In Alien Hands: Meeting Merle

Day 11, trying to stay busy -Holli

Listen. I know I told you how I made a big deal about how many toys were in that room? I'm sure you read that and said "Oh yeah, she won't be bored, loads to do in there.", right? Well, I can confidently tell you how wrong you are. You've played with toys, but have you ever had to play with toys? Have you ever been locked in a bedroom for a few hours, with no way out, and had to keep yourself busy? It isn't easy. You end up pacing around, kicking walls, and just trying to escape.

It was less about the toys being boring and more about the principle of it all. Something about having to do something sucks all the fun out of it. Reading a book? Fun. Reading a book for a school project? Not fun. Drawing on your test at school? Fun. Having to draw something specific in art class? Not so fun.

I tried on several occasions to sit down with an interesting toy and just play. There were some very interesting toys, don't get me wrong, but they just weren't enough. I paced half the time, bored out of my mind. I even tried to sleep some more, I was more tired than I thought I was, but only managed to sleep for a few minutes, or what I assume were minutes, before getting up to pace around again.

I tried to pick the lock on the door without luck. I stacked the bins (dumping them out) and stood on top to try and open the window. Don't ask me what I had planned, the room is on the second floor, but my short sighted self thought it would be a good idea. Obviously, it didn't work out. The room was ridiculously secure.

I sorted the toys by color, type (electronic, plastic, metal, plush, and ???), size, how interesting they looked, then scrambled them up again. At one point, I just covered my eyes and tried to walk around the room without stepping on any of them. I failed miserably.

I even found a box of markers and a pad of paper, and was distraught to find it didn't leave a mark on walls, carpet, plastic, metal, wood, glass, or even my own skin. The paper, and only the paper, could be marked by the darn markers. I tried snapping one of them, it was like the thing was made of steel.

In fact, none of the toys seemed breakable. I thought I had succeeded a few times, but found the two pieces had string attaching them together and seemed like they were supposed to break. They clicked back together easily. I took joy in breaking the toys in half, they made a satisfying snap each time I did so.

I was really getting into snapping these toys when I heard the knob turn on my door. I wasn't exactly scared, but I still froze. I was sitting in the middle of the room, the hundreds of toys strewn about, holding the dozen or so snappable toys. I heard Merle gently saying my name as the door creaked open.

His ears dropped when he saw the room, his eyes growing wide. I went into "diffuse Merle's anger" mode, saying his name and getting up with my toys to show him my favorites. He shook his head at the mess, but seemed no worse for the wear. He chuckled when he saw my toys, leading me down the hall towards the stairs.

Published 12/14/18

Okay, so it turned out shorter than I expected, so expect a part two soon. This ended up more of a conversational chapter, let me know if you like it!