Pete

When I started working for Bug over two years ago, he and I went through all the closets and cupboards in his home and did major Spring cleaning, even though it was December. He had several closets in the apartment all stuffed. Over a few weeks we recycled broken electronics, sorted through his clothes, gave car loads of stuff to second-hand stores and ultimately threw out a bunch of things.
Hidden on the top shelf of Bug's bedroom closet was a sad blue penguin. Written in large letters across the penguin's white throat was 'Hi! I'm Pete'. This sad looking childhood toy was examined and eventually put back in his place, the closet door closed, sending him into darkness again.
One evening, a few days before this past Christmas, Bug and I went to his folks place for beverages and a visit. His Mom asked if I wanted to see home movies of Bug when he was a little pupa. She put a tape in the VCR and images of Bug's first Christmas, birthdays, summer vacations and more Christmas' flashed on the TV.
In one scene Bug's Grandpa and Grandma were caught on tape walking through the front door. The crispness of Winter on their faces. They had wrapped presents and tucked under Grandma's arm was a bright blue penguin.
It was Pete!
This was a gift made by Bug's Grandma for his first Christmas. In the grainy video you could see that Pete was a brilliant blue and his throat and chest were a crisp white, like the snow seen through the open doorway on the video. Pete's beak was a deep golden colour and his eyes two large circles of white with slightly smaller circles of black pupil.
Bug's Grandma lived to see a couple more Christmas' as she passed away before Bug was four.
Bug and I got home after tripping down memory-lane with his parents and I went to the closet to rescued Pete from his dark home.
Pete had seen better days.
He was crestfallen as the stuffing in his torso had migrated to other areas of his body; he was in a perpetual bow. His beak was bent at a forty-five degree angle much like Bug's left wrist and there was a hole in the faded golden fabric. Pete's right wing was pinned on and rust marked the puncture holes where the pin held his wing in place. The blue fabric had run into the white fabric around Pete's butt. Here the fabric was yellowed from an old water mark. When Bug's middle brother was a wee little guy he decided that Pete had to go to the bathroom and put him on the toilet. Pete slipped and got a lower body bath in the toilet-bowl water.
I brought the blue penguin to the living-room where Bug was waiting. He asked me if I could fix Pete. When I came back to make Bug supper I brought needle, thread and stuffing. I took the rusty pin from Pete's wing and opened up one of his seams where the blue fabric met with the white. I packed Pete's chest with the eco-friendly filler I'd brought and soon he was standing upright and proud again. I moved my hand gently inside and got to the opening of Pete's beak. It took a little piece of stuffing to get his beak standing straight out again. I carefully sewed closed the incision I'd made in Pete's chest, patched the hole in his beak and put his wing back in place.
Closer examination revealed that Pete's feet were loose, so I made sure they wouldn't go anywhere.
Now Pete stood on the dining-room table almost as good as new. There wasn't anything I could do about his toilet stain; I was concerned that anything I did might perpetuate the blue dye leaching onto the white chest material.
Pete doesn't live on the closet shelf anymore.
His new home is on a ledge close to Bug's bedroom doorway where he guards the room and watches over Bug when he's sleeping.

Until the next time...