Tillie here. And I have a long story to tell you. It’s the story of how we all came to live in Whimsieville, and it’s all tied up with this game from the 1960’s: Memory. It’s also tied up with a lot of memories.

The way Miss Chrissy tells it, one day not too long ago, she was reminiscing about different toys and games she had when she was a child in the 1960’s, and suddenly she remembered this game called…Memory!

Well, it’s entirely appropriate that one would REMEMBER Memory. This game is in fact still around, but Miss Chrissy remembered a very specific set of cards, and wondered if she could still find the game with these special cards. So of course she went to The EBay, where one can find all kinds of things that aren’t in stores anymore. And sure enough…there it was! The Memory Game, with the very same cards she remembered! So she put in a bid…and won!

Now, thinking about the Memory game from her childhood, Miss Chrissy naturally remembered many other aspects of her childhood, especially some of the friends she used to have back then, and her thoughts immediately flew to Tessie.
Tessie was one of Miss Chrissy’s best friends back then, and it was a terrible, terrible day when the dogs (or wolves) dragged Tessie away from the Clubhouse. Miss Chrissy cried and cried, as she had never cried before. Till that time in her young life, she had never lost anything or anyone so important, so this was her first experience of loss, and it hit her very hard.

Over the years, the pain of the memory of losing her friend Tessie was replaced with other, kinder memories, but she never completely forgot Tessie. The thought of her missing friend was always somewhere in the back of her mind, like a little dark cloud on the horizon on an otherwise sunny day. And when she found the MEMORY game, which sparked the memory of Tessie, it suddenly occurred to her that perhaps…just perhaps…she might be able to use The The Ebay to find her long lost friend.

Of course she started on The EBay, since she was already there, and that is the most logical place to start…and lo and behold! She did not have to look far! For it seemed that our Caretaker from the Hoard (though you could hardly call her a “Caretaker,” for she never took very good care of us at all) had just passed to the Great Beyond (where, hopefully, there are no Hoards), and the Estate Managers had stepped in to see what could be “done about” The Hoard.

Tessie, Trixie and I all knew we were going to have to leave The Hoard, and didn’t mind at all, since it was an awful place. But Trixie was upset that she would be separated from her beloved Thor Comics, and I fervently hoped I would go someplace with a lot of Books, and Tessie wanted to end up where she could listen to Music all day long. But all these concerns took a back seat to our main concern: we did not wish to be separated from each other.

Us Whimsies are not certain how long we existed in The Hoard. When life is not entirely pleasant, it always seems we are there much longer than we think. But during that time, however long it was, the three of us had forged a strong friendship. And no Comics, or Books, or Music could make up for the possibility that the three of us might have to go to different places. We tried our best to stick together, always holding hands, to let the Estate Managers know that we were a TEAM, but there was so much for them to have to deal with in That Enormous Hoard, that they were not paying very close attention to the particulars.

And so, we each went up for adoption separately.

It was at this time, however, that Miss Chrissy had just purchased the Memory Game, and began to look for Tessie, and lo and behold found her, and paid the adoption fee. At the time, Tessie didn’t know she was going back to her childhood friend, she only knew she was leaving her two current friends, me and Trixie.

It was a terrible terrible day when Tessie was taken away. It was terrible for Tessie, because it brought up so many memories of that horrific experience so long ago when she had been kidnapped by the dogs. This was not as traumatic, because the Estate Managers provided her with very comfy accommodations to her new home. But it was heartbreaking to me and Trixie that we might never see our friend Tessie again.

We cried and cried.

Tessie told us later that she cried too, but when, after a voyage of several days she finally arrived at her destination and discovered that it was Miss Chrissy herself who had adopted her, she was so filled with joy that her tears turned instantly from sorrow to happiness!

From the pictures of Tessie on The EBay, Miss Chrissy had only suspected, and had only HOPED that the Whimsie she was adopting might be the very same Tessie she had known so many years ago. And when Tessie arrived, it was immediately apparent that those hopes and prayers had been answered!

The two old friends had a wonderful time of homecoming, catching up on all the news…and some of the news, Tessie was quick to tell Miss Chrissy, was that she had made two very good friends named Tillie and Trixie who were now also up for adoption on The EBay.

Well! Miss Chrissy wasted no time! She ran right to The EBay and paid those adoption fees, and within a week us Three Amigas were reunited! And not only are we reunited, but now we also have a good friend in Miss Chrissy, who takes so much better care of us than we ever got in The Hoard, and to make things even better, in our new home, there is no end to Comics and Books and Music!

It took us a little while to all calm down from marveling over what good fortune had fallen upon us. We spent quite a while just getting adjusted to our new environment. At first, it was all about getting ourselves cleaned up and prettied up, and getting into some new and comfortable clothes. And then it was about exploring our new home, finding all those Comics and Books and Music. This new home of ours, which we have christened Whimsieville, is like a huge, magical castle, full of wonders around every corner.

Miss Chrissy and The Man have to spend a good part of most days away from Whimsieville, but while they are gone, we always find ways to occupy ourselves. And then we are happy to see them in the evenings. And on weekends. Though lately, they spend much of the day they call Saturday watching another kind of game they call Football. It’s an exciting game, and sometimes Our People enjoy it so much that they make a lot of noise, which frightens Mr. Squee, so he goes and hides in the bathtub.

We don’t mind Football, though we certainly don’t understand it. Maybe someday we’ll take the time to learn about it, but for right now, there’s just too much to keep us busy!

And one of the things that keeps us busy is this Memory game, which we like to play as often as we can. We found it one day and asked Miss Chrissy if we could play, and she said of course, as long as we don’t lose any of the cards. Miss Chrissy played the game with us a few times, and then after that, we’ve played numerous games on our own, usually while Miss Chrissy and The Man are watching Football.

Sometimes we play all three together, but sometimes we have a Championship Playoff, to see who is the best. So far Tessie is taking those honors, almost every time. First she plays Trixie, and wins….and then she plays me, and wins again!

Trixie says it’s a good thing she does not have a very good memory, because there are certain things that have happened to her that she would like to forget. I would just like to forget about The Hoard, and mostly I do, because Miss Chrissy keeps Whimsieville very clean.

The Hoard was a terrible place I do not wish to remember, but at the same time, that is where I met Tessie and Trixie, so I don’t want to forget about it altogether. It seems to me that most of the time, the good is mixed with the bad. And sometimes, I think, if we didn’t have the Bad, then the Good would not seem so good.

Whenever I’m sititng with my two best friends in the whole world, playing the Memory game, I like to remember that.