Bailey’s Bedroom

“Bailey’s Bedroom” is one of the outstanding stories of the first biannual International Short Story Contest 2018 written by Bailey McFadden, Louise Arbour French Immersion Public School, Canada.

Bailey’s Bedroom

Up above the cubicles, Bailey’s clothes are equally spaced on white plastic hangers. Shirts are on the left and pants are on the right. Most of his clothes are Ralph Lauren and Roots pullover shirts in differing shades of gray, red and blue, and loose blue jeans in multiple colors of blue, black and beige.

As I hear the muffled bark of Maggie coming from downstairs, my eyes turn to Bailey’s nightstand. His nightstand is made of cocoa-colored wood and is equipped with two open cubbies. The bottom cubby has all of his chapter books and treasured books tacked neatly, such as Harry Potter and the Land of Stories. The top cubby has all his bookmarks and short stories. (My favorite character Darth Maul is in one of them.) On top of the nightstand is his silver clock with a medium blue face and a baseball and baseball bat for hands. It also displays an angel teddy bear Beanie Boo named Halo and a picture of him and his dad at his first hockey game at the Excel Centre in a 4 x 6 pewter frame.

I skip across the tan Berber carpet and flop onto his soft bed in the right top corner of his room. His bed matches the cocoa wood on the nightstand and has ball finials and beadboard paneling. I rest my head on Bailey’s freshly washed mocha pillowcase and run my hand over his cushy Junior Varsity quilt. Almost every sport he likes is represented on the multicolored quilt - football, baseball, soccer, basketball, tennis and hockey. Bailey told me that he finds his twin size bed small now that he is bigger, but he still has stuffed animals from when he was younger on it. Old Lambie is as old as Bailey. Lambie is missing one nostril, his tail is frayed, his turquoise and yellow fur is quite faded and he has been sewn above his neck and mouth many times. However, he also has a newer stuffy that I don’t recognize, a miniature version of Disney Mickey's faithful pal Pluto.

As I jump off the bed, I hit my head on his red painted shelf that is above his bed and two of his cherished hockey pucks topple to the floor. I think it is odd that he only has one thing up on his walls in his entire room. Most kids I know have posters or personal pictures up on their walls.

I pick up the London Knights and Ottawa Senators pucks and place them on the three-foot wide shelf with the other four: Saginaw Spirit, Toronto Marlies, Winnipeg Jets and Edmonton Oilers. Sitting in the middle of the shelf is his most prized hockey trophy - a shiny gold hockey player with stars swirling around it. He won this trophy in 2012-2013 for the League Championship in M.O.H.A. Living in Canada with hockey as the national game, it isn’t surprising that Bailey has many pucks and trophies in his room.

Bailey told me before I came over that he has something special to show me in the bottom drawer of his dresser. I have never bothered to look what was inside the two small top drawers before and I have looked in the two larger drawers, but there were just plain old clothes in them. What could be in that bottom drawer? I tippy-toe over to his dresser by the lower right corner of his room. I stare at the dresser that is the color of the deep blue sea and then I look to make sure Bailey isn’t coming. I swiftly pull on the brass knobs of the bottom drawer. When I look in the open drawer, I am in awe of the massive amount of round sparkly eyes in various hues of green, orange, blue, pink, and purple. The drawer is overflowing with Beanie Boos!!!!!!

Bailey startles me when he comes in the room holding a plate filled with chocolate chip cookies. He starts to laugh when he sees that I discovered the Beanie Boo drawer and the astonished look on my face. I take a chocolate chip cookie from the sunshine yellow bunny plate and stuff the whole cookie in my mouth. The warm sweet chocolate melts in my mouth and I know this is going to be a great day.