It was the day that they were moving to their new house and Katie was in her bedroom talking to Teddy One Ear, ‘Listen, Teddy we are moving to a new house today and I want you to stay here out of the way.’
Teddy didn’t say anything; he simply sat there on top of a cardboard box looking rather sad. Mind you he always looked sad, he had looked that way ever since Barney the cat had chewed off his ear.‘It’s no good looking at me like that,’ said Katie.
Katie paused to give him time to answer, but he just stared at her with his little button eyes. ‘I’m sad about moving too, but the new house will be lovely,’ said Katie.
If anything Teddy looked even sadder and Katie tried to cheer him up. ‘It won’t take us long to make new friends, besides you still have me and we are the best friends ever.’
Teddy still sat there saying nothing and Katie became very annoyed with him. ‘Well, if you are going to be like that, I’m going down to see mum.’ Katie said and flounced out of the bedroom leaving him sitting on the box.
Downstairs mum was very busy, but she let Katie help. Katie’s job was to wrap the cups and saucers in newspaper, so that they wouldn’t get damaged when mum packed them in a box. She worked so hard all morning that she completely forgot about Teddy. It wasn’t until the removal men arrived and began packing the van that she remembered he was upstairs all alone. She raced upstairs and ran along the landing shouting, ‘Come on Teddy, come down and watch the men load the van.’
But Teddy didn’t answer. Oh, she thought, he’s such a huffy bear, but I’ll soon cheer him up. She burst into the room and frowned; the room was empty. She raced back along the landing to the top of the stairs and shouted down to mum, ‘Mum come quickly Teddy One Ear is missing.’
‘Take a look under the bed,’ her mum called.
‘But mum the bed’s not there either.’
‘Silly me,’ said mum. ‘I forgot, the removal men have cleared upstairs. Teddy will be in one of the boxes in the van.’
Katie ran downstairs, ‘But I wanted him to come in the car with me, she wailed. ‘Can’t we get him out?’
‘No Darling, the van is nearly full and the boxes are at the front.’
‘But mum, he’ll be all lonely without me.’ Katie cried.
‘No he Won’t, Darling, he’ll be warm and snug in one of the boxes with Benny Bunny, Freddy frog and all the rest of his friends, ’said mum.
‘Will he really?’ asked Katie.
‘Yes I’m sure he will,’ said mum.
Mum wiped away Katie’s tears, gave her a cuddle and said, ‘Come on, get in the car and you’ll see Teddy when we get to the new house.’
Katie climbed into her car seat, fastened her own seat belt and the car followed the van as it drove out of the street.
‘Wave goodbye to the house Katie,’ said mum.
Katie gave a little wave, then turned back to look at the van. She did like the old house, especially the garden and was a little worried about moving to the new one, but she couldn’t help thinking about poor Teddy. What if he was not in a box with Benny Bunny? What if the moving men had put him in a box with Denis The Dinosaur? He would be so scared; Denis had big sharp teeth and growled a lot. Teddy would be in the dark with Denis and he would be really, really frightened.
‘How long will it take, Mum?’ she asked.
Mum smiled and said, ‘Not long, we are not moving very far.’
It took ages and ages, but finally when the van was nearly empty the men carried in the boxes that had been in her bedroom. Katie rushed over and searched through the first one and then the others but there was no sign of Teddy, suddenly she felt so sad. ‘Mum,’ she cried. ‘Teddy’s not there, he really is missing.’
Just then a voice behind her - It was the driver of the van - said, ‘Is this who you’re looking for? I found him right at the back of the van, he must have fallen out of one of the boxes.’
Katie brushed away her tears and said, ‘Thank you,’
