Jarringly Out of Place

There it was, lying at the end of a driveway on Westside Drive, right before the railroad tracks. A big fuzzy pink stuffed animal with jagged teeth and horns lying in a puddle of water. No one seemed concerned that it was there. Not the little girl waiting for the school bus which was right behind my car, not the man who scooted into the driveway in a brown van right in front of my car, not the woman standing in the doorway, watching the bus approach.

They all stepped around it as if it was part of the landscape. I wondered if it had fallen out of a trash bin or been dropped during playtime. It bothered me. Why had the poor thing been abandoned? And why was it so pink??!! And what sort of crazy animal was it anyways? Nothing normal like a cat or horse. Some kind of happy fantasy monster. It didn't look torn or disheveled, though goodness knows if it gets left there for long it won't stay so unspoiled.

I drove past the little house several days in a row, and the critter was always there, unmoved, just lying in a puddle, alone, abandoned. Perhaps I would not have noticed so much if it had been a potted plant or a bicycle or a baseball mitt. Something that you would expect to see on the lawn of a kid's house. Then you might conclude that they were still playing with it and it would make sense to be lying there for a few days.

But a stuffed animal, especially such a large-sized one as this, well, it should be inside where you can sit on it to watch TV or be put on your bed for company or some such thing. It was so out of place. And getting so wet! I felt a bit sorry for it, poor thing. I think I will drive by there tomorrow just to see if anyone has picked it up yet. How silly to be bothered by such a little thing.