Bedtime - A Short Story Anthology

A Heart in the Right Place

A Heart in the Right Place

By lyttlejoe

Tyler's eyes were like saucers when he heard me speak. He leaned closer and looked hard at my face.

"What's the matter, Tyler? Just because I'm made of tin and have a big key in my side, you don't think I can speak?"

"But you're just a toy!"

"Just a toy! I am not just a toy little man. I am the creation of a very, very clever toymaker. When you turn this key," I said, pointing, "it makes all the gears, levers, and wheels inside me start working, and I can walk and talk and a lot of other things too."

"Do you have a heart?" Tyler asked me, and I took a moment to answer.

"Well, it's not a heart like yours. Mine is made of metal, and it only works with the rest of my gears, levers, and wheels when my key is turned."

"The Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz didn't have a key."

I smiled sadly at Tyler. "That's right, and he didn't have a heart either."

"But he got one from the Wizard."

"Yes, but it wasn't a real heart. It wasn't inside like mine. It wasn't really part of him."

"But I could see his."

"Yes . . . sorry, mine is all part of my inner works. If my key runs down, everything runs down, and will all stop if I'm not rewound."

"Can I feel your heart?"

"Not really." I began to feel bad.

"Who winds you up?"

"You will, now that I belong to you. I was your birthday present. Don't you think I'm a good present?"

I watched Tyler as he seemed to be thinking. I was hoping he liked me as a present, and the fact that I could talk to him. But that didn't seem as important as the heart business, and I worried he might lose interest, and I would run down.

Suddenly he jumped up and ran out of the room. I called to him but he was gone. So, that was it, as a birthday present I was a bust. I worried that I was running down, my arms and legs felt slower, and I was getting weaker.

Was this my fate? To be left on a shelf, still, silent . . . ignored?

"Look what I got you, Tin Man!" Tyler burst back into the room holding a big red cardboard heart. He picked me up and taped the heart to my metal chest, then he turned the key round and round until it stopped.

I felt all the parts inside begin to work again. The ticking of the gears as they rotated my arms and legs. The levers working the smile on my face as I saw myself in the mirror by Tyler's bed, and the big red heart, right in the middle of my chest. An oil tear ran down my cheek.

"I love it, Tyler. I really do. It's great." I walked proudly around the room, arms swinging. I even did a little dance hop that made him giggle.

"I have a heart in my chest too, Tin Man. Would you like to feel it beat?"

"I don't have to, Tyler. I know you have a heart - a big one . . . a real big one."