Cagley sighed heavily. He was stuffed under the bed again. It was so humiliating. None of the other stuffed animals ended up here. He was all alone with the dust bunnies and the occasional spider. The others just sat on the high shelf, staring down at the room condescendingly. They were �special�, they said. Julie never cuddled with them, though. Never. True, it had been a while since she had last held him, but she always came back. He couldn�t count the times he had been moistened by her tears over a lost pet or boyfriend, or the times he had been squeezed so tightly he thought surely his seams must burst. They never had though. He was always there for her. It was worth the waiting in the dark for the times he was needed.
Lying on his side, as he was, he had a good view of the room. Or rather, he would have, had it not been for the old slippers and a pair of dirty jeans that were blocking it. The slippers had been there for a few days, but they weren�t worth talking to. The jeans had just gotten dropped there the night before, and would surely be picked up and taken to the laundry within the next couple days. Cagley had gone through the laundry once. He�d been picked up with a pile of sheets and dropped into the washer. It had been an interesting experience, having the soapy water spinning all around him, and getting wrapped hopelessly in the sheets. Julie�s mother had rescued him though. She was good for that. Often, it was she that would find him under the bed and put him back where Julie would find him.
On the days that this happened, Julie would come home, flop on the bed, talk on the phone and what have you. Eventually, she would pick him up and tell him about her day, just like she had when she was little. She was older now, he thought sadly. He had heard horrible stories of stuffed animals being forgotten, but his Julie would never do that.
At about this point in his ponderings, Cagley was interrupted by a hand groping blindly under the bed. It was Julie! He willed himself as hard as he could to move just a half inch, just enough to put him in reach of Julie. Whether he actually moved, or Julie just reached farther, he didn�t know, but suddenly she had him. He was pulled deftly out from the dark, one paw hitting the bottom of the bed in the process, but he didn�t care. Julie was there, so the world was wonderful. She kissed him on the nose, �There you are, Cagley bear. I wondered where you�d gotten to.� Cagley got as close as any stuffed animal can to blushing, then sighed again, this time happily, as she set him carefully on her pillow and went to get the phone.