said "was" because she had died several years earlier. Luke didn't really know what happened, just that she became really sick. He was with her when she died. Her final words to him were words she had repreated many times before throught he years. "Luke, this is very important. No matter what other people may say to you, you are not dumb or stupid or a retard. You are gifted. God has given you a special gift, the gift of a big heart." With that she closed her eyes and breathed her last. Luke moved in with the elderly Rev. Cobb and his wife and began to work repairing toys fo r the local thrift shop.
In the last few weeks Luke's mind returned often to memories of his mother. His supervisor regularly found him daydreaming at his work bench. Although Luke couldn't explain it, he felt an emptiness in his chest.
As the reader may have gathered, Luke was not Einstein. His IQ was around 70, just high enough for him to function in society, but not nearly high enough to participate in what Mill considered to be the "higher" (i.e. intellectual) pleasures. Growing up, Luke went to the public school where he was enrolled in the special education program. The so-called normal children often made uun of him, which always brought him to tears. Whenever he needed it, though, his mother was always there encouraging him.
No one knows what happened to Luke's father. The story is told that he left his wife when he discovered that Luke would not have all his mental faculties. This is just a story, though, and we don't really know anything about the father. We do know that Luke didn't have any siblings and that his mother was never remarried, partly because no man wanted the responsibility of helping rais the boy. As a result, it was just Luke and his mother through the first thirty years of his life.
Luke had always been good with his hands. Wood shop was the only class he was allowed to take with the other kids. Although the others constantly made fun of him, his work was consistently superior to everyone else's. He first began repairing toys as favors to the children in his imporverished neighborhood. Although some of the children still made fun of him, most developed a sort of respect for Luke. In general, the adults felt uncomfortable around him, but they Couldn't help but admore his workmanship. Eventually his reputation expanded and he was able to earn money at the trift shop, not only repairing donated toys, but also being hired to repair other toys for children from the more affluent parts of town.
Although he was asked to do other projects, the only thing he would work with was toys. No one really understood why and Luke never told anyone his secret. You see, the toys would speak to Luke, but they would never speak to anyone else. Somehow thse toys could see Luke's big heart and knew they could trust him not to reveal their secret. Of course, as some of the more pragmatic toys pointed out, even if he did tell someone, who would believe him?
The different toys had different personalities. The action figures tended to be macho. The elctronic toys tended to be intelligent in a Bill Gates sort of way. The monsters weren't mean, as might be expected, but were perhaps the most gentle of counseling, which they sometimes extracted from Luke.
In general, Luke's favorite toys were the dolls. He couldn't really comprehend it, but they seemed to understand him in a way the others could not. Some of the older dolls reminded him of his mother. Yet it was the newer dolls who he grew most attached to.
One day he was looking at the photo on his work station more than ususal. Actually, he barely took his eyes off the old picture that day. He could not take his mind off of the woman in the plain dress. The toys with simple repairs were piling on the bench to his left.
Mr. Jones, who managed to little shop, walked into Luke's workshop. He rarely did this, parly because he was uncomfortable around Luke. But Luke was so far behind this business day that he had no choice.
"Hey buddy," Mr. Jones said in as friendly a voice as he could muster, knowing from experience that this was the best way to get through to Luke. "Why haven't you been fixing any of the toys today, pal?"
"I don't know," replied Luke sheepishly.
"Could you guess?" Mr. Jones asked, beginning to be perturbed. "There are a lot of children who really miss their toys and want them back."
"I know that."
"Then why don't you fix them?"
"I don't know."
"Well," mumbled Mr. Jones as he walked out of the workship, "That did a lot of good."
Mr. Jones did have some sense and called Mrs. Cobb to see if she had any ideas. She did. Knowing Luke's affinity for dolls, she recommended that Mr. Jones find a particularly beautiful one for Luke to repair.
There weren't any particularly beautiful dolls that needed repairs, but Mr. Jones was despareate. Soem of the toys sitting next to Luke's workbench were owned by some very wealthy patrons. If things got too backed up, he would lose a lot of business. So he did something he thought he would never do. Mr. Jones had a daughter, or used to at least. She and her mother died in a house fire twelve years earlier. The doll was all he had left of his daughter's memory.
It broke his heart to break the leg off this doll. It was something he knew he must do, though. Money was tight and his only means of survival was Luke's skills.
The next day Mr. Jones brought the preceious doll in to Luke. It worked it magic. Luke was instantly enamored with his new project.
Upon Mr. Jones's exit from the room, the yoys, as was their custom, started speaking again. They were very curious about the newcomer. The doll, whose name was Joanna, was very confused by the toys talking while Luke was still in the room.
"Welcome to my workshop," said Luke amicably. Joanna just looked at him, confused.
It took a while, but the other toys finally convinced Joanna that it was all right to speak in front of Luke. What took so long is that Luke was utterly clueless and didn't realize that he needed to leave the room for the toys to have a healthy discussion. Eventually one of the toy soldiers was finally blunt enough to tell Luke to go home.
When Luke returned the next day, Joanna was the most tolkative one in the workshop. We can surmise that she had been stuck by herself in the attic for so long that it was a tremendous release to be able to tale freely.
Joanna had a cautiously bubbly personality. Teh intelligence was obvious, although she also had a humility such that she would have denied being intelligent. She had an external beauty, not in the Barbie Doll sense (Luke didn't really liek the Barbie Dolls he had repaired), but in a way that is often called "classic beauty". Even more prevalent was the internal beauty. It is difficlut to describe this aspect of Joanna, but everyone noticed it.
Luke and Joanna quickly became close friends. It would be far too great a task to relate every long talk, not to mention all the intangibles in a short story such as this. What cab be said is that Luke had never before had a friend quite like Joanna. He hadn't felt so close to someone since the death of his mother.
Joanna stayed in the workshop for several months. It never clossed Luke's mind as to why, even though she had been long since repaired, no one had come to pick her up.
Mr. Jones's financial situation continued to get worse. One day a well-to-do mother entered the shop with her little girl. The mother was a bit of a prude and demanded to meet Luke prior to allowing him to fix her child's toy. Her liberal egalitarianism led her to instinctively adore this not-so-intelligent repair man. Her daughter instantly fell in love with Joanna, who was sitting on the workshop bench.
Mr. Jones, who knew something of Luke's adoration of Joanna, quickly moved the mother and daughter back into the store. "how much would you want for that doll on the workbench?" eagerly asked the wealthy mother.
"Well," hesitated Mr. Jones, "Luke is awfully attached to that particualr doll. He might not repond well if it was taken away."
"Come now, Mr. Jones. Surely the doll can't be that important to a grown man like that. How about $250?"
Mr. Jones wasn't expecting to be offered that much. He couldn't reasonably refuse such a generous offer. He needed the Money . . .but what about Luke? He thought about this for a few moments and finally responded, "I would be happy to sell it to you, but could you give me a few days? It might take a while to convince Luke. He is irrationally attached to that doll and I really don't want to hurt him over this."
"I understand completely," lied the mother sweetly. "We will be back in one week."
Luke screamed when Mr. Jones first approached him with the news. The doll meant a great deal to the elderly store manager as well (although for different reasons), so he could understand Luke's reaction since he was weeping on the inside. Mr. Jones knew tha tthe best thing to do was to leave Luke alone for a while.
Luke was very upset by this new news. So was Joanna. One elderly doll observed the situation and wisely suggested that she and Luke go into the next room to talk without Joanna present.
"You must understand, Luke," the wise old doll said quietly, "that just because you and Joanna have a special relationship, it does not mean tha the two of you should stay together forever. there is a little girl out there who loves Joanna very much, as much as you love her. But this is a different kind of love. It is the kind of love that you can't give her. Luke, you can give the love of friendship. That love was very important for her to have these past few months, but Joanna is at the point now where she needs to move on. That little girl out there can not only provide Joanna with the love of friendship, but also the love of family. Luke, do you remember how sad you were when your mother died?"
"Yes," he responded meekly.
"Did you like it when she was around?"
"Yes."
"Well, Joanna never had a chance to have someone like that. She never had a family. The little girl she was supposed to go to died before Joanna could be given to her. Joanna never had a chance to feel the love of a family. This new little girl can be a family for Joanna."
"I can be a family for Joanna," Luke said defensively.
"No, Luke, you can't," the wise doll responded with a hint of impatience. "God designed you special to be a good friend to dolls, but He did not make you so you could be a family. It takes another kind of special person to be their family. What God lets you do is very important. You get to be their friend and help prepare them to have a family."
"But why don't I get to have a family? It isn't fair." Tears were beginning to form in his eyes.
"Luke, you get to have something no one else does. How many people do you know who get to become friends with dolls?"
"I don't know anyone else."
"That means you are special. You get to have special relationships that other people don't get to have."
Luke momentarily lifted his head, but then let it sag again. "But other people get to keep their families. I don't get to keep my friends. It's still not fair."
"Luke, let me ak you this. Do you love Joanna?"
"Yes."
"Do you want what's best for her?"
"Yes."
"Luke, giving her up is what is best for her. She needs to move on to experience what it is to have a family. You can't be there for that. You have to give her up and let the little girl take her home. This is what is best for Joanna. Do you understand?"
"No."
"I can't say that I blame you," she responded sympathetically. "Perhaps I should ask if you are willing to do what is best for Joanna."
"That means I have to let her go?"
"Yes."
"Then I will let her go."
After Luke went home for the evening, the elderly doll had a long talk with Joanna. They spoke all night, so we can't give a detailed account of the conversation. The wise doll told Joanna about the joys of having a little girl and how she would come to regret it if she did not move on. This would affect her relationship with Luke until Joanna began to resent being with him for the rest of her existence. it was best for her, and, in the log run, for Luke, if she went with the little girl.
By sunrise Joanna was at least cautiously convinced. As the week passed on, and she had a chance to talk to the othe dolls in the shop, she became excited about having a little girl.
There was one concern, though. Joanna wanted to continue to see Luke regularly. When she asked the elderly doll if she would be able to visit Luke, the wise doll simply responded, "Probably not, but we'll ahve to see."
This saddened Joanna, but she was intelligent enough to know what this was something that she needed to do. The other dolls helped some since they all agree that if Joanna were to be truly happy with her little girl, she would need to give up Luke.
The day finally arrived. Before the little girl arrived, Luke and Joanna had a chance to talk alone. Luken's eyes ere filled with tears, but he knew what he needed to do. He gave her a final hug and took her out to Mr. Jones.
After the little girl picked up her new beautiful doll, Luke turned to the elderly doll and asked her, "Will Joanna forget about me now that she has a new family?"
"I don't think she ever could. She may not think about you all the time, but you will never be completely forgotten. I can also guarantee you that you will never forget about her."
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