The One With the Heirloom Beanie Babies

Date: 2/18/2025

I’m standing near the laundry room looking at a bunch of furniture Gary and Kailyn have apparently given to us. I see a giant L-shaped desk and a couple of velvet high-backed accent chairs in the front room, and an ornate headboard with a base for either a bed or a crib on it in the kitchen. I decide that I’m going to keep the desk, but that I’ll need to break it apart, keep the pieces I want, and stain them a darker color. I realize that this project will be a major undertaking, but decide that it’ll be worth it if it works out. I open up the desk and notice a bunch of hidden compartments in it. As I start exploring them, I continually pull out Beanie Babies. Some are completely original, and some are recognizable — like a gray cat Jordyn used to have (Frisco). I see a fabric that reminds me of Pig — a Chinese New Year pig that always made me and Jordyn laugh — and desperately hope it’s him, but it isn’t. I then see a weird Jimmy Neutron doll and think about how I should text a picture of it to Blane and Brianna when they suddenly appear at the opening of the hallway on little trikes. They’re talking to my parents, who are standing in what should be the hallway, but is instead a major street covered in rainwater. It’s nighttime in the street hallway, and my dad is telling Blane and Brianna to look at what he did when I notice skid marks on the road and somehow come to the conclusion that he crashed in a semi truck. He says something about how the babies are at least safe, and I suddenly remember that he was taking them somewhere. I casually ignore all of this and say, “Guys, look what I found!” as I hold up the Jimmy Neutron doll. They don’t seem impressed, so I go back to clearing out the secret desk compartments. I pull out what’s supposed to be another Jimmy Neutron doll, but the only thing that makes sense is the hair — everything else about it looks like a random anime character in a yellow bodysuit. I suddenly wonder if the person who owned the furniture previously was a grandmother, and if these toys all belong to her grandchildren. This makes me so emotional that I start to cry and try to voice memo Kailyn to ask her where this furniture came from. I somehow crawl inside of the desk and start out with, “Hey, I know this is so random, but was the person who owned this furniture—“ when my mom sits on the desk and startles me. I try to collect myself and redo the message, but now she’s sort of crushing me … I’m staying in a weird house in Italy with some of my friends when I wake up to find that everyone has left me. I walk outside and see Rose and Renee walking back from a pizza parlor with a long line coming out of it and am instantly mad that they’d go without me. I make a face to suggest that I’m mad and walk over to them, take the pizza out of Renee’s hands, and take a huge bite. It’s weirdly tasteless and I wind up spitting it out. Rose and Renee are very patient with me considering I’m acting like a lunatic … I’m in a car on the highway with Blake and Renee when I see a group of about 25 small planes in different shades of pink taking off together. I point them out and we all watch them ascend. At some point, Blake says something about how Renee is going to be 55 this year, and I’m momentarily blown away by this. I think about how it’s insane that she’s already this old, and then catch myself and say, “I was really sitting here thinking, ‘Holy cow, 55!’” We all crack up. I look at the sky again and notice a beautiful sunset, inside of which, I can see a rainbow road — like in Mario Kart — peeking through the clouds.