Yesterday’s poking around my old toys brought me a mild surprise. I was looking for an old card reader which I figured may have been stashed along with my old cabinet things when a voice piped up from seemingly nowhere.



“Pssst! Hey, kid!”



I looked behind me, startled. When I didn’t see anyone in the room I went back to taking out random toys from the bin and stuffing them back unevenly. My mother has a penchant for keeping stuff which she thinks may still be of use even if it takes about 10 years of things sitting in random places in the house, so I wasn’t surprised at all to find nearly ancient toys in the bin.



“Yo, kid. I’m here.”



I finally find the source of the voice. Apparently, it came from this very small toy in front of me, just a little bigger than a Lego.







“Hey, kid. How are you?”



“You talking to me?”



“No, I’m talking to the monster behind you. Of course I’m talking to you. What name do you go by these days?”



“Jayce. You called me kid, so I was thinking it may have not been me you were calling.”



“Don’t be smart. You’re the only person around here. Who else am I referring to?”



I shrug. I continue to poke around. The miniature moon man is still staring at me.



“So, listen. I heard the outside world is pretty great. How is it nowadays?”



“It’s mostly rain. I don’t know. Why do you ask?”



“I’m bored here. I want to explore outside again. Can you give me adventure outside of this place?”



“What, you running out of places to explore in this house?”



“If you’ve been here for most of your life, I’m sure you’d think that way, too.”



“I heard the rat hole in my brother’s room is pretty interesting.”



“Don’t be smart. You’re not funny.”



I put the rest of the toys I brought out back. I don’t think I’ll have luck finding the card reader here. I looked back at the moon man, whose persistence to find an answer from me seems unwavering.



“Look,” I started uneasily, “I don’t know. I haven’t really been out in an “adventure” lately. I haven’t really been exploring much.”



“And why the fuck is that?”



For a small guy, he seems to have a huge potty mouth. I shrugged again.



“I don’t know. I just haven’t. I’m getting old, I guess.”



He clucked his tongue, rather disapprovingly.



‘”Kid, I’ve been around long before your brothers discovered me when they were tykes, and I’m STILL looking for new things to discover. That’s like more than 40 years and counting. What’s wrong with YOU?”



I stared at him. Not out of any sort of dejection, but just…thoughtful.



“Listen. I can’t guarantee you’d have a really great adventure with me, but if you’re willing to risk it, I can bring you along and you can gauge if that’s adventure enough for you.”



He stood up and saluted.



“Beam me up, Scotty.”



“You’re not geek enough for that. Stop it.”



“You’re the saddest turn-out of all those kids, you know? You embarrass me. Who hurt you when you were a kid, sweetheart? Mommy didn’t hug you enough?”



“Shut up.”



I picked him up and tossed him in my bag. I brought him back to the city with me. Later, I also gave him a well-deserved bath.