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A strange, smiling kid on the floor with a mouth full of crooked teeth doesn’t say anything. By the look on his face, he definitely wanted you to play with all his toys.
You sat down on the floor cross-legged and touched everything. Every toy you had seen from every television commercial on Saturday morning was strewn across the floor.
Then you saw it. The white and blue telephone with a face on it. Huge bulbous eyes, janky mouth. Wheels. A red string so you could drag it along the floor. If you did it would make a ringing sound.
Then it started, the ringing sound.
You picked it up. Pretended to say, Hello?
A voice that sounded like it crossed an empty cavern of space and time said, “Hello?”
You nearly dropped the phone. You nearly lost your nerve. You looked over at the kid who still hadn’t said anything and noticed he was somehow grinning even wilder now, showing even more funky teeth.
The voice on the other end of the line asked, “Can I visit you?”
You’re not sure what the voice means.
It continued, “I’m lonely.”
That was when you realized: You were lonely too. No one really paid attention to you. Your parents were gone most weekends. Your brother punched you whenever you said a word. Your sister and her friends watched Dirty Dancing and fixed their hair. At school the other kids called you four-eyes. None of your clothes fit quite right. How strange a voice from some unknown world on a toy phone knows you better than the people in your own house.
The voice said, “Where do you think all those toys came from?”
Then you noticed the kid again. His eyes were the scariest part. How he looked at you as though you weren’t even there. Smiled since you walked into the room. Uttered not a single word.
The only sound in the room was the voice on the telephone: “Can I come and play?”
Maybe those lips peeled way far back from that garble of teeth wasn’t a smile after all. Could it be a dark tunnel meant to draw you in?
“I’ve been waiting for someone to pick up the phone for so long.”
You want to ask, Why? Who would ask a toy a question?
“Do you want more toys? There are always more other children’s toys.”
