December 14, 2007
THE BOY WHO ASKED WHAT IS A TOY
__________________________________________
For
and
Geleen.
__________________________________________
For I grow as I live
Philippine copyright © 2007
By Von Fritz Guillen Evangelista
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the author.
Published by VFE Prints Enterprises
Bacolod City, Philippines
By Von Fritz Guillen Evangelista
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the author.
Published by VFE Prints Enterprises
Bacolod City, Philippines
__________________________________________
For
Kirc
and
Dave
and
Dave
and
Geleen.
__________________________________________
I believe, I believe
And I must, and I must
For I grow as I live
And these things do not last.
-VFE, A Child's Creed
-VFE, A Child's Creed
One
Somewhere in the world, in a place that looks the same as yours, there was this boy who asked, “What is a toy?”
His name was Stefan Jacoby. He’s eight years old but he thinks like an eighteen-year-old or unbelievably, an eighty-year-old. But, unlike any other children in the world, Stefan had no idea what is a toy. Why is that so? Well, this is his story.
His father, Ivan Jacoby, was a busy doctor who worked six days a week. The clinic was his real home, and their house in the village was, for him, nothing but a structure for sleeping, eating, and washing his car on weekends.
One day, when his father was at home washing his car, Stefan asked, “Dad, what is a toy?”
Dr. Jacoby was very busy so as a quick reply, he said, “A toy is something you do not need in life.”
“Okay,” Stefan muttered.
Stefan’s mother, on the other hand, Stella Jacoby, worked as a teller and was as busy as her husband. The bank was her real home and their house in the village was, for her, nothing but a structure for bathing, cooking, and watering her orchids on weekends.
One day, when his mother was at home, Stefan asked, “Mom, what is a toy?”
Mrs. Jacoby was also very busy so as a quick reply, he said, “A toy is something you buy with no use at all.”
“Okay,” Stefan muttered. “So a toy is something I don’t need in life and is something I buy with no use at all.”
Two
Stefan had a nanny and her name is Fanny. The nanny came from a province so far far away that Stefan would wish to go there every time Fanny told him her stories.
“In our province, you know what, there are super long rivers and super high waterfalls…”
“There are super wild chickens and water buffaloes with bodies super glistening with mud…”
“There are caves with super huge bats too many to count…”
“And there are giant hundred-year-old trees entangled with super colorful flowering vines!”
“WOW!” Stefan would say with his two dreamy eyes wide open.
One day, while his nanny was in the kitchen preparing his porridge, Stefan asked, “Nanny Fanny, what is a toy?”
“A toy?” Fanny repeated. “A toy is…I dunno what is a toy.”
With meeting eyebrows, Stefan replied, “Dad said it is something I don’t need in life. Mom said it is something you buy with no use at all. How about you? You must have any idea about what a toy is.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry darling…I really dunno what is a toy. Though, I heard of it once and asked my parents about it. They said it’s something we couldn’t afford to have.”
“So you haven’t seen a toy? Or smelled it? Tasted it? Heard of it? Touched any of it?”
“Never Stefan…never in my whole life.”
Poor little Stefan. How much he wanted to know what is a toy but no one seemed to give him a very clear meaning.
What is a toy?
What is a toy?
What is a toy?
Three
It was on the previous Christmas that Stefan first heard of the word ‘toy’. They got a new neighbor beside their house in the village, the Maverick family. Mr. and Mrs. Maverick were rarely seen around, though, since they had a business out of town. Only their four children named Marnie, Jonel, Ivee, and Lolie were always left in their house, taken care by a nanny named Nellie who was a cousin of the children.
That Christmas, his father gave Stefan a book for a gift. It was The Lord of the Flies by William Golding. “Read it as fast as you can. It’s about the true nature of evil,” the doctor said giving his son the book wrapped in blue with white ribbons.
So as fast as he could, young Stefan read the classic novel about the true nature of evil. He was at the porch that Christmas morning and was halfway to finishing the book when he heard the Maverick kids talking to each other beyond the tall wooden fence that divided their blocks.
“Hey Marnie, give me back my toy,” Jonel said.
“Here, get it. My toy is far better than yours,” Marnie said.
“Take a look at this. This toy is the best!” Lolie said.
“Say for yourself. My toy is the prettiest of all the gifts of Santa last night,” Ivee said.
And there was laughter.
Back at the porch of the house beyond the tall wooden fence, Stefan closed his book and wondered what the Maverick kids had meant by the word ‘toy’.
Is it a thing?
Is it a place?
Is it a person?
Four
Stefan Jacoby learned to read when he was five years old. When he was seven, he could read faster than his Nanny Fanny who came from a province so far far away. If other boys of his age were fanatic to Transformers, Power Rangers, and Spiderman, Stefan, on the other hand, was fanatic to Aristotle, William Shakespeare, and Edgar Allan Poe.
And if you are a boy, then, Stefan’s room might be far different from yours. While you might have a television in front of your bed complete with a DVD player and video games, Stefan got only a huge glass window with a telescope erected to the heavens.
“No television,” his father once told him. “TVs are for big people like us.”
While you got yourself a cabinet full of your mini plastic soldiers and matchbox cars and marbles and tops and water pistols, Stefan’s cabinet, on the other hand, was loaded with books and books and books.
At the topmost part of the cabinet were the medical books of his father, the doctor, reserved for him in case he would want to take up Medicine someday.
Next down from the top were the math books of his mother, the teller, reserved for him in case he would want to take up Accountancy someday.
On the third was a complete set of thick Brittanica encyclopedias.
On the fourth partition were the various books of knowledge that were of Stefan’s interest: World History, Geography, Literature, Astronomy, and Archaeology.
And at the bottommost part was a locked partition, containing all of Stefan’s collection of novels with authors ranging from Hemingway, Dumas, and Wilde to Verne, Doyle, and Woolf and many other contemporary novelists.
“What is a toy?” Stefan asked himself one day while browsing his collection. “Is it more enjoying than any of my books?”
Five
His parents didn’t want Stefan to study in a school because they wanted a focused teaching for their son. So, they hired Miss Boore when Stefan was three years old to become his private teacher. A thin woman who was always wearing black, Miss Boore taught Stefan in their house in the village, every morning from Monday to Friday.
Obviously, it wasn’t a tough job for the private teacher. The boy she was teaching was a child prodigy.
On a warm Tuesday morning, Stefan was on the garden lawn with Miss Boore for new lesson.
“Stefan, our lesson for today is about insects,” Miss Boore said with a smile which, as Stefan always thought, not a smile at all. “Now, I’ll point at any insect I see here in the garden and you’ll tell what it is. Are you ready?”
“Yes, Miss Boore.”
The teacher spotted a dragonfly resting on a leafless shrub nearby and pointed at it.
“A dragonfly…order Odonata.”
“Very good,” Miss Boore commented. “You didn’t forget about our last week’s taxonomy. What about...that?” She pointed another creature.
“A grasshopper…order Orthoptera.”
And so on…
“Danaus plexippus, a specie of butterflies.”
“Apis mellifera, a bee that collects nectar and makes honey.”
“Myrmica rubra, red ants!”
“Miss Boore, that is not an insect.”
There was silence for a moment.
“Uhoh? Are you sure this is not an insect?”
“Yes teacher. It’s an earthworm and it’s an annelid. It has no jointed legs unlike the insects who are under Phylum Arthropoda.”
“Excellent young man! You got an A+ in Biology today.”
Since when did Stefan’s teacher give him below A+? She never did.
Yes, Stefan was very intellectual for his age. But Miss Boore still had to teach him more. Her aim was for his young student’s intelligence quotient to reach 150.
The teacher and the student were about to leave the garden when Stefan grabbed the sleeves of Miss Boore and asked, “Teacher, what is a toy?”
Miss Boore thought for a while and replied, “A toy? It’s something you are forbidden to know.”
“Why is that so?”
“Do you remember our lesson about cultural taboos? Well, it’s a taboo for a child to know what a toy is. Understand?”
“Okay.”
A toy is something not accepted in society.
A toy is something one should be shameful about.
A toy can cause a person suffer a severe penalty.
Six
Of course you are familiar with the Tooth Fairy, the genies in Persia, and the fairy godmothers that fascinated you in the fantasy stories you have read before. How you wish your wishes will be granted too, right? How wonderful something impossible becomes possible in just a wink of an eye.
But I bet my thumb, you’re not familiar with the Wizard of Toys who could also make your dreams come true. He’s not in Cinderella, or in Snow White, or in Sleeping Beauty, or in any magical tales you’ve heard before. That wizard only appeared in this story.
To give you a brief description about the Wizard of Toys, well, he’s a fat old man whose beard was reaching his huge protruding belly. He wore a white tunic covered with a long cloak in the color of midnight, embroidered with suns and moons and stars.
And he did magic, of course. In fact, he lived in place that he himself had made and that was untraceable anywhere else in this world. Don’t you worry; however, you’ll be visiting that place soon as we go along with Stefan’s story.
The Wizard of Toys was always happy. And even though tears would fall from his eyes at times, those were of joy of seeing children all over the world fascinated by the wonderful toys he had given them.
Some said he was Santa Claus. But he’s not that fat old man in red pajamas riding on a sleigh driven by reindeers. Why not? Well, the Wizard of Toys would give toys to any boys and girls whether they had been good or bad. And he did it not only in December.
Unknown to Stefan and to his Mom and Dad and to Nanny Annie and even to Miss Boore, the Wizard of Toys heard everything they said in the house. For the wizard got thousands of detachable ears that he usually left on the walls, in the ceilings, on the floors, in any part of the house disguised as lizard or rat poops.
The wizard wasn’t comfortable with the Jacoby’s house then. For as what he heard, the little boy of the family, Stefan, was being deprived of toys.
“It’s horrible! It’s unforgivable! It isn’t fair keeping a child like him from the wonders of toys!”
And so, to sort things out, the Wizard of Toys decided to pay young Stefan a visit.
Seven
“Bye Mom!” Stefan kissed his mother who is going to work.
“You study hard young man. When you grow up, you got to be a bank teller like me, or better yet, a bank manager,” his mother replied.
“Bye Dad!”
“Did you read that Anatomy book I showed you last weekend? When you grow up, you got to be a doctor like me, or better yet, a surgeon,” Stefan’s father replied.
The doctor and the teller were gone going to the clinic and to the bank. Their son was left with his nanny who would then get him ready for Miss Boore’s lesson.
Stefan took a nice warm tub bath.
He wore his favorite Jimmy Neutron shirt.
He ate his breakfast, bacon and rice and a warm glass of milk.
When Stefan was ready for another day of nonstop discussion with his Miss Boore, he proceeded to the porch with a thick Algebra book clutched in his left hand, and five National Geographic magazines clutched in his right.
He wished Miss Boore to come late that morning. He hated Algebra as much as his mother loved it.
RIIIIING! The doorbell rang.
Stefan waited for her Nanny Fanny to open the gate.
RIIIIING! The doorbell rang again.
It seemed that Stefan’s nanny is in the bathroom, taking her bath.
RIIIIING! The doorbell rang for the third time.
And so, Stefan dropped his Algebra book and National Geographic magazines on his little armed chair in the porch and went to open the gate.
Eight
“Good morning, little master!” The wizard greeted with a wide wide grin.
Of course, Stefan didn’t recognize him as the great Wizard of Toys who gives dolls and yoyos and kites and balls and other things in the world that give joy to children.
“Good morning, Sir.”
Stefan greeted back to the old fat bearded man who was supposed to be wearing a white tunic covered with a long cloak in the color of midnight and embroidered with suns and moons and stars. Instead, the Wizard of Toys was wearing what is called a camouflage uniform usually worn by soldiers at war.
“May I help you?” Stefan asked curiously.
“Oh dear,” the wizard replied with a chuckle. “I ask for no help…but I can help you.”
“Help me? How can you help me?”
“I KNOW WHAT A TOY IS.”
Stefan’s eyes widened that instant. “Really, Sir? I want to know what is toy!”
“Oh dear, you will know what a toy is on this very day. But first things first. Here’s your ticket for our wonderful trip.” The Wizard of Toys gave Stefan a silver ticket with nothing but printed smileys on both sides. “I need a ‘Yes’. Stefan Ivanoverick Jacoby, will you go with me to Toy Haven?”
“Yes!”
“Then climb aboard!”
A huge tank appeared out of nowhere and stopped in front Stefan and the wizard. “WOW!” Stefan quipped. He was amazed seeing a real tank for the first time in his life (because he only used to see it in the books). He climbed up the vehicle with the wizard still on a camouflage uniform.
Stefan was even more amazed when he was inside the tank. He was surrounded by colorful monitors with some buttons blinking below. “WOW!” Stefan muttered again. He used to read articles about space ships and it seemed now that he’s inside one of them.
“The Pediafier shall warp in five seconds…five…four…three…two…”
The wizard’s magical tank burst to life and after speeding a few meters, it vanished leaving bright golden dusts on the street.
Nine
“Where’s my student?” Miss Boore asked Nanny Fanny when she arrived. She saw the nanny crying at the porch with the Algebra book and National Geographic magazines on her lap.
“Where’s Stefan?” Miss Boore asked again.”
Sobs. “I dunno, Miss Boore.” Sobs. “I was in the bathroom.” Sobs. “When I came here…” Sobs. “…Stefan’s gone and that gate is open.” Sobs more.
“What?!” Miss Boore said in such a loud voice that it stopped Nanny Fanny from sobbing. “How did it ha---ACHOOOOOH!” She sneezed. And after a few seconds, the private teacher was scarlet as crushed tomatoes.
Miss Boore knew what’s happening.
“This is despicable! This is abominable!” Miss Boore screamed at the top of her lungs. “That crazy wizard took away one of my students again! He’ll pay for this. This is too much! This will be the end of him!”
Frightened by the sudden change of Miss Boore, Nanny Fanny entered the house and closed the doors in case something bad would happen. Miss Boore, on the other hand, ran to the gate and out to the street where stood a few hours ago, the Wizard of Toys and his magical tank.
There, on the very spot, she sneezed like someone who got flu. This is the point of revelation. Brace yourselves, for Miss Boore was none other than, the Witch of Unhappy Childhood in disguise, an evil woman whose only purpose of existence was to steal from children the joy of being children.
She’s allergic to her enemy’s golden dusts that were scattered on the ground. “Argh!” the witch scowled. Her face was redder as she cursed, “Stefan is mine! I’ll destroy you Wizard of Toys! Never again you will give joy to children all over the world after I kill you tonigh---ACHOOOOOH!”
And like the magical tank that appeared out of nowhere and vanished a few hours ago, the Witch of Unhappy Childhood, who was also Miss Boore, vanished on the street leaving a thick black smoke.
Ten
Toy Haven was untraceable even by what scientists call as ‘radar’ or ‘sonar’ if it’s underwater. If the magical place created by the Wizard of Toys himself was on the clouds, then, no aircrafts had ever seen it or landed on it.
But once you’re inside the magical tank with your silver ticket printed with smileys on both sides with the Wizard of Toys himself beside you, then, the entry to Toy Haven would be easy as pie.
Stefan, in his excitement, didn’t know how long the travel took. The wizard gave him a handful of sweets and while he ate them one by one, the monitors around him flashed images of stars and planets and meteors and asteroids and stripes and swirls and tiny confetti. Voila! There’s broad daylight all of the sudden and what was now appearing on the monitors were images of a strange colorful town.
“Welcome to Toy Haven, Stefan Jacoby,” the wizard said. Stefan was shocked to see he’s no longer wearing the camouflage uniform but rather his real clothes, the white tunic covered with a cloak the color of midnight embroidered with suns and moons and stars.
“This is Toy Haven?”
“Yes this is, Stefan, the place I built a long long time ago to give happiness to children like you. And everything you see here answers the very question you’ve been asking everybody. They are toys! And before I forget, I am the Wizard of Toys.”
“WOW!” Stefan said in his utmost delight. “Mr. Wizardoftoys, can we go out of tank now? I want to see the toys! Oh, if only my Nanny Fanny were here…”
“I know you’re very much excited young man. We’ll stop by my castle first for a welcoming feast,” replied the wizard who pushed a button the slowed down the vehicle they’re riding.
When they’re out of the tank at last, Stefan was fascinated more.
“WOW!”
“WOW!”
“WOW!”
Eleven
Meanwhile, inside a toilet of a dark castle that was also untraceable by any radar or sonar, Miss Boore or the Witch of Unhappy Childhood was planning her move to get back Stefan from the clutches of the wizard.
Water water in the toilet bowl
Tell me where is the Wizard’s hall.
She had been repeating the verse again and again but the water in the toilet bowl was clear as newly flushed.
“Argh!” the witch scowled. Of course, the wizard’s whereabouts was beyond her magic’s knowledge. “Think…think…there must be a way I could reach that fat old man’s place.”
Water water on the toilet bowl
Tell me where is the Wizard’s hall.
The water remained clear.
Frustrated at last, the witch spat at the toilet bowl and went out of the toilet very angry. She sped her way into a dark misty corridor.
“This is terrible! This is intolerable!” she screamed. “I got to find that fat old wizard as soon as possible!” With that, she kicked a wooden chest that had been placed wrongly in the aisle. He kick was so hard that the chest toppled down displacing its contents out into the floor.
The Witch of Unhappy Childhood saw what she never wanted to see again, things that reminded her of her very unhappy childhood. There was an ugly doll with missing arms, broken pieces of jackstones, and a tight entangled skipping rope.
“Argh!” she scowled again.
But the terrible sight gave her a very clever idea.
Twelve
Imagine Teddy bears and dolls and robots that move like people.
Imagine rubber balls that bounce by themselves and tops that spin by themselves.
Imagine kites and paper planes that hover by themselves.
Imagine toy cars, no controls and batteries but still run by themselves.
Imagine little plastic tambourines and drums and xylophones that sound by themselves.
Those and other wonderful toys amazed Stefan Jacoby when he and the Wizard of Toys arrived in the castle.
“Toys are everything, Stefan. Toys are friends. Toys give children happy childhoods,” the wizard said. It was the best meaning of the word ‘toy’ Stefan had ever heard.
“Amazing,” replied Stefan whose eyes were never tired marveling at the things he had never seen before. “But Mr. Wizardoftoys, what do I do with the toys?”
“You play with them,” the wizard answered.
“Play?” Stefan heard the word for the first time in his life.
“Yes, you play with them. You talk to them pretending they’re alive and real since they don’t move like that back in your world.
“My toys are my people here in Toy Haven. When one of them decides to have a child to own them, I give them freely to the child as a gift.
“In this place, the toys are alive because of the life my magical golden dusts give them. Once they enter your world, they lose that life. It is the children’s responsibility then to give them life. That is, by playing with them.”
“This is incredible! This is the coolest fact I’ve ever heard in my whole life!” Stefan quipped. “Indeed, toys are more interesting and enjoyable than any of my books.”
Needless of permission, Stefan played with the toys for the very first time. He was never been so happy.
He wished to live in Toy Haven forever.
Thirteen
Miss Boore, or as what you already knew, the Witch of Unhappy Childhood, came back in the village that afternoon. She sneezed so badly yet she collected the golden dusts that had been scattering on the street in front of the Jacoby’s house. Those golden dusts, as you know, came from the Wizard of Toys himself.
And after she got a handful of the golden dusts, she entered the premises, not of the Jacobys but of the Maverick family instead next door.
“Open or I’ll crush you,” the witch whispered to the gate. And the gate swung open.
The Mavericks’ house was deserted that afternoon. Marnie, Jonel, Ivee , and Lolie were brought to the park by their Nanny Nellie to play with their new shiatsu. But that’s good news to the evil witch. She wasn’t after the kids after all. She was after their toys.
Miss Boore reached the children’s shared bedroom. She saw their toys on each of their beds. She disgusted them. “What foul things these are, giving children nothing but a world of their own,” she said to herself. She snapped her fingers and magically, her hands were coated in leathery black gloves. Then she collected the toys and placed them on a table.
She sprinkled golden dusts to a windup helicopter that belonged to Marnie.
She sprinkled golden dusts to a Superman action figure that belonged to Jonel.
She sprinkled golden dusts to a Barbie doll that belonged to Ivee.
And lastly, she sprinkled golden dusts to a dolphin stuffed toy that belonged to Lolie.
The toys magically burst to life. And the witch talked to them one by one.
“You unrealistic flying vehicle, tell me where the wizard’s place is or I will chop your tail off!”
“You unrealistic super hero, tell me where the wizard’s place is or I will tear one of your limbs!”
“You unrealistic pretty princess, tell me where the wizard’s place is or else I will cut that long hair or yours!”
“You unrealistic sea creature, tell me where the wizard’s place is or I will get all the stuff out of you!”
The toys screamed in terror with their tiny voices. They were afraid to be harmed by the Witch of Unhappy Childhood disguised as Miss Boore. They plead for mercy but the witch was merciless.
fourteen
Stefan had fun with the toys the whole afternoon. He met different puppets and jacks-in-the-box and rattles and flying Frisbees and thousands of other toys. He’s the only child in the place but it seemed to him, still, that he was surrounded by real people.
“Children should live in this place,” Stefan said. “This is so much fun! Does Mr. Wizardoftoys bring other kids here also to pay with you?”
“He rarely brings kids here. You very lucky Stefan,” said Betsy, a boomerang.
“The wizard brings here those kids who had been victims of the witch,” said Gerry, a plastic giraffe.
“The witch? What witch?” Stefan asked curiously.
“The Witch of Unhappy Childhood! She’s the enemy of the wizard. She loves taking away the joy of children while they’re young as your age,” answered Bella, a ballerina who came out of her box to dance.
Stefan gulped. “Oh, that’s sad-”
“Not just sad. It’s uncomfortable. It’s unbearable,” the Wizard of Toys said joining the conversation after appearing from nowhere. “But don’t you worry Stefan Jacoby, you are very far from her as of the moment. The truth is, I just delivered you from her this morning. I grabbed the opportunity when you thought you didn’t want to see her.”
“But who is she, Mr. Wizardoftoys? I’ve never met any witch before, never in my entire life.”
“Of course you’ve met here. The wicked witch is expert at disguises.”
Fifteen
In the Jacobys’ house, Dr. and Mrs. Jacoby where home. And poor Nanny Fanny, she had no choice but to tell the truth about Stefan’s disappearance. About Miss Boore’s weird behavior, however, she kept it to herself.
“I told him to wait for his private teacher here in the porch. When I came out from the bathroom, I was stunned that he’s gone…” the nanny was explaining.
“Maybe the gate was left unlocked when we left this morning. And he followed us into our offices,” Mrs. Jacoby said.
“Maybe, maybe not. What I fear is that our little Stefan might be kidnapped!”
“Good Lord!” cried Nanny Fanny. “I’m so sorry for my negligence Dr. Jacoby…it’s…it’s my fault…If only I-”
“It’s alright, Fanny,” Mrs. Jacoby rubbed the nanny’s back for comfort. “We do not blame you. We understand.”
“Honey, we need to call the sheriff,” the doctor then suggested.
And after 30 minutes, a chubby sheriff arrived in the house. The doctor and the father explained. The bank teller and the mother explained. And lastly, the nanny explained.
While Nanny Fanny was being questioned by the authority, the worried Dr. and Mrs. Jacoby were talking to each other in the sofa.
“It’s my entire fault. I shouldn’t have forced our son to study hard and become a doctor like me, or worse, a surgeon,” said the Dr. Jacoby.
“It’s my entire fault. I shouldn’t have forced our son to study hard and become a bank teller like me, or worse, a bank manager,” said Mrs. Jacoby.
“If only…”
“If only…”
“If only…”
“When my Stefan is back here in my arms, I’ll drive him to the park to play with other kids.”
“When my Stefan is back here in my arms, I’ll bring him to the mall and buy any toy he wants.”
Sixteen
Back in Toy Haven, Stefan thought the place wouldn’t run out of daylight. But as they afternoon deepened, the sky above them was beginning to dim. And later on, the moon and the stars were out to give their lights.
Toy Haven was embraced by darkness but its beauty was never lost. For the structures around that housed thousands of happy toys glowed in the dark.
“WOW!” Stefan muttered to himself seeing Toy Haven glowing by nightfall.
He was invited by the Wizard of Toys to have dinner with him in the castle. He would also be spending the night there. It saddened him, knowing that he would be home the next day.
“Mr. Wizardoftoys, might I ask about my Mom and Dad and my Nanny Fanny…aren’t they worried at home?”
“Of course they’re worried because they care for you. Your Mom and Dad will be looking for you tonight…but I tell you, when I’ll bring you safe home tomorrow, they won’t be mad at me but rather thank me instead.”
“I hope so.”
The evening was deepening and Toy Haven became more and more silent with every tick of the cuckoo clock. After dinner, the wizard brought Stefan Jacoby to his room in the castle.
“WOW!” Stefan cried seeing the huge room with a four-poster bed. “Am I sleeping here all alone?”
“You can invite some of your toy friends if you want.”
“Yipee!”
And so, Stefan invited his friends Betsy the Boomerang, Gerry the Giraffe, and Bella the Ballerina to sleep with him in his beautiful room.
“Good night, Stefan,” said Betsy.
“Good night, Stefan,” said Gerry.
“Good night, Stefan,” said Bella.
“Sweet dreams my friends!” said Stefan.
And they all went to sleep.
Seventeen
The Witch of Unhappy Childhood was successful at extracting information from the Maverick kids’ toys about the whereabouts of the wizard that created them. She laughed in delight when she reached the beautiful Toy Haven at last. For many years she tried to find it but failed. But now was her very chance. She would destroy everything. She would kill her arch-nemesis, the Wizard of Toys.
“What a disgusting place this is,” the witch said. “I can’t imagine children living in this place so much having fun with toys. Children ought to be serious while they’re young. Why should they waste their time playing with such filth-ACHOOOOOH!” The witch’s skin was at the reddest now, with all the wizard’s golden dusts present in the air she breathed.
“Tonight,” she continued after blowing her nose with her black handkerchief, “Toy Heaven will be destroyed, and so is the one who created- ACHOOOOOH!”
The witch then reached for her cauldron inside her pocket. You might be wondering how a large thing such as a cauldron could fit in her pocket. Well, dark magic.
She poured a black liquid from a vial into the cauldron. Then she added some black leaves and black pebbles, and a smelly dead black cat.
Then she chanted:
Black cat, black leaves, and black pebbles
Bring me now my dear Serious Shadows.
The cauldron boiled at once and there came sprouting from the black liquid the dreadful black figures with mouths that never smiled.
“Rise from the blackness, my dear Serious Shadows. Rise and destroy everything childish!”
Eighteen
ROOOOAAAAARRRRRRR!
The toys in Toy Haven that were already asleep were disturbed by the sudden loud noises.
“What is it?”
“What is it?”
“What is it?”
They came out of their glowing houses and there in the night sky they saw the dreadful Serious Shadows hovering and roaring and destroying anything they passed by. The toys shrieked in fear.
“Help us!”
“Help us!”
“Help us!”
The colorful structures in Toy Haven were ruined by the dark creatures one by one. And they crushed the toys, tore some of their parts, and kicked them and threw them and dropped them smashed them hard.
“Where’s the wizard?!”
“Where’s the wizard?!”
“Where’s the wizard?!”
“This is pleasurable…this is enjoyable…” the cruel Witch of Unhappy Childhood said seeing all that was happening. She let out a nightmarish laughter of victory.
Nineteen
Stefan was dreaming on his comfortable four-poster bed. He’s having a new lesson with Miss Boore, his private teacher whose favorite color was black.
“Stefan, do you know what a well is?” Miss Boore asked.
“Yes teacher,” Stefan replied enthusiastically. “It’s a hole dug on the ground where people get fresh water.”
“Very good. You are reading quite a lot. But you ought to see a real well and your knowledge about it are not enough.”
Stefan was shocked. His private teacher made a snap and a well, indeed, sprouted from the ground in their garden where they were having their lesson.
“Stefan, this is a well.” Miss Boore signaled her student to come nearer. “Would you like to look at the clear water inside?”
“Sure teacher.”
And so, Stefan went nearer. But when he was close enough, he felt a hand that pushed him forcively forward into the opening of the well. He fell into the void.
“Stefan! Wake up!” cried Betsy the Boomerang.
“Toy Heaven is being attacked!” cried Gerry the Giraffe.
“We’ve got to tell the wizard!” cried Bella the Ballerina.
“Wha…what?” mumbled Stefan opening his eyes. He was surprised to see himself on the floor.
“Attacked? By who?”
“The witch is here!” the three toys chorused.
Hearing about the witch, Stefan was fully awake. He couldn’t believe what was happening. Outside the castle was pandemonium. The houses of the toys were ruined and the poor inhabitants were screaming all around with their tiny voices.
What gave him goosebumps were the hovering dark creatures in the air with mouths that never smiled.
“Let’s wake the Wizard of Toys now!” Stefan cried aloud. He was never been that nervous all his life.
“We’ll do the waking!” cried Betsy.
“You must fight the dark creatures!” cried Gerry.
“Only a human like you can fight the witch!” cried Bella.
They parted ways in a hurry. The three toys were going to wake the wizard. The visitor of Toy Haven was going out of the castle to save the whole place from the evil witch’s destruction.
Twenty
Betsy and Gerry and Bella went directly to the Wizard of Toys’ chamber. The castle’s corridors seemed to have become a maze but they found the wizard’s chamber at last. The got to wake up the wizard quickly as possible or tonight will be the end of them all.
“Wake up, Wizard of Toys!”
“Wake up, Wizard of Toys!”
“Wake up, Wizard of Toys!”
There was no answer.
“Toy Haven is being attacked!”
“Toy Haven is being attacked!”
“Toy Haven is being attacked!”
Still, there was no answer.
“The evil witch is here!”
“The evil witch is here!”
“The evil witch is here!”
The chamber’s door remained still.
Wise was the Witch of Unhappy Childhood for she knew the weakness of her enemy: slumber. She planned her attack that night because she knew that the wizard would be of no use. The Wizard of Toys slept like a bear in hibernation and he couldn’t be woken by anyone other than himself.
Betsy the Boomerang flew into the nearest window and entered the wizard’s chamber. She opened the door to let the other toys enter. And so they found the wizard at last. He’s dreaming and snoring and drooling on his soft soft bed.
“Oh my, there’s no way we could wake him up!”
“We don’t know when he’ll be waking up!”
“This is the end of Toy Haven!”
Stefan, then, was their only hope.
Twenty One
“This is incredible! This is unforgettable!” said the Witch of Unhappy Childhood while she kicked the poor little toy soldiers running along her way.
Some of the toys that evening, however, did fight the witch. The boomerangs and the Frisbees attacked the Serious Shadows in the air. Jacks-in-the-boxes popped put of their boxes shockingly to scare away the dark creatures. And thousands of super hero action figures such as Luke Skywalker and Batman and Wolverine and many others fought like real super heroes.
But the Serious Shadows were too strong. The force of the toys caused two or three of the enemies to fall down but hundreds more were still hovering in the air, never stopping unless all that was childish would be gone.
“We need the wizard to save us!” They shouted together.
The evil witch stood on a high platform with a panoramic view of Toy Haven’s destruction. She grinned like she never grinned before and then spoke, “You foul loathsome disgusting whatnots…tell me now where your creator is! Where’s that crazy fat old Wizard of Nonsense for I will kill him now!”
The toys were silent. Their legs were shaking with fear.
“You won’t tell me? Fine then…prepare to die!”
The witch signaled the Serious Shadows and they swooped down to crush the helpless toys. But before the dark creatures could touch any of them, all the toys were pointing at the castle northwards telling the witch the location of their creator at last.
“I never thought you’ll betray your master just to save your lives,” the Witch of Unhappy Childhood said. She could smell that the end of the wizard was near. She turned to the Serious Shadows and commanded, “Proceed to that castle and search for the wizard! Suck all the childishness in him and bring him to me so I could kill him myself.”
The dark creatures nodded obeying their evil mistress. One by one, they hovered into the wizard’s castle.
Twenty Two
When Stefan found the tank that brought him to Toy Haven that morning, he followed what his toy friends said and climbed up the vehicle. It wasn’t excitement he felt anymore. Toy Haven was badly damaged. He got to save the other toys.
“Oh my…what button shall I push?” Stefan asked himself seeing hundreds of blinking buttons below the monitors. He spotted a green button and wished it would make the vehicle move. He pushed it. The tank did move!
“This is cool!”
He saw a red button and wished it would be for the control of the canon. And it was!
“This is super cool!”
Lastly, he pushed a joystick forward to go where the dark creatures where.
“Stefan Jacoby to the rescue!” Stefan yelled with fire in his eyes.
The tank moved fast out of the castle’s premises. The little driver inside was becoming an expert with the operations. As the tank got near the Toy Haven capital, Stefan saw the horrible things the Witch of Unhappy Childhood had done through the monitors. The colorful glowing homes were ruined. Limbs of poor dolls and toy soldiers and puppets were scattering on the streets. Frisbees and boomerangs and windup jets fell from the skies shattering to pieces.
A tear fell from Stefan’s eye with what he saw.
The tank reached the place where the witch was at last. It was the time when she ordered the Serious Shadows to attack the wizard’s castle.
“Proceed to that castle…” the witch was saying.
And seeing the wicked witch, Stefan’s heart was filled with fury and he desired nothing else but revenge.
“You’ll pay for all the toys you killed tonight, witch,” the little hero muttered. And thinking that the blue button would fire the canon, he pushed it. And the canon fired!
BOOOOOM!
BOOOOOM!
BOOOOOM!
A dozen or so Serious Shadows who were hit by the tanks’ fire fell on the ground lifeless, with the mouth miraculously smiling.
“HURRRAAAYYY!” The toys rejoiced. A hero had come at least to save their beloved Toy Haven.
Inside the tank, Stefan was rejoicing too, seeing that the dark creatures were vulnerable to his fires. He went on firing at them who where in the night sky hovering northwards into the wizard’s castle.
BOOOOOM!
BOOOOOM!
BOOOOOM!
And more Serious Shadows fell on the ground lifeless, with their mouths miraculously smiling.
Twenty Three
Back in the castle, the Wizard of Toys was still asleep, not knowing the damage his witch adversary had caused his realm. He was still dreaming and snoring and drooling on his bed.
Betsy the Boomerang slapped the wizard’s face. He’s still asleep.
Gerry the Giraffe kicked the wizard’s leg. He’s still asleep.
Bella the Ballerina pinched the wizard’s hand. He’s still asleep.
“What are we going to do?” the three toys asked each other hopelessly.
Outside, the Serious Shadows already reached the castle’s premises. They broke the windows and doors and searched the corridors. “ROOOOAAAAARRRRRRR!” they roared angrily.
“Oh my, they’re here in the castle!”
“Oh my, the wizard is in danger!”
“Oh my, this is our end!”
CRRRAAAAASSSSHHHH!
The door into the Wizard of Toys’ chamber was broken open by three Serious Shadows. They hissed seeing what they’re looking for who was dreaming and snoring and drooling on his bed.
Betsy and Gerry and Bella never screamed, though. What for should they become fearful with the dark creatures of the wicked witch? Their end was coming and they should not die in vain, so as their creator.
The three toys decided to fight the three Serious Shadows before they could get close to the wizard. The wizard was their only hope and they couldn’t afford to have him destroyed by witch herself.
“For Toy Haven!” Betsy cried in her eagle kung fu fighting stance.
“For the Wizard of Toys!” Gerry cried in his tiger kung fu fighting stance.
“For all the children in the world!” Bella cried in her swan kung fu fighting stance.
And the fight began.
Twenty Four
The Witch of Unhappy Childhood was furious with the diminishing number of her summoned Serious Shadows. “This is unbelievable! This is contemptible!” she cried. When she saw where the fatal fires were coming from, she was desperate at destroying who was responsible.
Stefan Jacoby, on the other hand, still fired and fired and fired. The Serious Shadows were now decreased in number by half. For those who escaped, he only wished they would never found the wizard in his castle.
“A tank?!” cried the witch in disbelief when she got closer to it. “How can a stupid war tank kill my powerful Serious Shadows with their disgusting smiling faces?”
BOOOOOM!
BOOOOOM!
BOOOOOM!
More dark creatures fell on the ground.
“Enough!” muttered the witch. And with her dark powers she blasted the tank with a bright bright pink light.
The tank shook but never tumbled as what the evil witch expected.
When Stefan felt the power that was attacking the tank, he turned his monitors and discovered it was the witch herself now that was attacking him. “Ha!” he cried. “So now it’s face to face. Prepare to have some smile!” And Stefan blasted the witch back.
The powers collided. The golden fire coming out of the tank’s canon was in contact with the pink blast of the witch. The golden fire recoiled and attacked with the pink blast and vice versa.
BOOOOOM!
The Witch of Unhappy Childhood was defeated. Her pink blast along with the fire from Stefan’s tank came to her and she was thrown backwards.
“HURRRAAAYYY!” The toys rejoiced.
Twenty Five
Hang on for a moment. I know you can’t believe that Betsy the Boomerang, Gerry the Giraffe, and Bella the Ballerina had the courage to fight the Serious Shadows despite of their sizes. Of course they did. But imagine the pain they had to suffer.
After a series of attack, the poor toys had been lying on the floor, dying with their limbs torn away.
How sad it was what happened to the three toys and to many others in Toy Haven that night. The Witch of Unhappy Childhood was herself, the victor. The Serious Shadows were going to suck all childishness out of the wizard himself. And the witch would kill her with her Secret Weapon.
Hang on again. Do you think this is a story with a tragic end?
The three Serious Shadows who defeated Betsy and Gerry and Bella in the rumble hovered around the Wizard of Toys’ bed. They’re hungry. They’re going to feed on his childishness.
One of the three gave a shrill cry to call the others.
More dark creatures came in the chamber.
And more and more and more…
KAAAZZZZAAAAMMM!
All of the Serious Shadows fell lifeless on the ground with smiles on their faces.
For the wizard has woken and destroyed them with one powerful green blast.
Yes, the Wizard of Toys couldn’t be woken by anyone other than himself. But the Serious Shadows weren’t anyone or anybody or someone or somebody. They’re nothing. And the shrill cry done by one of them just woke the wizard from his slumber.
Do you still think this story has a tragic end?
Twenty Six
Is she dead? Stefan Jacoby thought. He could see the toys around the tank rejoicing. I got to be sure. The witch is bad…and some of her dark creatures are still in the castle.
But somehow, after some minutes, there wasn’t any vengeful attack from the witch after the blast. Maybe she’s dead.
Stefan decided to come out of the tank to join the toys rejoicing. He heard tiny applauses when he was out finally.
“Long live Stefan, Blaster of the Shadows!”
“Long live Stefan, Bane of the Witch!”
“Long live Stefan, Savior of Toy Haven!”
Stefan grinned and waved at the toys he just saved accepting their admirations and greetings.
“Thanks…”
“You’re welcome…”
“With pleasure…”
All was well.
But someone so surprisingly appeared on the scene.
“Miss Boore?” Stefan muttered seeing his private teacher in her usual black dress. “What are you doing here? How did you find this place?” He asked. It seemed that he had forgotten everything about his teacher. He only missed a lesson with her that morning but it seemed a long time ago.
“Stefan…Oh, my very intelligent student…I found you at last…” Miss Boore said catching her breath.
“What happened? Are you alright?”
“Yes, my dear,” Miss Boore replied. “But I lost my strength searching for you…I was worried this morning when I came and you weren’t in the porch…and so I followed you…and I came into this place…”
Twenty Seven
Stefan was very curious. How did Miss Boore found Toy Haven? She looked for me just to discuss Algebra and the culture or the aborigines?
“I don’t understand, Miss Boore…how did you follow me?” Stefan asked at last.
But then, Miss Boore grinned like a mad woman. “Because I am not just Miss Boore!” she screamed. “I am the Witch of Unhappy Childhood and I’m here to claim you back!”
And Stefan remembered his dream that night. I should have known…
In a wink of an eye, Miss Boore transformed into her witch appearance.
The toys who had been rejoicing a while ago had been shrieking in fear again.
“The witch is alive!”
“The witch is alive!”
“The witch is alive!”
“Come back to me, Stefan,” the Witch of Unhappy Childhood said. “We were happy with your lessons before you met the wizard, isn’t? You’re a very serious child and you’ll be successful when you grow up. Come with me…your IQ should reach as high as Newton and Galileo and Einstein…”
“No!” replied Stefan, his heart full of anger. “You’re an evil witch! You fooled me…you stole my childhood away from me! Yes, I enjoyed learning a lot. But playing with toys are more enjoyable. And you took away my chance to do all what a child should do.”
“It’s not true! I’m preparing you for a brighter future!”
“Liar! You wanted me to grow up sad. You deprived me of happy childhood memories!”
The witch was speechless. It seemed that she ran out of words before she replied, “Well then, Stefan Jacoby, you’ve been a very bad student tonight. I’m giving you an A- grade!”
“I don’t care anymore! Let me worry about grades when I grow up! Let me have fun! Let me play with toys! Let me be a child!”
What Stefan said brought the witch’s anger to the highest level. And without a word, she raised her hands and cast a spell, her Secret Weapon, towards the boy.
Twenty Eight
The Wizard of Toys saw everything that the Witch of Unhappy Childhood had done with the Serious Shadows. “This is unspeakable! This is unacceptable!” the wizard said.
He showered his magic golden dusts to Betsy and Gerry and Bella and they were all well.
“Wizard, we got to help the child!”
“He’s all alone by himself!”
“The witch is very dangerous!”
And hearing it, the wizard set off to find the boy.
“Get old naughty child,” the witch said cursing. “Get old and think seriously. Enough of your childishness! Feel the pain of my Worry Wave. Worry about your life, of the people around you. It’s disgusting to be a child, not worrying at all!”
Stefan was powerless and he was vulnerable to the witch’s evil spell. But before he collapsed…
“Childish Charm!” the Wizard Toys yelled when he arrived on the scene. Then he chanted his own spell to repel the enemy’s dark magic. “Protect this child from worry for he’s just a child. Shield us, Childish Charm, shield us from the Worry Wave now!”
It was a clash between good and evil. Black light from the Witch of Unhappy Childhood’s hands collided with the Wizard of Toys’ white light.
“Give up you crazy old fat wizard!”
“You’re very evil. I won’t give up this child to you!”
“Thanks for the compliment. But I must get the child…he’s mine!”
Feeling dizzy, Stefan opened his eyes and saw what’s happening. The Wizard of Toys had woken up and he rescued him from the witch.
“Miss Boore!” he forced his weakened self to shout at his teacher who was the witch. “Miss Boore! Please! Stop this now…I…I just want to be a child…”
“WHAT?!” the witch screamed. “Don’t say that!”
“Please…give me what I want…I choose…I choose to be a child…”
BOOOOOM! The white light defeated the black.
The Witch of Unhappy Childhood was vanquished.
Twenty Nine
Toy Haven was safe now.
The evil witch was gone and so were her dark creatures.
The Wizard of Toys showered his golden dusts everywhere and what used to be the beautiful Toy Haven was back as it was.
The night was over. The sun was peeking on the horizon.
The toys were also back with themselves good as new. And they were rejoicing at their victory over the Witch of Unhappy Childhood.
“Long live Toy Haven!”
“Long live the Wizard of Toys!”
“Long live Stefan Jacoby!”
“Thank you, Stefan Jacoby,” the Wizard of Toys spoke to Stefan last. “Without you, this place will be gone forever.”
Stefan, however, had meeting eyebrows. “Why thank me, Mr. Wizardoftoys? It wasn’t me who defeated the witch. It was you.”
“I couldn’t do it without you, Stefan Jacoby,” the wizard explained with his eyes watery with tears of joy. “It was your choice that made me win over the witch. You chose to be a child. And so you are.”
“Is the witch gone then?”
“Well, not really. She cannot be destroyed as long as I exist. It’s a balance. Some children want to grow up fast, so they need the witch’s help. But some children like you who love to be a child needs me. Then I will always be of help.”
“What about the witch’s dark creatures? Oh my, they were such terrible things…”
“Oh, they’re called the Serious Shadows by the way, and they’re her servants. They’re nothing. They suck childishness out of people and turn them serious like them. Anything childish is fatal to them. That’s why they were easily destroyed with the Pediafier’s blasts.”
“The tank you mean?”
“Yes. Though, it’s not really a tank. It’s my Pediafier, my ultimate weapon against the witch. Once you’re hit by the blast from the canon, you are instantly filled with childishness.”
“Amazing!” cried Stefan who remembered the Serious Shadows’ smiling faces when they fell from the sky after being hit.
And Stefan told the wizard how the attack began and what happened and how he was disappointed to know that his private teacher, Miss Boore, was the Witch of Unhappy Childhood in disguise.
“Stefan! You’re such a hero!” Betsy the Boomerang, Gerry the Giraffe, and Bella the Ballerina chorused.
“Thanks, my friends. You were heroes as well.” Stefan replied and embraced his friends.
Everything seemed to be back to order in Toy Haven. That very day, a monument was erected at the heart of the magical place, in the memory of Stefan Jacoby, Blaster of the Shadows, Bane of the Witch, Savior of Toy Haven.
And on that day also, Stefan left Toy Haven not to see it ever again.
“Wizard, we want Stefan to own us,” Betsy and Gerry and Bella chorused. And their wish was granted.
Thirty
Dr. Ivan Jacoby and Mrs. Stella Jacoby had fallen asleep in the sofa waiting for the sheriff’s updates about their missing son.
The doctor was dreaming he and Stefan were playing catch in the park and Stefan was very very happy.
The teller was dreaming she brought Stefan in the mall and bought him toys and Stefan was very very happy.
Nanny Fanny never fell asleep. She cried all night because she felt she’s responsible with Stefan’s disappearance.
When the doorbell rang, it was, of course, Nanny Fanny who first heard of it.
RIIIIING!
RIIIIING!
RIIIIING!
The nanny opened the gate.
“Nanny Fanny!” Stefan cried and hugged his nanny.
Nanny Fanny was speechless. Her dear Stefan’s back. “Oh darling!” she said at last. “Oh…were have you been? I’m sorry I didn’t take care of you well. Forgive me…your nanny loves you very much…”
“I’m fine…I’m fine…I’m fine…”
“Stefan?” Dr. Jacoby and Mrs. Jacoby chorused when they saw their son with the nanny. The heard the noise and woke up and their son was back indeed.
“I missed you,” Stefan’s father said and hugged him so tight.
“I missed you too,” Stefan’s mother said and kissed him on the cheek for so long.
“I missed everybody,” Stefan said.
“But where have you been?” asked the doctor, the teller, and the nanny.
“He was with me,” said an old man’s voice who appeared from outside the gate. The Wizard of Toys was wearing a white coat this time.
“Oh yes, I’ve been with Mr. Wizardoftoys yesterday and last night,” explained Stefan. “Mr. Wizardoftoys, this is my Mom and Dad and Nanny Fanny.”
“I’m pleased to meet you,” the wizard said.
“How dare you!” Mrs. Jacoby yelled.
“You kidnapped our son!” Dr. Jacoby yelled.
“I’ll call the sheriff!” Nanny Fanny yelled.
“Wait!” cried Stefan. “Mr. Wizardoftoys didn’t kidnap me. I went with him.”
“Oh dear, did this old man harm you?” said Dr. Jacoby.
“Did he leave you starving?” Mrs. Jacoby said.
“Did he show you a deadly weapon?” Nanny Fanny said.
Stefan just replied, “No.”
“Then what did this Mr. Wizardoftoys has done to you?” chorused the doctor and the teller and the nanny.
“He brought me to a place that is so beautiful and that I was never happier in my whole life being there!”
“He didn’t harm you?”
“He didn’t leave you starving?”
“He didn’t show you any deadly weapon?”
“He didn’t,” Stefan concluded. “I had so much fun!” And with that, Stefan’s parents and his nanny were relieved.
“I thought we lost you forever,” Nanny Fanny said.
“Oh dear, your Dad and I loves you so much and we don’t know what we’ll do without you here in our arms,” Mrs. Jacoby said.
“And we couldn’t have realized that if Mr. Wizardoftoys here hadn’t brought you away to a place that is so beautiful and that you never felt happier in your whole life,” Dr. Jacoby said.
“Thank you very much,” the three chorused.
“Always my pleasure to give kids a happy childhood,” replied the wizard. “See that, Stefan? I told you they’ll gonna thank me.”
Stefan then heard a whispered goodbye and the wizard vanished and he never saw the fat old man again…ever.
Epilogue
Stefan Jacoby spent the remaining years of his childhood with a lot of happy memories.
His parents decided to send him on a school so that he could play with other kids.
His teachers were kind and understanding, unlike someone he knew in the past.
His father, the doctor, always brought him in the park.
His mother, the teller, always brought him in the mall.
His nanny, who never saw a toy too, was pleased when she met Betsy and Gerry and Bella.
His IQ did reach as high as that of Newton and Galileo and Einstein…but that was many many years after when he became a great great doctor like his father.
So here ends the story of the boy who asked what a toy is and knew what it is. And before I end this story, I beg your pardon for writing everything in past tense. Because the Wizard of Toys is not just a ‘was’. He is also an ‘is’.*
Somewhere in the world, in a place that looks the same as yours, there was this boy who asked, “What is a toy?”
His name was Stefan Jacoby. He’s eight years old but he thinks like an eighteen-year-old or unbelievably, an eighty-year-old. But, unlike any other children in the world, Stefan had no idea what is a toy. Why is that so? Well, this is his story.
His father, Ivan Jacoby, was a busy doctor who worked six days a week. The clinic was his real home, and their house in the village was, for him, nothing but a structure for sleeping, eating, and washing his car on weekends.
One day, when his father was at home washing his car, Stefan asked, “Dad, what is a toy?”
Dr. Jacoby was very busy so as a quick reply, he said, “A toy is something you do not need in life.”
“Okay,” Stefan muttered.
Stefan’s mother, on the other hand, Stella Jacoby, worked as a teller and was as busy as her husband. The bank was her real home and their house in the village was, for her, nothing but a structure for bathing, cooking, and watering her orchids on weekends.
One day, when his mother was at home, Stefan asked, “Mom, what is a toy?”
Mrs. Jacoby was also very busy so as a quick reply, he said, “A toy is something you buy with no use at all.”
“Okay,” Stefan muttered. “So a toy is something I don’t need in life and is something I buy with no use at all.”
Two
Stefan had a nanny and her name is Fanny. The nanny came from a province so far far away that Stefan would wish to go there every time Fanny told him her stories.
“In our province, you know what, there are super long rivers and super high waterfalls…”
“There are super wild chickens and water buffaloes with bodies super glistening with mud…”
“There are caves with super huge bats too many to count…”
“And there are giant hundred-year-old trees entangled with super colorful flowering vines!”
“WOW!” Stefan would say with his two dreamy eyes wide open.
One day, while his nanny was in the kitchen preparing his porridge, Stefan asked, “Nanny Fanny, what is a toy?”
“A toy?” Fanny repeated. “A toy is…I dunno what is a toy.”
With meeting eyebrows, Stefan replied, “Dad said it is something I don’t need in life. Mom said it is something you buy with no use at all. How about you? You must have any idea about what a toy is.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry darling…I really dunno what is a toy. Though, I heard of it once and asked my parents about it. They said it’s something we couldn’t afford to have.”
“So you haven’t seen a toy? Or smelled it? Tasted it? Heard of it? Touched any of it?”
“Never Stefan…never in my whole life.”
Poor little Stefan. How much he wanted to know what is a toy but no one seemed to give him a very clear meaning.
What is a toy?
What is a toy?
What is a toy?
Three
It was on the previous Christmas that Stefan first heard of the word ‘toy’. They got a new neighbor beside their house in the village, the Maverick family. Mr. and Mrs. Maverick were rarely seen around, though, since they had a business out of town. Only their four children named Marnie, Jonel, Ivee, and Lolie were always left in their house, taken care by a nanny named Nellie who was a cousin of the children.
That Christmas, his father gave Stefan a book for a gift. It was The Lord of the Flies by William Golding. “Read it as fast as you can. It’s about the true nature of evil,” the doctor said giving his son the book wrapped in blue with white ribbons.
So as fast as he could, young Stefan read the classic novel about the true nature of evil. He was at the porch that Christmas morning and was halfway to finishing the book when he heard the Maverick kids talking to each other beyond the tall wooden fence that divided their blocks.
“Hey Marnie, give me back my toy,” Jonel said.
“Here, get it. My toy is far better than yours,” Marnie said.
“Take a look at this. This toy is the best!” Lolie said.
“Say for yourself. My toy is the prettiest of all the gifts of Santa last night,” Ivee said.
And there was laughter.
Back at the porch of the house beyond the tall wooden fence, Stefan closed his book and wondered what the Maverick kids had meant by the word ‘toy’.
Is it a thing?
Is it a place?
Is it a person?
Four
Stefan Jacoby learned to read when he was five years old. When he was seven, he could read faster than his Nanny Fanny who came from a province so far far away. If other boys of his age were fanatic to Transformers, Power Rangers, and Spiderman, Stefan, on the other hand, was fanatic to Aristotle, William Shakespeare, and Edgar Allan Poe.
And if you are a boy, then, Stefan’s room might be far different from yours. While you might have a television in front of your bed complete with a DVD player and video games, Stefan got only a huge glass window with a telescope erected to the heavens.
“No television,” his father once told him. “TVs are for big people like us.”
While you got yourself a cabinet full of your mini plastic soldiers and matchbox cars and marbles and tops and water pistols, Stefan’s cabinet, on the other hand, was loaded with books and books and books.
At the topmost part of the cabinet were the medical books of his father, the doctor, reserved for him in case he would want to take up Medicine someday.
Next down from the top were the math books of his mother, the teller, reserved for him in case he would want to take up Accountancy someday.
On the third was a complete set of thick Brittanica encyclopedias.
On the fourth partition were the various books of knowledge that were of Stefan’s interest: World History, Geography, Literature, Astronomy, and Archaeology.
And at the bottommost part was a locked partition, containing all of Stefan’s collection of novels with authors ranging from Hemingway, Dumas, and Wilde to Verne, Doyle, and Woolf and many other contemporary novelists.
“What is a toy?” Stefan asked himself one day while browsing his collection. “Is it more enjoying than any of my books?”
Five
His parents didn’t want Stefan to study in a school because they wanted a focused teaching for their son. So, they hired Miss Boore when Stefan was three years old to become his private teacher. A thin woman who was always wearing black, Miss Boore taught Stefan in their house in the village, every morning from Monday to Friday.
Obviously, it wasn’t a tough job for the private teacher. The boy she was teaching was a child prodigy.
On a warm Tuesday morning, Stefan was on the garden lawn with Miss Boore for new lesson.
“Stefan, our lesson for today is about insects,” Miss Boore said with a smile which, as Stefan always thought, not a smile at all. “Now, I’ll point at any insect I see here in the garden and you’ll tell what it is. Are you ready?”
“Yes, Miss Boore.”
The teacher spotted a dragonfly resting on a leafless shrub nearby and pointed at it.
“A dragonfly…order Odonata.”
“Very good,” Miss Boore commented. “You didn’t forget about our last week’s taxonomy. What about...that?” She pointed another creature.
“A grasshopper…order Orthoptera.”
And so on…
“Danaus plexippus, a specie of butterflies.”
“Apis mellifera, a bee that collects nectar and makes honey.”
“Myrmica rubra, red ants!”
“Miss Boore, that is not an insect.”
There was silence for a moment.
“Uhoh? Are you sure this is not an insect?”
“Yes teacher. It’s an earthworm and it’s an annelid. It has no jointed legs unlike the insects who are under Phylum Arthropoda.”
“Excellent young man! You got an A+ in Biology today.”
Since when did Stefan’s teacher give him below A+? She never did.
Yes, Stefan was very intellectual for his age. But Miss Boore still had to teach him more. Her aim was for his young student’s intelligence quotient to reach 150.
The teacher and the student were about to leave the garden when Stefan grabbed the sleeves of Miss Boore and asked, “Teacher, what is a toy?”
Miss Boore thought for a while and replied, “A toy? It’s something you are forbidden to know.”
“Why is that so?”
“Do you remember our lesson about cultural taboos? Well, it’s a taboo for a child to know what a toy is. Understand?”
“Okay.”
A toy is something not accepted in society.
A toy is something one should be shameful about.
A toy can cause a person suffer a severe penalty.
Six
Of course you are familiar with the Tooth Fairy, the genies in Persia, and the fairy godmothers that fascinated you in the fantasy stories you have read before. How you wish your wishes will be granted too, right? How wonderful something impossible becomes possible in just a wink of an eye.
But I bet my thumb, you’re not familiar with the Wizard of Toys who could also make your dreams come true. He’s not in Cinderella, or in Snow White, or in Sleeping Beauty, or in any magical tales you’ve heard before. That wizard only appeared in this story.
To give you a brief description about the Wizard of Toys, well, he’s a fat old man whose beard was reaching his huge protruding belly. He wore a white tunic covered with a long cloak in the color of midnight, embroidered with suns and moons and stars.
And he did magic, of course. In fact, he lived in place that he himself had made and that was untraceable anywhere else in this world. Don’t you worry; however, you’ll be visiting that place soon as we go along with Stefan’s story.
The Wizard of Toys was always happy. And even though tears would fall from his eyes at times, those were of joy of seeing children all over the world fascinated by the wonderful toys he had given them.
Some said he was Santa Claus. But he’s not that fat old man in red pajamas riding on a sleigh driven by reindeers. Why not? Well, the Wizard of Toys would give toys to any boys and girls whether they had been good or bad. And he did it not only in December.
Unknown to Stefan and to his Mom and Dad and to Nanny Annie and even to Miss Boore, the Wizard of Toys heard everything they said in the house. For the wizard got thousands of detachable ears that he usually left on the walls, in the ceilings, on the floors, in any part of the house disguised as lizard or rat poops.
The wizard wasn’t comfortable with the Jacoby’s house then. For as what he heard, the little boy of the family, Stefan, was being deprived of toys.
“It’s horrible! It’s unforgivable! It isn’t fair keeping a child like him from the wonders of toys!”
And so, to sort things out, the Wizard of Toys decided to pay young Stefan a visit.
Seven
“Bye Mom!” Stefan kissed his mother who is going to work.
“You study hard young man. When you grow up, you got to be a bank teller like me, or better yet, a bank manager,” his mother replied.
“Bye Dad!”
“Did you read that Anatomy book I showed you last weekend? When you grow up, you got to be a doctor like me, or better yet, a surgeon,” Stefan’s father replied.
The doctor and the teller were gone going to the clinic and to the bank. Their son was left with his nanny who would then get him ready for Miss Boore’s lesson.
Stefan took a nice warm tub bath.
He wore his favorite Jimmy Neutron shirt.
He ate his breakfast, bacon and rice and a warm glass of milk.
When Stefan was ready for another day of nonstop discussion with his Miss Boore, he proceeded to the porch with a thick Algebra book clutched in his left hand, and five National Geographic magazines clutched in his right.
He wished Miss Boore to come late that morning. He hated Algebra as much as his mother loved it.
RIIIIING! The doorbell rang.
Stefan waited for her Nanny Fanny to open the gate.
RIIIIING! The doorbell rang again.
It seemed that Stefan’s nanny is in the bathroom, taking her bath.
RIIIIING! The doorbell rang for the third time.
And so, Stefan dropped his Algebra book and National Geographic magazines on his little armed chair in the porch and went to open the gate.
Eight
“Good morning, little master!” The wizard greeted with a wide wide grin.
Of course, Stefan didn’t recognize him as the great Wizard of Toys who gives dolls and yoyos and kites and balls and other things in the world that give joy to children.
“Good morning, Sir.”
Stefan greeted back to the old fat bearded man who was supposed to be wearing a white tunic covered with a long cloak in the color of midnight and embroidered with suns and moons and stars. Instead, the Wizard of Toys was wearing what is called a camouflage uniform usually worn by soldiers at war.
“May I help you?” Stefan asked curiously.
“Oh dear,” the wizard replied with a chuckle. “I ask for no help…but I can help you.”
“Help me? How can you help me?”
“I KNOW WHAT A TOY IS.”
Stefan’s eyes widened that instant. “Really, Sir? I want to know what is toy!”
“Oh dear, you will know what a toy is on this very day. But first things first. Here’s your ticket for our wonderful trip.” The Wizard of Toys gave Stefan a silver ticket with nothing but printed smileys on both sides. “I need a ‘Yes’. Stefan Ivanoverick Jacoby, will you go with me to Toy Haven?”
“Yes!”
“Then climb aboard!”
A huge tank appeared out of nowhere and stopped in front Stefan and the wizard. “WOW!” Stefan quipped. He was amazed seeing a real tank for the first time in his life (because he only used to see it in the books). He climbed up the vehicle with the wizard still on a camouflage uniform.
Stefan was even more amazed when he was inside the tank. He was surrounded by colorful monitors with some buttons blinking below. “WOW!” Stefan muttered again. He used to read articles about space ships and it seemed now that he’s inside one of them.
“The Pediafier shall warp in five seconds…five…four…three…two…”
The wizard’s magical tank burst to life and after speeding a few meters, it vanished leaving bright golden dusts on the street.
Nine
“Where’s my student?” Miss Boore asked Nanny Fanny when she arrived. She saw the nanny crying at the porch with the Algebra book and National Geographic magazines on her lap.
“Where’s Stefan?” Miss Boore asked again.”
Sobs. “I dunno, Miss Boore.” Sobs. “I was in the bathroom.” Sobs. “When I came here…” Sobs. “…Stefan’s gone and that gate is open.” Sobs more.
“What?!” Miss Boore said in such a loud voice that it stopped Nanny Fanny from sobbing. “How did it ha---ACHOOOOOH!” She sneezed. And after a few seconds, the private teacher was scarlet as crushed tomatoes.
Miss Boore knew what’s happening.
“This is despicable! This is abominable!” Miss Boore screamed at the top of her lungs. “That crazy wizard took away one of my students again! He’ll pay for this. This is too much! This will be the end of him!”
Frightened by the sudden change of Miss Boore, Nanny Fanny entered the house and closed the doors in case something bad would happen. Miss Boore, on the other hand, ran to the gate and out to the street where stood a few hours ago, the Wizard of Toys and his magical tank.
There, on the very spot, she sneezed like someone who got flu. This is the point of revelation. Brace yourselves, for Miss Boore was none other than, the Witch of Unhappy Childhood in disguise, an evil woman whose only purpose of existence was to steal from children the joy of being children.
She’s allergic to her enemy’s golden dusts that were scattered on the ground. “Argh!” the witch scowled. Her face was redder as she cursed, “Stefan is mine! I’ll destroy you Wizard of Toys! Never again you will give joy to children all over the world after I kill you tonigh---ACHOOOOOH!”
And like the magical tank that appeared out of nowhere and vanished a few hours ago, the Witch of Unhappy Childhood, who was also Miss Boore, vanished on the street leaving a thick black smoke.
Ten
Toy Haven was untraceable even by what scientists call as ‘radar’ or ‘sonar’ if it’s underwater. If the magical place created by the Wizard of Toys himself was on the clouds, then, no aircrafts had ever seen it or landed on it.
But once you’re inside the magical tank with your silver ticket printed with smileys on both sides with the Wizard of Toys himself beside you, then, the entry to Toy Haven would be easy as pie.
Stefan, in his excitement, didn’t know how long the travel took. The wizard gave him a handful of sweets and while he ate them one by one, the monitors around him flashed images of stars and planets and meteors and asteroids and stripes and swirls and tiny confetti. Voila! There’s broad daylight all of the sudden and what was now appearing on the monitors were images of a strange colorful town.
“Welcome to Toy Haven, Stefan Jacoby,” the wizard said. Stefan was shocked to see he’s no longer wearing the camouflage uniform but rather his real clothes, the white tunic covered with a cloak the color of midnight embroidered with suns and moons and stars.
“This is Toy Haven?”
“Yes this is, Stefan, the place I built a long long time ago to give happiness to children like you. And everything you see here answers the very question you’ve been asking everybody. They are toys! And before I forget, I am the Wizard of Toys.”
“WOW!” Stefan said in his utmost delight. “Mr. Wizardoftoys, can we go out of tank now? I want to see the toys! Oh, if only my Nanny Fanny were here…”
“I know you’re very much excited young man. We’ll stop by my castle first for a welcoming feast,” replied the wizard who pushed a button the slowed down the vehicle they’re riding.
When they’re out of the tank at last, Stefan was fascinated more.
“WOW!”
“WOW!”
“WOW!”
Eleven
Meanwhile, inside a toilet of a dark castle that was also untraceable by any radar or sonar, Miss Boore or the Witch of Unhappy Childhood was planning her move to get back Stefan from the clutches of the wizard.
Water water in the toilet bowl
Tell me where is the Wizard’s hall.
She had been repeating the verse again and again but the water in the toilet bowl was clear as newly flushed.
“Argh!” the witch scowled. Of course, the wizard’s whereabouts was beyond her magic’s knowledge. “Think…think…there must be a way I could reach that fat old man’s place.”
Water water on the toilet bowl
Tell me where is the Wizard’s hall.
The water remained clear.
Frustrated at last, the witch spat at the toilet bowl and went out of the toilet very angry. She sped her way into a dark misty corridor.
“This is terrible! This is intolerable!” she screamed. “I got to find that fat old wizard as soon as possible!” With that, she kicked a wooden chest that had been placed wrongly in the aisle. He kick was so hard that the chest toppled down displacing its contents out into the floor.
The Witch of Unhappy Childhood saw what she never wanted to see again, things that reminded her of her very unhappy childhood. There was an ugly doll with missing arms, broken pieces of jackstones, and a tight entangled skipping rope.
“Argh!” she scowled again.
But the terrible sight gave her a very clever idea.
Twelve
Imagine Teddy bears and dolls and robots that move like people.
Imagine rubber balls that bounce by themselves and tops that spin by themselves.
Imagine kites and paper planes that hover by themselves.
Imagine toy cars, no controls and batteries but still run by themselves.
Imagine little plastic tambourines and drums and xylophones that sound by themselves.
Those and other wonderful toys amazed Stefan Jacoby when he and the Wizard of Toys arrived in the castle.
“Toys are everything, Stefan. Toys are friends. Toys give children happy childhoods,” the wizard said. It was the best meaning of the word ‘toy’ Stefan had ever heard.
“Amazing,” replied Stefan whose eyes were never tired marveling at the things he had never seen before. “But Mr. Wizardoftoys, what do I do with the toys?”
“You play with them,” the wizard answered.
“Play?” Stefan heard the word for the first time in his life.
“Yes, you play with them. You talk to them pretending they’re alive and real since they don’t move like that back in your world.
“My toys are my people here in Toy Haven. When one of them decides to have a child to own them, I give them freely to the child as a gift.
“In this place, the toys are alive because of the life my magical golden dusts give them. Once they enter your world, they lose that life. It is the children’s responsibility then to give them life. That is, by playing with them.”
“This is incredible! This is the coolest fact I’ve ever heard in my whole life!” Stefan quipped. “Indeed, toys are more interesting and enjoyable than any of my books.”
Needless of permission, Stefan played with the toys for the very first time. He was never been so happy.
He wished to live in Toy Haven forever.
Thirteen
Miss Boore, or as what you already knew, the Witch of Unhappy Childhood, came back in the village that afternoon. She sneezed so badly yet she collected the golden dusts that had been scattering on the street in front of the Jacoby’s house. Those golden dusts, as you know, came from the Wizard of Toys himself.
And after she got a handful of the golden dusts, she entered the premises, not of the Jacobys but of the Maverick family instead next door.
“Open or I’ll crush you,” the witch whispered to the gate. And the gate swung open.
The Mavericks’ house was deserted that afternoon. Marnie, Jonel, Ivee , and Lolie were brought to the park by their Nanny Nellie to play with their new shiatsu. But that’s good news to the evil witch. She wasn’t after the kids after all. She was after their toys.
Miss Boore reached the children’s shared bedroom. She saw their toys on each of their beds. She disgusted them. “What foul things these are, giving children nothing but a world of their own,” she said to herself. She snapped her fingers and magically, her hands were coated in leathery black gloves. Then she collected the toys and placed them on a table.
She sprinkled golden dusts to a windup helicopter that belonged to Marnie.
She sprinkled golden dusts to a Superman action figure that belonged to Jonel.
She sprinkled golden dusts to a Barbie doll that belonged to Ivee.
And lastly, she sprinkled golden dusts to a dolphin stuffed toy that belonged to Lolie.
The toys magically burst to life. And the witch talked to them one by one.
“You unrealistic flying vehicle, tell me where the wizard’s place is or I will chop your tail off!”
“You unrealistic super hero, tell me where the wizard’s place is or I will tear one of your limbs!”
“You unrealistic pretty princess, tell me where the wizard’s place is or else I will cut that long hair or yours!”
“You unrealistic sea creature, tell me where the wizard’s place is or I will get all the stuff out of you!”
The toys screamed in terror with their tiny voices. They were afraid to be harmed by the Witch of Unhappy Childhood disguised as Miss Boore. They plead for mercy but the witch was merciless.
fourteen
Stefan had fun with the toys the whole afternoon. He met different puppets and jacks-in-the-box and rattles and flying Frisbees and thousands of other toys. He’s the only child in the place but it seemed to him, still, that he was surrounded by real people.
“Children should live in this place,” Stefan said. “This is so much fun! Does Mr. Wizardoftoys bring other kids here also to pay with you?”
“He rarely brings kids here. You very lucky Stefan,” said Betsy, a boomerang.
“The wizard brings here those kids who had been victims of the witch,” said Gerry, a plastic giraffe.
“The witch? What witch?” Stefan asked curiously.
“The Witch of Unhappy Childhood! She’s the enemy of the wizard. She loves taking away the joy of children while they’re young as your age,” answered Bella, a ballerina who came out of her box to dance.
Stefan gulped. “Oh, that’s sad-”
“Not just sad. It’s uncomfortable. It’s unbearable,” the Wizard of Toys said joining the conversation after appearing from nowhere. “But don’t you worry Stefan Jacoby, you are very far from her as of the moment. The truth is, I just delivered you from her this morning. I grabbed the opportunity when you thought you didn’t want to see her.”
“But who is she, Mr. Wizardoftoys? I’ve never met any witch before, never in my entire life.”
“Of course you’ve met here. The wicked witch is expert at disguises.”
Fifteen
In the Jacobys’ house, Dr. and Mrs. Jacoby where home. And poor Nanny Fanny, she had no choice but to tell the truth about Stefan’s disappearance. About Miss Boore’s weird behavior, however, she kept it to herself.
“I told him to wait for his private teacher here in the porch. When I came out from the bathroom, I was stunned that he’s gone…” the nanny was explaining.
“Maybe the gate was left unlocked when we left this morning. And he followed us into our offices,” Mrs. Jacoby said.
“Maybe, maybe not. What I fear is that our little Stefan might be kidnapped!”
“Good Lord!” cried Nanny Fanny. “I’m so sorry for my negligence Dr. Jacoby…it’s…it’s my fault…If only I-”
“It’s alright, Fanny,” Mrs. Jacoby rubbed the nanny’s back for comfort. “We do not blame you. We understand.”
“Honey, we need to call the sheriff,” the doctor then suggested.
And after 30 minutes, a chubby sheriff arrived in the house. The doctor and the father explained. The bank teller and the mother explained. And lastly, the nanny explained.
While Nanny Fanny was being questioned by the authority, the worried Dr. and Mrs. Jacoby were talking to each other in the sofa.
“It’s my entire fault. I shouldn’t have forced our son to study hard and become a doctor like me, or worse, a surgeon,” said the Dr. Jacoby.
“It’s my entire fault. I shouldn’t have forced our son to study hard and become a bank teller like me, or worse, a bank manager,” said Mrs. Jacoby.
“If only…”
“If only…”
“If only…”
“When my Stefan is back here in my arms, I’ll drive him to the park to play with other kids.”
“When my Stefan is back here in my arms, I’ll bring him to the mall and buy any toy he wants.”
Sixteen
Back in Toy Haven, Stefan thought the place wouldn’t run out of daylight. But as they afternoon deepened, the sky above them was beginning to dim. And later on, the moon and the stars were out to give their lights.
Toy Haven was embraced by darkness but its beauty was never lost. For the structures around that housed thousands of happy toys glowed in the dark.
“WOW!” Stefan muttered to himself seeing Toy Haven glowing by nightfall.
He was invited by the Wizard of Toys to have dinner with him in the castle. He would also be spending the night there. It saddened him, knowing that he would be home the next day.
“Mr. Wizardoftoys, might I ask about my Mom and Dad and my Nanny Fanny…aren’t they worried at home?”
“Of course they’re worried because they care for you. Your Mom and Dad will be looking for you tonight…but I tell you, when I’ll bring you safe home tomorrow, they won’t be mad at me but rather thank me instead.”
“I hope so.”
The evening was deepening and Toy Haven became more and more silent with every tick of the cuckoo clock. After dinner, the wizard brought Stefan Jacoby to his room in the castle.
“WOW!” Stefan cried seeing the huge room with a four-poster bed. “Am I sleeping here all alone?”
“You can invite some of your toy friends if you want.”
“Yipee!”
And so, Stefan invited his friends Betsy the Boomerang, Gerry the Giraffe, and Bella the Ballerina to sleep with him in his beautiful room.
“Good night, Stefan,” said Betsy.
“Good night, Stefan,” said Gerry.
“Good night, Stefan,” said Bella.
“Sweet dreams my friends!” said Stefan.
And they all went to sleep.
Seventeen
The Witch of Unhappy Childhood was successful at extracting information from the Maverick kids’ toys about the whereabouts of the wizard that created them. She laughed in delight when she reached the beautiful Toy Haven at last. For many years she tried to find it but failed. But now was her very chance. She would destroy everything. She would kill her arch-nemesis, the Wizard of Toys.
“What a disgusting place this is,” the witch said. “I can’t imagine children living in this place so much having fun with toys. Children ought to be serious while they’re young. Why should they waste their time playing with such filth-ACHOOOOOH!” The witch’s skin was at the reddest now, with all the wizard’s golden dusts present in the air she breathed.
“Tonight,” she continued after blowing her nose with her black handkerchief, “Toy Heaven will be destroyed, and so is the one who created- ACHOOOOOH!”
The witch then reached for her cauldron inside her pocket. You might be wondering how a large thing such as a cauldron could fit in her pocket. Well, dark magic.
She poured a black liquid from a vial into the cauldron. Then she added some black leaves and black pebbles, and a smelly dead black cat.
Then she chanted:
Black cat, black leaves, and black pebbles
Bring me now my dear Serious Shadows.
The cauldron boiled at once and there came sprouting from the black liquid the dreadful black figures with mouths that never smiled.
“Rise from the blackness, my dear Serious Shadows. Rise and destroy everything childish!”
Eighteen
ROOOOAAAAARRRRRRR!
The toys in Toy Haven that were already asleep were disturbed by the sudden loud noises.
“What is it?”
“What is it?”
“What is it?”
They came out of their glowing houses and there in the night sky they saw the dreadful Serious Shadows hovering and roaring and destroying anything they passed by. The toys shrieked in fear.
“Help us!”
“Help us!”
“Help us!”
The colorful structures in Toy Haven were ruined by the dark creatures one by one. And they crushed the toys, tore some of their parts, and kicked them and threw them and dropped them smashed them hard.
“Where’s the wizard?!”
“Where’s the wizard?!”
“Where’s the wizard?!”
“This is pleasurable…this is enjoyable…” the cruel Witch of Unhappy Childhood said seeing all that was happening. She let out a nightmarish laughter of victory.
Nineteen
Stefan was dreaming on his comfortable four-poster bed. He’s having a new lesson with Miss Boore, his private teacher whose favorite color was black.
“Stefan, do you know what a well is?” Miss Boore asked.
“Yes teacher,” Stefan replied enthusiastically. “It’s a hole dug on the ground where people get fresh water.”
“Very good. You are reading quite a lot. But you ought to see a real well and your knowledge about it are not enough.”
Stefan was shocked. His private teacher made a snap and a well, indeed, sprouted from the ground in their garden where they were having their lesson.
“Stefan, this is a well.” Miss Boore signaled her student to come nearer. “Would you like to look at the clear water inside?”
“Sure teacher.”
And so, Stefan went nearer. But when he was close enough, he felt a hand that pushed him forcively forward into the opening of the well. He fell into the void.
“Stefan! Wake up!” cried Betsy the Boomerang.
“Toy Heaven is being attacked!” cried Gerry the Giraffe.
“We’ve got to tell the wizard!” cried Bella the Ballerina.
“Wha…what?” mumbled Stefan opening his eyes. He was surprised to see himself on the floor.
“Attacked? By who?”
“The witch is here!” the three toys chorused.
Hearing about the witch, Stefan was fully awake. He couldn’t believe what was happening. Outside the castle was pandemonium. The houses of the toys were ruined and the poor inhabitants were screaming all around with their tiny voices.
What gave him goosebumps were the hovering dark creatures in the air with mouths that never smiled.
“Let’s wake the Wizard of Toys now!” Stefan cried aloud. He was never been that nervous all his life.
“We’ll do the waking!” cried Betsy.
“You must fight the dark creatures!” cried Gerry.
“Only a human like you can fight the witch!” cried Bella.
They parted ways in a hurry. The three toys were going to wake the wizard. The visitor of Toy Haven was going out of the castle to save the whole place from the evil witch’s destruction.
Twenty
Betsy and Gerry and Bella went directly to the Wizard of Toys’ chamber. The castle’s corridors seemed to have become a maze but they found the wizard’s chamber at last. The got to wake up the wizard quickly as possible or tonight will be the end of them all.
“Wake up, Wizard of Toys!”
“Wake up, Wizard of Toys!”
“Wake up, Wizard of Toys!”
There was no answer.
“Toy Haven is being attacked!”
“Toy Haven is being attacked!”
“Toy Haven is being attacked!”
Still, there was no answer.
“The evil witch is here!”
“The evil witch is here!”
“The evil witch is here!”
The chamber’s door remained still.
Wise was the Witch of Unhappy Childhood for she knew the weakness of her enemy: slumber. She planned her attack that night because she knew that the wizard would be of no use. The Wizard of Toys slept like a bear in hibernation and he couldn’t be woken by anyone other than himself.
Betsy the Boomerang flew into the nearest window and entered the wizard’s chamber. She opened the door to let the other toys enter. And so they found the wizard at last. He’s dreaming and snoring and drooling on his soft soft bed.
“Oh my, there’s no way we could wake him up!”
“We don’t know when he’ll be waking up!”
“This is the end of Toy Haven!”
Stefan, then, was their only hope.
Twenty One
“This is incredible! This is unforgettable!” said the Witch of Unhappy Childhood while she kicked the poor little toy soldiers running along her way.
Some of the toys that evening, however, did fight the witch. The boomerangs and the Frisbees attacked the Serious Shadows in the air. Jacks-in-the-boxes popped put of their boxes shockingly to scare away the dark creatures. And thousands of super hero action figures such as Luke Skywalker and Batman and Wolverine and many others fought like real super heroes.
But the Serious Shadows were too strong. The force of the toys caused two or three of the enemies to fall down but hundreds more were still hovering in the air, never stopping unless all that was childish would be gone.
“We need the wizard to save us!” They shouted together.
The evil witch stood on a high platform with a panoramic view of Toy Haven’s destruction. She grinned like she never grinned before and then spoke, “You foul loathsome disgusting whatnots…tell me now where your creator is! Where’s that crazy fat old Wizard of Nonsense for I will kill him now!”
The toys were silent. Their legs were shaking with fear.
“You won’t tell me? Fine then…prepare to die!”
The witch signaled the Serious Shadows and they swooped down to crush the helpless toys. But before the dark creatures could touch any of them, all the toys were pointing at the castle northwards telling the witch the location of their creator at last.
“I never thought you’ll betray your master just to save your lives,” the Witch of Unhappy Childhood said. She could smell that the end of the wizard was near. She turned to the Serious Shadows and commanded, “Proceed to that castle and search for the wizard! Suck all the childishness in him and bring him to me so I could kill him myself.”
The dark creatures nodded obeying their evil mistress. One by one, they hovered into the wizard’s castle.
Twenty Two
When Stefan found the tank that brought him to Toy Haven that morning, he followed what his toy friends said and climbed up the vehicle. It wasn’t excitement he felt anymore. Toy Haven was badly damaged. He got to save the other toys.
“Oh my…what button shall I push?” Stefan asked himself seeing hundreds of blinking buttons below the monitors. He spotted a green button and wished it would make the vehicle move. He pushed it. The tank did move!
“This is cool!”
He saw a red button and wished it would be for the control of the canon. And it was!
“This is super cool!”
Lastly, he pushed a joystick forward to go where the dark creatures where.
“Stefan Jacoby to the rescue!” Stefan yelled with fire in his eyes.
The tank moved fast out of the castle’s premises. The little driver inside was becoming an expert with the operations. As the tank got near the Toy Haven capital, Stefan saw the horrible things the Witch of Unhappy Childhood had done through the monitors. The colorful glowing homes were ruined. Limbs of poor dolls and toy soldiers and puppets were scattering on the streets. Frisbees and boomerangs and windup jets fell from the skies shattering to pieces.
A tear fell from Stefan’s eye with what he saw.
The tank reached the place where the witch was at last. It was the time when she ordered the Serious Shadows to attack the wizard’s castle.
“Proceed to that castle…” the witch was saying.
And seeing the wicked witch, Stefan’s heart was filled with fury and he desired nothing else but revenge.
“You’ll pay for all the toys you killed tonight, witch,” the little hero muttered. And thinking that the blue button would fire the canon, he pushed it. And the canon fired!
BOOOOOM!
BOOOOOM!
BOOOOOM!
A dozen or so Serious Shadows who were hit by the tanks’ fire fell on the ground lifeless, with the mouth miraculously smiling.
“HURRRAAAYYY!” The toys rejoiced. A hero had come at least to save their beloved Toy Haven.
Inside the tank, Stefan was rejoicing too, seeing that the dark creatures were vulnerable to his fires. He went on firing at them who where in the night sky hovering northwards into the wizard’s castle.
BOOOOOM!
BOOOOOM!
BOOOOOM!
And more Serious Shadows fell on the ground lifeless, with their mouths miraculously smiling.
Twenty Three
Back in the castle, the Wizard of Toys was still asleep, not knowing the damage his witch adversary had caused his realm. He was still dreaming and snoring and drooling on his bed.
Betsy the Boomerang slapped the wizard’s face. He’s still asleep.
Gerry the Giraffe kicked the wizard’s leg. He’s still asleep.
Bella the Ballerina pinched the wizard’s hand. He’s still asleep.
“What are we going to do?” the three toys asked each other hopelessly.
Outside, the Serious Shadows already reached the castle’s premises. They broke the windows and doors and searched the corridors. “ROOOOAAAAARRRRRRR!” they roared angrily.
“Oh my, they’re here in the castle!”
“Oh my, the wizard is in danger!”
“Oh my, this is our end!”
CRRRAAAAASSSSHHHH!
The door into the Wizard of Toys’ chamber was broken open by three Serious Shadows. They hissed seeing what they’re looking for who was dreaming and snoring and drooling on his bed.
Betsy and Gerry and Bella never screamed, though. What for should they become fearful with the dark creatures of the wicked witch? Their end was coming and they should not die in vain, so as their creator.
The three toys decided to fight the three Serious Shadows before they could get close to the wizard. The wizard was their only hope and they couldn’t afford to have him destroyed by witch herself.
“For Toy Haven!” Betsy cried in her eagle kung fu fighting stance.
“For the Wizard of Toys!” Gerry cried in his tiger kung fu fighting stance.
“For all the children in the world!” Bella cried in her swan kung fu fighting stance.
And the fight began.
Twenty Four
The Witch of Unhappy Childhood was furious with the diminishing number of her summoned Serious Shadows. “This is unbelievable! This is contemptible!” she cried. When she saw where the fatal fires were coming from, she was desperate at destroying who was responsible.
Stefan Jacoby, on the other hand, still fired and fired and fired. The Serious Shadows were now decreased in number by half. For those who escaped, he only wished they would never found the wizard in his castle.
“A tank?!” cried the witch in disbelief when she got closer to it. “How can a stupid war tank kill my powerful Serious Shadows with their disgusting smiling faces?”
BOOOOOM!
BOOOOOM!
BOOOOOM!
More dark creatures fell on the ground.
“Enough!” muttered the witch. And with her dark powers she blasted the tank with a bright bright pink light.
The tank shook but never tumbled as what the evil witch expected.
When Stefan felt the power that was attacking the tank, he turned his monitors and discovered it was the witch herself now that was attacking him. “Ha!” he cried. “So now it’s face to face. Prepare to have some smile!” And Stefan blasted the witch back.
The powers collided. The golden fire coming out of the tank’s canon was in contact with the pink blast of the witch. The golden fire recoiled and attacked with the pink blast and vice versa.
BOOOOOM!
The Witch of Unhappy Childhood was defeated. Her pink blast along with the fire from Stefan’s tank came to her and she was thrown backwards.
“HURRRAAAYYY!” The toys rejoiced.
Twenty Five
Hang on for a moment. I know you can’t believe that Betsy the Boomerang, Gerry the Giraffe, and Bella the Ballerina had the courage to fight the Serious Shadows despite of their sizes. Of course they did. But imagine the pain they had to suffer.
After a series of attack, the poor toys had been lying on the floor, dying with their limbs torn away.
How sad it was what happened to the three toys and to many others in Toy Haven that night. The Witch of Unhappy Childhood was herself, the victor. The Serious Shadows were going to suck all childishness out of the wizard himself. And the witch would kill her with her Secret Weapon.
Hang on again. Do you think this is a story with a tragic end?
The three Serious Shadows who defeated Betsy and Gerry and Bella in the rumble hovered around the Wizard of Toys’ bed. They’re hungry. They’re going to feed on his childishness.
One of the three gave a shrill cry to call the others.
More dark creatures came in the chamber.
And more and more and more…
KAAAZZZZAAAAMMM!
All of the Serious Shadows fell lifeless on the ground with smiles on their faces.
For the wizard has woken and destroyed them with one powerful green blast.
Yes, the Wizard of Toys couldn’t be woken by anyone other than himself. But the Serious Shadows weren’t anyone or anybody or someone or somebody. They’re nothing. And the shrill cry done by one of them just woke the wizard from his slumber.
Do you still think this story has a tragic end?
Twenty Six
Is she dead? Stefan Jacoby thought. He could see the toys around the tank rejoicing. I got to be sure. The witch is bad…and some of her dark creatures are still in the castle.
But somehow, after some minutes, there wasn’t any vengeful attack from the witch after the blast. Maybe she’s dead.
Stefan decided to come out of the tank to join the toys rejoicing. He heard tiny applauses when he was out finally.
“Long live Stefan, Blaster of the Shadows!”
“Long live Stefan, Bane of the Witch!”
“Long live Stefan, Savior of Toy Haven!”
Stefan grinned and waved at the toys he just saved accepting their admirations and greetings.
“Thanks…”
“You’re welcome…”
“With pleasure…”
All was well.
But someone so surprisingly appeared on the scene.
“Miss Boore?” Stefan muttered seeing his private teacher in her usual black dress. “What are you doing here? How did you find this place?” He asked. It seemed that he had forgotten everything about his teacher. He only missed a lesson with her that morning but it seemed a long time ago.
“Stefan…Oh, my very intelligent student…I found you at last…” Miss Boore said catching her breath.
“What happened? Are you alright?”
“Yes, my dear,” Miss Boore replied. “But I lost my strength searching for you…I was worried this morning when I came and you weren’t in the porch…and so I followed you…and I came into this place…”
Twenty Seven
Stefan was very curious. How did Miss Boore found Toy Haven? She looked for me just to discuss Algebra and the culture or the aborigines?
“I don’t understand, Miss Boore…how did you follow me?” Stefan asked at last.
But then, Miss Boore grinned like a mad woman. “Because I am not just Miss Boore!” she screamed. “I am the Witch of Unhappy Childhood and I’m here to claim you back!”
And Stefan remembered his dream that night. I should have known…
In a wink of an eye, Miss Boore transformed into her witch appearance.
The toys who had been rejoicing a while ago had been shrieking in fear again.
“The witch is alive!”
“The witch is alive!”
“The witch is alive!”
“Come back to me, Stefan,” the Witch of Unhappy Childhood said. “We were happy with your lessons before you met the wizard, isn’t? You’re a very serious child and you’ll be successful when you grow up. Come with me…your IQ should reach as high as Newton and Galileo and Einstein…”
“No!” replied Stefan, his heart full of anger. “You’re an evil witch! You fooled me…you stole my childhood away from me! Yes, I enjoyed learning a lot. But playing with toys are more enjoyable. And you took away my chance to do all what a child should do.”
“It’s not true! I’m preparing you for a brighter future!”
“Liar! You wanted me to grow up sad. You deprived me of happy childhood memories!”
The witch was speechless. It seemed that she ran out of words before she replied, “Well then, Stefan Jacoby, you’ve been a very bad student tonight. I’m giving you an A- grade!”
“I don’t care anymore! Let me worry about grades when I grow up! Let me have fun! Let me play with toys! Let me be a child!”
What Stefan said brought the witch’s anger to the highest level. And without a word, she raised her hands and cast a spell, her Secret Weapon, towards the boy.
Twenty Eight
The Wizard of Toys saw everything that the Witch of Unhappy Childhood had done with the Serious Shadows. “This is unspeakable! This is unacceptable!” the wizard said.
He showered his magic golden dusts to Betsy and Gerry and Bella and they were all well.
“Wizard, we got to help the child!”
“He’s all alone by himself!”
“The witch is very dangerous!”
And hearing it, the wizard set off to find the boy.
“Get old naughty child,” the witch said cursing. “Get old and think seriously. Enough of your childishness! Feel the pain of my Worry Wave. Worry about your life, of the people around you. It’s disgusting to be a child, not worrying at all!”
Stefan was powerless and he was vulnerable to the witch’s evil spell. But before he collapsed…
“Childish Charm!” the Wizard Toys yelled when he arrived on the scene. Then he chanted his own spell to repel the enemy’s dark magic. “Protect this child from worry for he’s just a child. Shield us, Childish Charm, shield us from the Worry Wave now!”
It was a clash between good and evil. Black light from the Witch of Unhappy Childhood’s hands collided with the Wizard of Toys’ white light.
“Give up you crazy old fat wizard!”
“You’re very evil. I won’t give up this child to you!”
“Thanks for the compliment. But I must get the child…he’s mine!”
Feeling dizzy, Stefan opened his eyes and saw what’s happening. The Wizard of Toys had woken up and he rescued him from the witch.
“Miss Boore!” he forced his weakened self to shout at his teacher who was the witch. “Miss Boore! Please! Stop this now…I…I just want to be a child…”
“WHAT?!” the witch screamed. “Don’t say that!”
“Please…give me what I want…I choose…I choose to be a child…”
BOOOOOM! The white light defeated the black.
The Witch of Unhappy Childhood was vanquished.
Twenty Nine
Toy Haven was safe now.
The evil witch was gone and so were her dark creatures.
The Wizard of Toys showered his golden dusts everywhere and what used to be the beautiful Toy Haven was back as it was.
The night was over. The sun was peeking on the horizon.
The toys were also back with themselves good as new. And they were rejoicing at their victory over the Witch of Unhappy Childhood.
“Long live Toy Haven!”
“Long live the Wizard of Toys!”
“Long live Stefan Jacoby!”
“Thank you, Stefan Jacoby,” the Wizard of Toys spoke to Stefan last. “Without you, this place will be gone forever.”
Stefan, however, had meeting eyebrows. “Why thank me, Mr. Wizardoftoys? It wasn’t me who defeated the witch. It was you.”
“I couldn’t do it without you, Stefan Jacoby,” the wizard explained with his eyes watery with tears of joy. “It was your choice that made me win over the witch. You chose to be a child. And so you are.”
“Is the witch gone then?”
“Well, not really. She cannot be destroyed as long as I exist. It’s a balance. Some children want to grow up fast, so they need the witch’s help. But some children like you who love to be a child needs me. Then I will always be of help.”
“What about the witch’s dark creatures? Oh my, they were such terrible things…”
“Oh, they’re called the Serious Shadows by the way, and they’re her servants. They’re nothing. They suck childishness out of people and turn them serious like them. Anything childish is fatal to them. That’s why they were easily destroyed with the Pediafier’s blasts.”
“The tank you mean?”
“Yes. Though, it’s not really a tank. It’s my Pediafier, my ultimate weapon against the witch. Once you’re hit by the blast from the canon, you are instantly filled with childishness.”
“Amazing!” cried Stefan who remembered the Serious Shadows’ smiling faces when they fell from the sky after being hit.
And Stefan told the wizard how the attack began and what happened and how he was disappointed to know that his private teacher, Miss Boore, was the Witch of Unhappy Childhood in disguise.
“Stefan! You’re such a hero!” Betsy the Boomerang, Gerry the Giraffe, and Bella the Ballerina chorused.
“Thanks, my friends. You were heroes as well.” Stefan replied and embraced his friends.
Everything seemed to be back to order in Toy Haven. That very day, a monument was erected at the heart of the magical place, in the memory of Stefan Jacoby, Blaster of the Shadows, Bane of the Witch, Savior of Toy Haven.
And on that day also, Stefan left Toy Haven not to see it ever again.
“Wizard, we want Stefan to own us,” Betsy and Gerry and Bella chorused. And their wish was granted.
Thirty
Dr. Ivan Jacoby and Mrs. Stella Jacoby had fallen asleep in the sofa waiting for the sheriff’s updates about their missing son.
The doctor was dreaming he and Stefan were playing catch in the park and Stefan was very very happy.
The teller was dreaming she brought Stefan in the mall and bought him toys and Stefan was very very happy.
Nanny Fanny never fell asleep. She cried all night because she felt she’s responsible with Stefan’s disappearance.
When the doorbell rang, it was, of course, Nanny Fanny who first heard of it.
RIIIIING!
RIIIIING!
RIIIIING!
The nanny opened the gate.
“Nanny Fanny!” Stefan cried and hugged his nanny.
Nanny Fanny was speechless. Her dear Stefan’s back. “Oh darling!” she said at last. “Oh…were have you been? I’m sorry I didn’t take care of you well. Forgive me…your nanny loves you very much…”
“I’m fine…I’m fine…I’m fine…”
“Stefan?” Dr. Jacoby and Mrs. Jacoby chorused when they saw their son with the nanny. The heard the noise and woke up and their son was back indeed.
“I missed you,” Stefan’s father said and hugged him so tight.
“I missed you too,” Stefan’s mother said and kissed him on the cheek for so long.
“I missed everybody,” Stefan said.
“But where have you been?” asked the doctor, the teller, and the nanny.
“He was with me,” said an old man’s voice who appeared from outside the gate. The Wizard of Toys was wearing a white coat this time.
“Oh yes, I’ve been with Mr. Wizardoftoys yesterday and last night,” explained Stefan. “Mr. Wizardoftoys, this is my Mom and Dad and Nanny Fanny.”
“I’m pleased to meet you,” the wizard said.
“How dare you!” Mrs. Jacoby yelled.
“You kidnapped our son!” Dr. Jacoby yelled.
“I’ll call the sheriff!” Nanny Fanny yelled.
“Wait!” cried Stefan. “Mr. Wizardoftoys didn’t kidnap me. I went with him.”
“Oh dear, did this old man harm you?” said Dr. Jacoby.
“Did he leave you starving?” Mrs. Jacoby said.
“Did he show you a deadly weapon?” Nanny Fanny said.
Stefan just replied, “No.”
“Then what did this Mr. Wizardoftoys has done to you?” chorused the doctor and the teller and the nanny.
“He brought me to a place that is so beautiful and that I was never happier in my whole life being there!”
“He didn’t harm you?”
“He didn’t leave you starving?”
“He didn’t show you any deadly weapon?”
“He didn’t,” Stefan concluded. “I had so much fun!” And with that, Stefan’s parents and his nanny were relieved.
“I thought we lost you forever,” Nanny Fanny said.
“Oh dear, your Dad and I loves you so much and we don’t know what we’ll do without you here in our arms,” Mrs. Jacoby said.
“And we couldn’t have realized that if Mr. Wizardoftoys here hadn’t brought you away to a place that is so beautiful and that you never felt happier in your whole life,” Dr. Jacoby said.
“Thank you very much,” the three chorused.
“Always my pleasure to give kids a happy childhood,” replied the wizard. “See that, Stefan? I told you they’ll gonna thank me.”
Stefan then heard a whispered goodbye and the wizard vanished and he never saw the fat old man again…ever.
Epilogue
Stefan Jacoby spent the remaining years of his childhood with a lot of happy memories.
His parents decided to send him on a school so that he could play with other kids.
His teachers were kind and understanding, unlike someone he knew in the past.
His father, the doctor, always brought him in the park.
His mother, the teller, always brought him in the mall.
His nanny, who never saw a toy too, was pleased when she met Betsy and Gerry and Bella.
His IQ did reach as high as that of Newton and Galileo and Einstein…but that was many many years after when he became a great great doctor like his father.
So here ends the story of the boy who asked what a toy is and knew what it is. And before I end this story, I beg your pardon for writing everything in past tense. Because the Wizard of Toys is not just a ‘was’. He is also an ‘is’.*
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