FRACTURE

Forgotten Toys

I had many toys as a kid. Not too many—but probably enough to keep me busy. Now I’m 19, and I still have some of those toys from when I was only 7 or 8 years old.

I used to care for my toys more than anything else in the house. Maybe other kids are the same—but I’ve also seen kids who are unable to do anything except break every single toy they touch. Even the things around the house aren’t safe from them.

The reason I loved my toys so much was probably because I had nobody else to spend time with except those pieces of plastic. They were my companions when there was no one else.

One day, I received a gift from one of my grandmothers. It was a large, feeder-like plastic bottle filled with many small plastic toys. Most of them were pieces of big jigsaw-like plastic blocks, but without any picture or puzzle to complete—just something to build and play with.

The toy wasn’t new. It was actually my aunt’s childhood toy. By the time I received it, it was already around 10 years old. And surprisingly, even today, I still have some of those pieces. Now, my little sister plays with them.

I also had toy cars and many other things. Some broke, some were given away to my cousins, and some were simply lost. Who knows what really happened to them?

Maybe we aren’t much different from those toys.

People will use us, break us, and sometimes even betray us. To them, we may become nothing more than a piece of plastic—something they keep only while they need it. And when they no longer have a use for us, they simply throw us away.

One day, they’ll forget us completely, as if they never saw us, never held us in their arms, never kissed us, never thought about us during the hardest moments of their lives.

Just like childhood toys. Yes… just like them.

They forget the toys they once loved. And one day, they forget us too.

Memories — 9