Bubbles, the one who waddled through my life, his flightless wing grasping my hand as we went on wondrous adventures, finding more and more of the Ubbles family.

At the age of 5, I was finished with my hike up Enchanted Rock and on the way home. We stopped at a small town hoping for some ice cream to cool ourselves from the poisonous floating lightbulb we call the sun. As we relaxed, letting the frozen ice cream melt down our esophagus, little me, spotted a toy store. Excitement flared in my eyes as a smile crept along my face. “Mommy, Daddy!!” I yapped with anticipation of reaching the beloved toy store. I pointed a short finger towards the store and squealed with exhilaration of wrapping my arms around a new plushy that I would probably throw away in a couple of days. Due to the annoying sounds of my sister and I, my parents slugged towards the store.

The auto-slide, glass door opened, and as soon as I took my first step into the world of partially overpriced plushies I spotted Him. At that very moment I knew that He was the one and I would be with him forever. I ran over to the swiveling organizer and snatched my favorite animal. “Mommy, Mommy!” I barked, “I want this one!!” I showed her the stuffed Emperor Penguin, with a gleeful smile, exposing my first lost tooth that I lost recently. I clamped my mouth nervously, and embarrassingly staggered my way to my father and asked him if he could let my Penguin rest on the counter where he could truly become my friend. Finally we checked out and I met my very best inanimate friend that I would be with, not a couple of days like my parents predicted, but for four years.

Bubbles, the messy penguin who could never keep his feathers clean. I took him on all kinds of adventures, I made up stories that I told to my sister and grandfather. Bubbles had a brother named Wubbles, who was cleaner and more organized. In the stories that I told my grandfather every morning at 7:00 am, Bubbles was the super hero who saved Antarctica from the invading polar bears or evil babies, and Wubbles was the sidekick who warned the town of icy cold igloo town to escape from the bad guys. I played with Bubbles and Wubbles like they were dolls. Although they didn’t have a doll house of their own, I would use my doll house to simulate one, where Wubbles would be captured by Neighbort, an evil horse, then be saved by Bubbles. I collected more and more pengiuns, I even have a glass one that still sits on my bed-side table!

I loved my Penguins, until I lost Bubbles, then I fell into pieces. I looked for hours, and finally gave up forever. Too keep me from crying any longer, I told myself that Bubbles is out on a super secret mission and will not be coming back for a long time. I still keep an eye out, in hope that I may find him again.