Boba Chapter One

Disclaimer: The Lorax and all other related characters are properties of Dr. Seuss, Illumination Entertainment and are used without permission.

Boba
by FoxyRoxy

I. Lost and Found

School had recently started in Thneedville. Ted Wiggins had just started his freshman year in high school. Thankfully a lot of the rumors about how a freshman was treated was mostly fictional. No one had tried dunking him in a toilet or slam him into a trash barrel. All the same, it wasn't that easy either. Moving into a new school was never as quaint as one would like it to believe. The poor boy got lost several times. He'd had his books dumped on more then one occasion. Not to mention all the playful taunts he would receive by his upper classmen. And though it was done with no malicious intent. Ted still didn't take to kindly to the harmless teasing.

As for Audrey, she had begun her junior year, but was still ignored by some. Before, when O'Hare was in control of the town. She wasn't the most liked in her class. Her love for nature had painted a bulls eye on her. She was able to ignore the bulling. Though the name, 'Odd Tree' did get to her. She figured after Thneedville had changed, so would its inhabitants. Sadly, some of them continued to treat her in the same demeanor. There was nothing she could do to change their minds, and so she went about her school days as best she could.

The best thing about those first couple of weeks was there was hardly any homework. That meant their weekends were free. By the time Friday came around, Ted and Audrey had made plans. They were going to take sometime on Saturday to scrounge around his basement. Everyone in Thneedville had one. Most were the same, dismal, forgotten storage space left unattended. The Wiggins used there's a little more sparingly. It was used for storage, much like everyone elses. However, once or twice a year they would go down and remove certain items from its depths. Most of what was taken out was either given to charity or sold at a Lawn Market.

At the moment, both Ted and Audrey were busy searching through the maze of antiquities. Most of what was down there belonged  to his mother or grandma Norma. Right now they were on a mission to find some of Ted's mother's old photo albums. Margie had no idea exactly where they were kept. Only that they had been moved to the basement and placed in a small, plastic box.

Back during the reign of Aloysius O'Hare, everything was made of plastic, including storage boxes. Each one was the same size and the place was stacked with them. Finding the albums would be as simple as finding a needle in a haystack. Still, they did their best to locate the wanted items. They'd already gone through close to ten of them when Audrey found some rather inspiring artwork. They were beautiful landscape paintings. Ted thought they may have been painted by his cousin, Richie.

Richie Wiggins was a proud painter in his days. His work never fetched more then ten dollars on the open market. That never stopped him from doing what he loved. The only down side of being a starving artist was that you literally did starve. Poor Richie was close to forty-eight when he passed away. Ted hardly knew his cousin, only stories that his Grammy Norma told him. When his cousin died, he left a very small will. Most of his paintings went to Norma. The downside of having them around was they invoked the wraith of the Little Man.

Because O'Hare hated anything and everything dealing with nature. Having such works displayed on one's walls sometimes caught his attention. After all, he had every house bugged and spied on constantly. So, to avoid any unnecessary encounters. His mother had them put into the endless field of boxes known as the basement.

When Audrey found the said paintings she was enthralled by them. She even went so far as to ask Ted if his mother wouldn't mind giving some of them to her. He didn't think it would be that difficult. After all, heaven only knew how long they'd been down there, stuffed in those plastic cases. As for the albums they were searching for. They remained elusive for the time being. The two decided to split up and take one part of the basement. It seemed like a useful solution and in no time at all both teens were looking through box after box. Unfortunately, they weren't able to find them as fast as they expected. In fact, Ted was shocked to see just how many of the plastic containers there were. He had no idea just how much had been stored down in those depths. It was during his search that he discovered the chest.

It wasn't like the other storage receptacles. The frame was made of wood and bound tightly with leather. Leather had been outlawed by O'Hare for the lack of animal species at the time. So to find such an object was like finding a rare gem. It was indeed an important relic of the old times, back when the town was called, Greenville. After clearing away some of the access boxes, Ted looked it over. A thick, cloth sheet had been draped over the chest to protect it from dust and mildew. Upon further examination he found the locking mechanism to be broken. Time itself had worked against the metallic security that confided the articles of the chest from intruders. The belt straps were somewhat different. Time had worked its wonders on the thick bindings. However, instead of making them weak, they had grown strong in their age. The fastened belts was quite tough and it took some work to get it unhooked. Once he had released the leathery binds, it was time to see what the pirates had left for him.

The top squeaked from years of unoiled hinges. Dust seeped from the corners like a dirty fog. Ted coughed out the dust from his lungs. Once his air passages were cleared of the debris, he looked inside. What he found were several items of a child's nature. Some baby toys and old children's books. He guessed they were either his or his mother's. Digging deeper he found a toy xylophone and a jack-in-the-box. None of these brought anything to mind. To him they were just past belongings from a person's youth. That is until he got down to the bottom, that's when he froze. Audrey, who'd been looking through some of the boxes noticed his reaction.

"Ted, what's wrong?", she asked with concern. She'd never seen him in this sort of state.

"It can't be....", he said almost to himself.

Ted reached inside and pulled out a small, plush bear. It's eyes shined with an orangish hue. There was what looked like part of a tie around its neck. The color had faded and its original tint was unknown. To Ted, it was like he had found a long lost friend. Audrey didn't understand. It looked like some old stuffed bear. Ted shock his head and smiled at her. Apparently he was mistaken. Something inside of him told him it couldn't be, and so he placed the doll back into the chest.

As he placed the other articles inside, he laughed to himself, 'Had to be a mistake. There's no way it could be him.'

While he packed more back into the chest, Audrey smiled at him and turned back to the task at hand. Everything was calm until Ted started packing a group of books. They weren't fitting as neatly as he wanted and so he pressed down on them. When he did this a strange noise came from the chest. It was a odd, low sounding cry. Again Ted froze in place and looked down into the leathered box. Gingerly, he pressed down on the items. Again the noise rang forth. In a feverish pitch he began tossing the items out of the chest.

The first sound of books smacking the concrete drew Audrey's attention. "Ted, what's wrong?", she asked.

He said nothing and kept heaving things out of the chest until he reached his goal. With shaky hands, he took the bear out, looked it over and gave it a squeeze.

"OhAh.", the plush bear squeaked.

Ted gazed at the toy. He didn't know wether he should laugh or cry, so he did both. He showed the toy to Audrey, telling her it was his bear. He'd gotten him from his father for his third birthday. Being young he had no understanding of toys that made odd sounds. Instead he thought the doll was talking to him. He thought it had said, 'Boba', thus its name was given. Ted silently said his name to himself and pressed the bears face against his cheek. Whilst this reunion commenced, Ted began having doubts. Not about finding his stuffed friend, but that he found him at all.

"Your mother probably just put him storage after you two grew apart.", she said.

She herself had plenty of plush friends in her youth. Most of which were either backed up or given away after she grew tired of them. This wasn't the case. He never had given up on Boba, he simply had lost him. He wasn't sure how, only that it happened around the time they went to visit his grandparents on his father's side. If this was true, then why had he found him stashed in some old trunk in the basemen? Ted had no clue. There was only one person he could think of to ask. That person being his mother, Margie Wiggins.