It took Teddie over two minutes to navigate the treacherous creaking stairway,

but he had been successful.

No one had been alerted by his passage!

Excellent!

It wouldn’t take him long to complete his task and be back in bed.

Then he would be home free.

Teddie moved quickly into the living room and over to the couch.

He knelt down on both knees and lifted the throw skirt.

For a moment, he was assaulted by the idea that a broken and deformed porcelain Sally doll was waiting for him.

As soon as he peered at the scene of the crime,

she would lunge at him with maniacal, superhuman force and pull him under the couch.

If they were lucky, they might find his tattered nightshirt as the only proof of what had taken place.

The mental picture made Teddie pause for a second and take a deep breath.

He cursed himself for being such a wimp and clenched the hem of the throw into a twisted knot.

Steeling himself, he took a quick look under the dark couch, half ready to fight, and half ready to run.

He wasn’t really that scared of a little doll,

because he was so much bigger and stronger.

Then again, if the doll was possessed by some magical force,

well, that was another story.

In that case, the best option was always to run away in as dignified a manner as possible.

Luckily for Teddie, nothing waited for him in the dark recesses under the couch except an army of dust bunnies,

and he knew that they were very flighty creatures that typically didn’t side with dolls.

He spied the broken porcelain remains of Sally lying in a heap in the accursed ballet tutu.

Teddie had a quick vision of himself lying crumpled on the floor,

wearing the ridiculous tights from his closet,

while an angry Sally Doll towered over him,

but he managed to wrestle his thoughts under control and stick to the task at hand.

He didn’t have much time after all.

Teddie slid his arm under the couch and swept the pieces of the doll out in front of him.

When he saw Sally again up close,

he had an immediate feeling of gnawing guilt.

It started in the pit of his stomach and swelled until it almost closed off his throat.

Sally had been Tammy Lou’s favorite toy, and now she was broken beyond repair.

He realized suddenly that he really hadn’t meant to really hurt Sally.

It had been fun just to imagine it.

Just like a lot of things.

It’s fun to daydream about living a wild adventure in the jungle with lots of dangerous animals,

but that didn’t really mean that Teddie wanted to jump on the first plane to South America.

Breaking Sally had been an accident.

Teddie had just been trying to blow off some steam.

As the guilty feeling grew,

Teddie had the sudden desire to run upstairs and confess the whole thing to his mom.

Sure she would be mad and would probably punish him, but it wouldn’t be that bad.

And he knew deep down that he should apologize to Tammy Lou too.

He should tell her that he was sorry for breaking Sally and that he would buy her a new doll out of his allowance.

That might make Tammy feel better and certainly couldn’t hurt his case with his mom.

Teddie knew deep down that life was too short and that he really should be nicer to Tammy Lou.

After all, he was the big brother and he was supposed to look out for Tammy Lou and take care of her.

What would he have done is some older kid had been the one to break her doll?

But then the old feelings of anger and frustration returned in full force.

All the old torments and the Teddie perceived degradations came flooding back.

The humiliating ballet classes in tights; the creeping, drafty nightshirt;

the years of hearing Tammy Lou this and Tammy Lou that.

The memory of the words cute, adorable, sweet, precious, and pretty began to ring like deafening voices in his ears.

They drowned out all other feelings of remorse or guilt.

The deep, loud voice inside Teddie was telling its small,

still counterpart to shut the frick up and go bother some other kid.

Sally had got what was coming to her,

and that went double for Tammy Lou.

The seesaw of Teddie’s emotions and his inner turmoil was interrupted by the creak of the stairs.

To Teddie’s horror, he realized that someone was coming.

What was worse, he would be caught red-handed with the evidence of his crime.

It would look like he had purposely snuck downstairs in order to do mischief to Sally.

He would be falsely accused and railroaded to his execution.

He had to do something!

Fast!