A Stuffed Plush Adventure: James and Barney

*It was a dark and stormy night*

That’s a stupid way to start a story. It’s not even accurate. They don’t call it a dark and drizzly night, or an overcast, misty night. No, it had to be ‘stormy,’ with big waves that crashed down on the pier and wild winds that were so strong they were knocking over trashcans.

So let me set the scene…

I’m standing on the pier, my back pressed against the wood railing. The rain is pelting my skin like little BB pellets, stinging where they hit. My clothes are drenched with water, sticking to my body. I can feel the chill of the wind all the way through my bones, and I shiver uncontrollably. The boardwalk is empty except for me - everyone else has already run inside to get out of this horrible weather. There is garbage everywhere; coffee cups, napkins, plastic bags… And I’m standing in it all. Why am I standing in this garbage? Because there are only two choices: stand in the garbage or stand in the water.

The pier is long enough for me to walk about halfway before I have to turn around and start walking back again. This is how I’m spending my night--walking up and down this pier until it starts getting light outside. At least then I can look forward to being able to sit down somewhere dry for a few minutes before I have to get up and go back out into this weather again.

Oh yeah, did I forget to mention why I’m doing all this? Because if I don’t keep walking then these men will jump out from behind one of these trash cans and beat me up. Or worse--kill me.

*OK, so maybe that last part was an exaggeration.* But they *did* threaten to kill me if I didn’t give them money tonight as soon as they jumped out at me near the ferris wheel earlier today. And if they find me here right now then there definitely won’t be any doubt that they’ll follow through with their threat unless… Well unless I can find some other poor sap who owes them money instead! That’s why I’m walking up and down this pier trying to stay warm because if I stand still for too long then there might be another poor soul who wanders by here who doesn’t know about my predicament.

I peek quickly behind me when a gust of wind picks up and blows trash right past me into the water below. There aren't any lights out here so it's hard to see anything but what caught my eye was a faint reflection on the water of something white behind me...a face? A ghost? A big white cat? No wait no cats could survive out here in this weather! It looked like a person--maybe someone had jumped off of one of the ferries further down the bay? The tide must have carried them all the way over here! Quickly turning around I walk quickly towards where whatever it was was floating on top of the water until--wait what!? There's nothing there! Just waves lapping at the edge of the pier where a person would need to step onto it but now all that's left is my own reflection looking back at myself from where I'm standing in six inches of water...all alone...for now anyway...

It wasn't until later that evening when things became even stranger than they already had been today when while walking along one of those random streets downtown that lead nowhere that I found *another* stuffed animal sitting right on top of one of those tables with a "do you want free stuff?" sign written in black marker across it's belly button!