Ode to a Teddy Bear

Category B: Highly Commended (2025) Monash Short Story Writing Competition
Author: Giorgia Minutolo

The teddy bear was born into a world of metal and machinery. Thread fastened down two button eyes and suddenly an array of colour and light emerged. 

Suddenly, hands packed him away, and he resurfaced within a mass of small humans. Long rows of toys just like him unfolded before him, and the teddy bear watched as children passed through the aisles. Around him, bears were being plucked from shelves, being held close by tiny arms, with a warmth that the teddy bear could only imagine.

Then, footsteps pitter pattered down the aisle and stopped right in front of the teddy bear.

Rhinestoned leggings creased as the little girl knelt in front of him. She tilted her head this way and that, appraising him.

Her face broke out into a smile.

He was being pulled from his shelf, flying down the aisles as she cried out, “Daddy, I’ve chosen! Look!” 

A bored voice replied from far away, but the teddy didn’t hear; he could only see the grinning face peering down at him. “My name’s Clementine. Everyone calls me Clemmie though. What’s yours?”

He had never wished for his stitched mouth to move more than that moment.

Clemmie’s eyebrows creased in thought. “Mr Cuddles! That’ll be your name!” She declared. “We’re gonna be best friends.” 

He was fluff and plastic and thread. But, in her eyes, maybe he could be something more.

An acrid scent welcomed Mr Cuddles into his new home, sharp and sickening. With Mr Cuddles in hand, Clemmie skipped down the hall as her father slumped onto the couch. 

In her room, Clemmie sat Mr Cuddles down on a mountain of fluffy pillows. If Mr Cuddles had a heart, it would have been erupting into fireworks as Clemmie bent down in front of him, beaming, “We’re gonna have the best summer ever!”

And so they did. The summer was blur of glitter and crayons and sunshine.

In the garden, they slew mighty dragons and saved princesses from towers! When Dad joined in, he became the fearsome monster that Clemmie had to battle. Mr Cuddles liked when he knew the yelling and fists were just part of the game. He liked it when Clemmie ran away from her father laughing, rather than crying.

On the bad nights, all Mr Cuddles could do was sit in Clemmie’s arms. He had no mouth to speak comfort with, nor hands with which to hold her tight. Night after night he listened, helpless, to her weeping.

One day, the pink walls of Clemmie’s bedroom were repainted cream. Mr Cuddles was relocated to a shelf, watching from above as all traces of childhood were scrubbed away. One day Mr Cuddles looked around at the room and realised he could scarcely recognise it. Even worse was the day he realised he couldn’t recognise his little Clemmie.

Yet Clemmie and Mr Cuddles were united in one thing. Fear.  No amount of pleading, tears, or ultimatums could stop her father’s rages.

“One day,” Clemmie whispered, hugging Mr Cuddles as tight as she could, “I’m gonna get out of here.”

Never had Mr Cuddles looked forward to a day more but a little voice in the back of his head whispered: It used to be “we”.

When the day finally arrived, the sun was beaming outside, compensating for what was to come. 

Clemmie had packed her bag. Her dad was out of the house for the day. This was her chance. She would go out into the world, a bird free from its cage. And Mr Cuddles would stay on his shelf, collecting dust.

She should have left already. Every time he thought she would, she paused. Mr Cuddles studied her and tried to find the little girl he’d once known in her features.

Finally, she cleared her throat. And to Mr Cuddles’ surprise, she turned to him. She rubbed a hand over her face, as though trying to erase the tears before they fell. “I just want to be a kid again.” She said softly. Maybe… away from him, I’ll be able to refind little Clemmie.”

But how had she ever gotten lost? How had Mr Cuddles lost the only thing that ever mattered to him? 

“I can’t believe I’m talking to a teddy bear.” She laughed, still the sweetest sound to Mr Cuddle’s ears. “But for the longest time you were my only friend.”

In a sudden flash of resolve, Clemmie pulled him from the shelf. His button nose was buried deep in the crook of Clemmie’s neck. Mr Cuddles could not help but imagine the shoulder he laid on did not belong to a young adult, instead, the little girl who picked him up off the shelf all those years ago.

All her childhood, they’d shouldered the weight of her pain together. Mr Cuddles had done his best to shield Clemmie from the person who was supposed to protect her. And after all those years, Clemmie had become strong enough to brave the storm alone.

Her wide eyes studied him. She’d cut her hair short and her skin was paler than he remembered. She could dye her hair neon for all Mr Cuddles cared for. She’d always be his little Clemmie. 

Nothing would ever change that.

Gentle hands placed him down. Then she was gone.

By the end of the week, her father had packed up her things, erased any trace of her existence. 

That’s how the bear found himself in a box to be sent away. The darkness reminded him of before Clemmie, in a factory of metal and machinery. But the bear could brave the darkness as long as it was followed by a new child to love. 

The bear waited on a shelf once again. It did not bother him that no eyes turned his way. Instead, he sat happily with the bittersweet remnants of Clementine’s face still lingering in his mind. 

Until one day new hands plucked him from the shelf.

“Hi!” The child grinned. “We’re gonna be best friends!”