Why would Santa bring her these, Matilda thought staring at the teddy bears sat next to her in the car. He must know she was six now, already had plenty of cuddly toys, and they were definitely not on the list she had sent him. And why had he delivered them to Granny’s house?
When they got home Matilda stomped upstairs with her new presents and threw them onto her bed. They landed next to her new RayBlaster 3000. She had an idea.
*
Isobel let her daughter stay in her bedroom. Her Gran always tried to get Matilda a nice present, and always managed to get something she had outgrown. There was the occasional thud from upstairs and Isobel could here the sound effects from that annoying toy gun Matilda’s uncle had got her.
Suddenly she heard Matilda screaming. Isobel dashed to her daughter’s room and flung the door open.
‘Matilda, what’s happening…’ she stopped and took in the scene of carnage. Matilda sat on the floor dressed in her doctors outfit. She was pulling the stuffing out of one of the new teddy bears. It was missing an eye and an arm.
‘Not now, Mum.’ Matilda whined, ‘this soldier is badly injured. I’m in the middle of operating. We have to save his life.’
Written as part of Sunday Photo Fiction. Write a story of around 200 words based on the photo prompt given (above). For more details visit HERE.
To read more stories based on this week’s prompt, visit HERE.
44 responses to “UNWANTED GIFTS”
So, the teddy bears are being put to some really good use. Good funny piece, Lain.
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Thanks Neel 🙂
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Great post
Amazing
Visit mine
http://shivashishspeaks.wordpress.com/
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Haha that made me laugh. At least they are going to be of use to her.
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Thanks, glad I gave you a laugh. Hope to get time to send you a couple of photos to use as prompts – would love to see the blog carry on in the future. Best, Iain
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Thanks very much. There is plenty of time now. I have enough to keep going to June I think 🙂 from three people so far.
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Excellent, look forward to writing and reading the stories that will follow 🙂
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🙂
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Let’s hope that brave soldier pulls through. Great story!
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Many thanks 🙂
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The female of the species, hmm?
Nice one, Iain.
But you might have a rogue ‘k’ in the last paragraph?
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Many thanks CE. Rogue ‘k’ removed in a similar piece of surgery 🙂
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Matilda is bright if a little spooky. As for me, I’m over 50 years old and would be delighted to get such nice teddy bears. I have a collection of over 200 stuffed animals. To some people, that may be a little spooky.
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Haha, thanks for commenting Cara. I know of a few older people who collect stuffed bears and animals – perhaps it’s something to be appreciated when we’re a bit older.
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Matilda has a vivid imagination — like the author. Great story!
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Thanks Lorraine, nice compliment 🙂
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This is so what happens to ‘unwanted’ toys! Great story Iain!
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Glad you enjoyed, thanks 🙂
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Nice contrast there. I’ve thought of that while watching war movies: these houses belong to people, and here the soldiers are all smashing them up. This is a nice illustration of that.
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Thanks 🙂
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That certainly made me smile 🙂
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I love where you took this prompt. Matilda is quite a handful!
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Fantastic! I could envisage the scene. Loved it and still grinning!
Click here to read my tale
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Thanks Keith, glad to bring a grin 🙂
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I’m writing a series of short stories on my blog for my seven-year-old grandson which star him and his friend/mentor a dragon (in my stories, the dragon is slightly larger than an average collie). At my grandson’s request, the dragon teaches him magic (I tried to talk him out of this since seven-year-olds are not mature enough to manage the awesomeness of magic, but he insisted), and one of the spells makes his vast collection of stuffed animals come alive.
Some kids hang onto their stuffed animals for quite some time, and in my fantasy series, they and the dragon are his watchful protectors.
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Sounds like a great series of stories, I’ll try and check them out, thanks for stopping by my blog again.
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Thanks for that. Here’s the first one in the series: https://poweredbyrobots.com/2016/08/25/the-day-a-dragon-came-to-live-with-us/
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Had a quick glance, will have a detailed read when I can find some time to do so properly.
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I see Matilda found a use for her teddy bears 🙂 Good story!
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Thanks 🙂
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[…] Actually, just like the flash fiction I wrote yesterday, I got the idea of a “teddy bear” based piece of flash fiction from something on Iain Kelly’s blog. […]
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Now that I never saw coming ! Great work
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Thanks, glad I can still surprise 🙂
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Ocht…dinnae be, ye aye can xxxxx Seriously
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Well, that is definitely one way to play with teddy bears! Haha xD
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Thanks Jade 🙂
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This is really funny. It does seem these days, kids seem to get too many stuffed animals. I like the image of her fixing up her teddy bear, a victim of war. Training for a one day doctor?
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Thanks Mandi, who knows, we all have to start somewhere! 🙂
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This is awesome!! I think it speaks to the very real and creative ways children play.
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Thanks very much Sydney, much appreciated.
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When Santa brings lemons make lemonade 😀 Loved her innovative idea and your take on the prompt.
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Thanks Dahlia 🙂
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You gotta love the imagination of a child…and of a writer. 😉
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Thanks Dawn 😉
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