If there ever were to be a sadder little boy than Henry, he wouldn’t believe it.

He was the saddest little boy, period. At least according to him. He had not only had a terrible day, but a terrible night, too. His favorite toy, a green plushie elephant, had gone missing, and without it he could not sleep. He barely could stand to be awake.

“Dad, I’m sad,” Henry told his dad the morning after the horrible event. His dad was sitting at the table, playing around with his phone. It wasn’t fair. Henry wasn’t allowed to have a phone yet. He had been told he would get one ‘next year’ for a few years now, and somehow next year had never come.

“It’s okay to be sad,” his dad mumbled between scrolling on his phone and taking a sip of coffee. Henry thought coffee was disgusting. It smelled weird and burned, and the one sip he had stolen once tasted even worse.

“But I don’t wanna be sad…” Henry complained. He was old enough to not whine anymore. He only did like adults and complained now. There was a difference, he knew. He had talked with one of his teachers about it when he started school that year, and since an adult had said he was right, he must be.

“Why are you sad?” His mom asked, coming in with a cup of tea. Henry didn’t like tea, either. Unless it has a lot of milk and sugar in it, but at that point it wasn’t really tea anymore, his mom said.

“Ellie is still gone…” Henry complained again. He. Did. Not. Whine. Nope, Henry was too old for that! He also didn’t almost cry. He was a very brave little boy.

“I’m sure we’ll find her,” his mom said an a typical motherly way. Henry liked that she talked to him in a soothing tone, but he didn’t like what she said.

“When?” Henry asked without tears spilling out of his eyes. He was a big boy, after all. He had started in school just this year, and he could sleep without his light on at night…. if Ellie was there…

And she wasn’t…

The green plushie elephant he had gotten as a birthday gift from his grandmother, and had since he was little. And he wasn’t little anymore! So it was a long time.

“Oh, I don’t know honey. We’ll look for her later, okay?” His mother asked, patting his head and drying away the tears that were definitely not falling from his eyes, because he was a big boy! And big boys didn’t cry over lost toys.

“When is later?” Asked Henry. If he got a phone ‘next year’ and it had been years since he was told that, then would ‘later’ mean ‘never’?

Henry hoped not… He couldn’t sleep without Ellie again…

“Where did you last see her?” His dad asked, looking up from his phone now. Henry thought for a while.

He remembered he had brought her to school for ‘show and tell’. He wanted to show his friends his BEST friend. But nobody seemed to understand how amazing she was… They were all too busy showing their own toys, and didn’t care much about Ellie.

He had promised her that she would get new friends, so he felt very bad when nobody talked to her the entire day.

Then he had her in the bus on his way home. He very clearly remembered that she was sitting next to him, when he pointed out the window to show her all sorts of things, trying to lift her mood a bit.

It was okay she didn’t get any new friends, she still had him, and he had her! And then…

Then what?

He had her on the bus, and then… Did he have her at the bus stop?

He thought so, but he wasn’t entirely sure.

Oh, but wait, he had her for sure when he went outside to play on the playing ground on the way home from the bus.

It was very close to where he lived, and he brought her to the swings, so she could try those. She kept falling off, whenever he tried to put her on one and pushed it, so he wanted to show her how it was done.

So he put her…

OH!

“She’s at the playing ground!” Henry yelled up, both excited about remembering where she was and horrified that he would ever have forgotten her in the first place. Left her alone. Abandoned her.

More, uhm, the first tears welled up in his eyes. He felt horrible.

“Aw, honey, I’m sure Ellie will understand. We can go look for her after dad finishes his coffee, okay?” Asked his mom, who was already finished with his tea.

Henry understood. Tea was easier to finish than coffee, since tea just tasted of disgusting warm water, but coffee had a lot of BAD taste. He didn’t understand why his dad willingly put himself through that, but assumed it was just another weird adult thing.

“No need to feel so blue,” his dad mumbled, before taking another sip of the disgusting black liquid.

“Blue?” Henry asked. He didn’t feel blue. If anything, he felt green. He liked green. Green like Ellie. Green like grass. Green like mint ice cream.

“It means you’re down or sad,” his mom explained.

“Oh…” Henry said, nodding in understanding, even though he didn’t understand at all. Why would blue mean sad?

“I don’t want to feel blue. I want to feel green,” Henry said, hitting his little hand on his chest, as if making a big declaration, “like Ellie!”

“Oh… Uhm…” his mom looked at his dad, but his dad didn’t say anything.

“Well, feeling green means something else,” his mom started but didn’t continue immediately.

“Yea, it means to feel like an elephant!” Henry proudly declared.

His dad spluttered out his coffee, almost getting choked, as he tried not to laugh. His mom smiled a very motherly smile.

Henry liked when she smiled like that.

“I suppose it can mean that, too,” his mother agreed before continuing, “but mostly it means that someone is jealous.”

“Jealous? What? Why?” It didn’t make any sense! Or… wait… was that why Ellie had been in such a bad mood yesterday? Because she had been jealous of all the other friends he had, and their toys?

“What about feeling red? Or orange? Or yellow? Or purple?” Henry asked, now very intent on knowing what each color meant so he could tell his friends at school after the weekend.

There was a moment of silence before his mom sent his dad a look Henry didn’t understand. But his dad seem to understand very well, since he gulped down the rest of his coffee, stood up and said “Well, should we go find Ellie?”

Henry nodded eagerly and ran out to put on a jacket, all questions about colors and feelings immediately forgotten at the prospect of getting Ellie back.

His dad kissed his mom goodbye - ew - and then him and his dad went to the playing ground.

It didn’t even take a second before Henry found her, his best friend. She was sitting in the grass, just behind the swings, where he had put her so she had the best view on how to play on the swings, when he demonstrated.

“Ellie!” He yelled, and ran to her. He took her in his arms and hugged her tight. He knew he would be able to sleep well, now.

“You don’t need to feel green, Ellie. You’re my bestest friend!” Henry said. 

His dad chuckled behind him but said nothing.

Henry didn’t care.

He no longer felt blue or green.

He just felt relief from having Ellie in his arms again, and promised her over and over that he would never forget her or lose her, ever again.