and I’ve brought some things that mean a great deal to me too.’
‘I’ve brought my Spider-Man,’ shouts out Milo waving a vivid red figure dressed in a spider-web-covered suit.
‘I thought you might.’ I smile. ‘Now you can each have a turn – one at a time, Milo! Wait a moment please. Each person can have a go at showing the rest of us their favourite thing and explaining why it means so much to them. So who wants to go first? Zane? Hold on, Milo, you can go second.’ Milo sits down again, but I’m worried he might burst if he has to wait much longer.
‘I’ve brought my bunny,’ says Zane, lifting a white toy bunny up in the air the wrong way up, so his long floppy ears hang down in a comical fashion.
‘How lovely – is he a he or a she?’
‘He’s a he.’
‘Okay and what’s he called?’
‘Bunny.’
‘Of course! He’s very special and looks really fluffy.’
‘Yes he is.’ Zane nods his head vigorously. ‘He is fluffy, except when he falls into the drain outside our house.’
‘Oh,’ I say, taken aback. ‘Does he often fall into the drain?’
‘No, just the once.’
‘I should think that was enough. So how is he so lovely and snowy white now?’
‘Mummy washed him in the sink and then put him in the washing machine.’
‘Sensible Mummy. Well at least he’s nice and clean now and he has a unique talent – he obviously likes exploring drains. Let’s hope he doesn’t make a habit of it at the moment though.’ And let’s hope this all happened before the virus outbreak.
‘No, my mummy says I have to keep hold of him, especially when passing anything wet.’
‘Very sensible.’
The children each go through showing their beloved toys or objects. Milo does a very lively impression of how his Spider-Man can climb walls; Freya has a jewellery box which her parents gave her, with a dancing ballerina; Pritti has a lucky stone with a Hindi message meaning ‘peace and love’ on it; Alfie has an airfix model of a Red Arrow Hawk, Ben has his first paint box chock full of a myriad of colours; and Lola brings out her Winnie-the-Pooh, who is looking a little shabby but much loved.
‘Okay, so we have all talked about what is special to us and why. Now there’s a couple of friends I’d like you to meet. One is Mr Ted, who was mine when I was little, so he’s a tiny bit tatty round the edges.’ I lift up Mr Ted who looks decidedly worse for wear. His fur has been pushed the wrong way, his nose has totally gone, leaving a solitary piece of thread, and his ear looks suspiciously as though it might fall off.
‘He looks like he’s been through some troubles,’ remarks Milo.
I smile at Milo’s oddly mature way of putting it. ‘Yes, he does and I guess in a way he has been through some stressful times. He was my best friend through growing up. I would hug him when I was afraid or upset and he always made me feel better.’
‘That’s what friends are for,’ says Freya.
‘Absolutely,’ I say. ‘Now here I have another special item of mine for you to see.’ I hold up a brand-new teddy with fluffy fawn-coloured fur from the shop. ‘This teddy is really new. I saw him when I was in a gift shop a while ago and couldn’t resist. I thought I might give him to someone else.’ Actually he had been for Ryan. Looking back I don’t know what I was thinking. He would have considered it overly sentimental; it was hardly his thing. ‘But I ended up keeping him. I just couldn’t part with him so he sits on my desk at home and watches me work.’
‘I like his eyes. They’re like little buttons,’ says Pritti.
‘Yes he is cute isn’t he? Now if I had to choose which bear I liked the most or that was most important to me, which one do you think it would be?’
‘The new one!’ shouts Milo.
‘The old one,’ says Lola.
‘Yes, Lola, well done, you’re right. I like both of them, but in spite of how tatty my old bear is – and I know his ear is in need of urgent attention – he’s especially important to me because of what we have been through together.’
‘Did he make you feel better when you were sad?’ asks Zane. ‘My bunny does that too. He gives the best cuddles.’