“Fiddlesticks!” I curse, stomping my foot. I appeared on the wrong side of the house. A big house by today’s standards, white with a large porch and a huge front door, big enough for our lot to get in, though the adults didn’t know that ducking our heads for any door has always been a problem.

“What is it, Harry?” My tall grizzly bear of a friend, George, said, turning toward me.

I grab both of my arms, rubbing both of my upper arms. I was slick and smooth. A strange make-believe seal. I simply came into existence one day, not needing water to survive. I was an idea, built and created by my first kid, Daisy.

The great and talented Daisy. All of us come into existence that way. We’re needed, and sometimes, we’re lucky enough that a new kid comes up with a need of the same type of friend. And Pop! We appear for as long as they need us.

My new kid, Erica, with her curious blue eyes that have started to dull at the sight of me. I am becoming invisible to her. School, the friends, and everything else she is learning is pushing me farther and farther away. Her world was aging her far more quickly than I ever thought possible.

I shivered again. The hot day in the Sunny Ave in the land of suburbia should have kept me warm, and yet, here I was. Something strange was happening.

“What’s the matter?” George repeated again, waving his hand in front of my face.

We stood in front of his assigned kid’s house. The six-year-old, Allen, had light eyes and an imagination that could have made a volcano wreak havoc on the block. George would be here for at least a year with a kid like that.

His assigned child and my assigned child swung back and forth on the playground in the backyard.

I turn to George in a barely audible whisper, “I think it’s my time to vanish again. She doesn’t see me anymore. And I got a funny feeling. There is a ringing that I keep getting in my ears.”

“What do you think it is?”

I shrug, “I don’t know. I wonder how long I’ll be gone this time. Before I leave, I want to say goodbye. If I’m lucky, maybe we will see other again in a hundred years, if the creativity of the world remains in full force and technology does not completely evict us from the minds of all children.”

“Harsh,” George spoke softly. “There is hope for us. You know?” Easy for him to say with his kid.

Ring! Ring! George turned to the sound.

“Do you hear it?” I ask.

“Of course!” He shouted, pulling out a phone from thin air. “Answer it!”

He passed me the wrong, his bear claws leaving a scratch mark.

“Hello,” I whispered, putting the phone to my ear. I had never done this before, not in my entire existence, taken a phone call.

“Harry?” A panicked voice said on the other end of the line.

“Who is this?” I asked, my whiskers bothering me as I furrowed my face.

“Daisy! You must come right away!”

And Pop! There I was in front of a grown woman in a black business suit in an office with cubicles. Only she remained in the entire floor, surrounded my papers with tears in her eyes.

I backed away from her as she held the phone to her ear.

“Harry!” She shouted, running over to me.

I backed away but stopped as I caught the sight of her eyes.

“Daisy?”

“It’s me,” She nodded with tears in her eyes. “I need your help. We need to take this owner down and his company. He is one of the most corrupted people I’ve ever known, and he’s blinded by his hate. I don’t have the strength to do it alone.”

“What can I do?” I ask in a low voice.

“Anything and everything. You are a hero. You’ve always been my hero, and if anyone can do it, it’s you!”

I rubbed my upper arms again, feeling like I wanted to swim in water for the first time and escape for the first time, but as I looked into her eyes, I knew I could possibly have a bigger purpose. She created me, and I believed her.