h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

All my life I have collected stuffed animals. They are in stacks around my room and in boxes in the hall closet, on my bed and in chairs scattered every which place. As a child the magical world they opened to me seemed a place to hide from the abuse of a mother to mentally ill to care for children and a father who was barly keeping himself together. As a young woman I saw them as supports for the tears I cried over the loss of a home and pets and family. As a grown adult I see them as memories for the childhood denied me by a dysfunctional family and blinding anger. But every year, at Easter time, I know that instead of the traditional candy children recieve, it is tradition for me to wake and see a new stuffed animal in my doorway. Small or large, fat or skinny... it doesn't matter so long as it is cute. These toys are the rememberences of worlds and dreams I dared to kling to as a child and now as an adult. Surely each person has one thing, one minor object or possession which endears them to the world of Nod where a girl can be a princess and a boy a knight, where adults tread in dreams and memories of tea parties in the sun and battling imaginary worlocks in the backyard. Just a thought, a memory... a story begging to be set free on the world - a reminder for all those who would like to forget. Childhood and magic, fairytales and make-believe of tea parties and memories in the summers of enchantment and dreams.