Bargain Bin Valentine
Wouldn’t you know that the prompt from Indies Unlimited for the flash fiction challenge would revolve around Valentine’s day. Granted we received the prompt on the day so now it would seem a bit out of sorts to read a love story a few days late.
Of course, this falls into why my story doesn’t make the cut for votes this week. I don’t do Valentine’s day. I think I have a fun story either way. But then that is for you to decide.
Bargain Bin Valentine
The bear in the middle is Ursula. She always felt she was destined for a special purpose – maybe as a gift to a sick child or as a favorite toy.
Photo by K.S. Brooks
Though she was passed over again and again, Ursula kept a cheery and hopeful disposition.
But at last a year had gone by since she had been unpacked and shelved. The store manager gathered up the unwanted toys and put them in a bargain bin in an effort to unload them before Valentine’s Day. As the day wore on, every toy was picked except Ursula…
Lonely, forlorn, Ursula rested against the wall of the bargain bin. She accepted she wouldn’t be picked today, probably not tomorrow neither.
Though she had given up hope hours ago, she still perked up a little at the sound of the shop bell. She sat a little taller in the bargain bin and wished for a nice shine to her button eyes.
A shadow crossed and filled the top of the bin, and then long blond locks followed by a face hidden in the shadow of the hair appeared at the top of Ursula’s home. Could it be, her stuffing heart skipped a beat as she continued to hold her breath. The girl reached down to the bottom of the bin and pulled Ursula out by the ear. “This one will have to do, Mother,” she said.
“We should have it wrapped.” The woman’s voice sounded much like the little girl’s, though a bit older, world-weary. “They will wrap it for free.”
“Whatever,” the girl said.
“You did this,” mother said. She pulled Ursula from her daughter’s hands and set it on the gift-wrap counter. “Next time maybe you will think about your actions.”
“Stupid party.”
Darkness consumed Ursula as paper folded over her head. The paper muffled the sounds as they carried her through the shop and then out the front door, but it did nothing to soften the blows as she was slammed into counters and then the doorframe.
***