My Buddy

I had a "My Buddy" when I was a kid...

Shortly after I got it, the first Child's Play (Chucky) movie came out and I somehow got a glimpse of the evil protagonist. From then on I was terrified. My mother insisted on keeping My Buddy in a chair at the end of my bed. I would wake up from nightmares about the doll, only to find him a few feet away, staring menacingly at me.

On more than one occasion I tried to throw the doll away. My mother, of course, always found it in the trash and returned it to the chair at the end of my bed. Imagine my youthful surprise when, after dragging it to the trash and hoisting it in, I returned to my room and found him sitting there, unscathed, smiling back at me.

After a few unsuccessful trips to the trashbin and a handful of runs through the washing machine, My Buddy met his fateful end. Taking drastic measures, my brother and I dismembered the doll in our room with the broken windshield of a lego jet fighter. It was a gruesome scene. The plastic was dull and the polyester blend was strong, but in the end it was no match for our die-hard determination and undeveloped muscles.

My mother was less than pleased, but a few nights without dessert seemed like a fair price to pay for not getting murdered in my sleep.