In my memory my mother took my koala and I never saw it again
I have some writing I did in 2000… or that a “part of me” wrote… about that koala and how much it meant to us… I need to try to translate it into English someday
Vivid memories… I can’t remember how old I was… maybe 5 or 6…
Aunt Maria was visiting with my sisters… Maria who was three years younger than me… was laughing all the time…
They had brought a big soft koala bear with her. Aunt Maria said his name was Tommy… and that she wanted me to take care of him for them. I remembered he smelled nice… a bit like Aunt Maria…
While they were visiting I know my mother thought the Koala belonged to my little sister… She saw me play with him… I saw ‘that’ look in her eyes… but she didn’t dare to do anything. I knew it was because they were there and I also knew that she would once they had left…
After they left I kept Tommy in my room… in a special box under my bed… and at night when I knew she was asleep I took him out of there… He understood it was for his own safety… She didn’t want me to play with toys… said it was too much distraction.
Tommy made me feel not so alone anymore… I could talk to him… I told him my thoughts and how I wished I could live with Aunt Maria like my sisters… I wished he would become alive and speak back to me… like in the stories I was reading with Miss T… my teacher… and in a way he did…
One night we had been talking… and I had fallen asleep before putting him back to his place… She came into our room her usual way… I can’t remember if she hit me in the stomach or grabbed my hair and threw me out of bed… or something else… but I woke up with a bang…. And I was on the floor… but so was Tommy…. I tried to push him under the bed… but she noticed him before I could do that…
“Did you steal your sister’s toy you miserable little thief?”
“N-n-n-no” He stuttered… n-n-no i-i-i-it’s m-m-mine