fandomweekly | [#046] Treasured (Original Fic)

Theme Prompt: [#046] – Fool’s Gold
Title: Treasured
Fandom: Original Fic
Rating/Warnings: G / None.
Bonus: Don’t think so…
Word Count: 617
Summary: People don’t always place the greatest value on the things that cost the most. Some things are precious beyond their physical worth.

It was silly really, just an old and tatty, furry, nodding ornament some seven inches tall. She wasn’t sure where it had come from, having been a small child at the time, didn’t even remember its arrival, it just somehow seemed to have always been there, sitting on her mother’s dressing table. Perhaps it had been a gift, or a prize won at a fair, but there was no way of knowing, not anymore. Maybe she should have asked when she still had a chance, but it’s years too late now and her mother probably wouldn’t have remembered anyway.

It had been a bit of a joke to the family in those early days, because nobody was quite sure what it was supposed to be; a cat, or a bear, or maybe a panda, although it was brown and white instead of black and white. The girl supposed it didn’t really matter, she’d always just called it Panda Cat; it was a good enough name.

Back when she had been a child, whenever she was ill, which was quite often as she’d been a sickly child, Panda Cat would be moved into her bedroom. Her mother told her that it was magic and would make her feel better, and she believed, of course she did, because it always seemed to work. Panda Cat was her loyal protector; nothing really bad could ever happen to her when it was watching over her.

As she grew older, she came to understand that Panda Cat wasn’t really magical at all, and that when she was ill she got well again because most of the time, that’s what people did. The ornament didn’t have anything to do with it, but she found she didn’t care because even knowing the truth didn’t make the ornament any less special, and its presence was still strangely comforting, as if her mother was watching over her through its eyes.

Years passed, and when her mother wanted to throw the ornament away, because it was old and tatty now, the once white patches of its fur turned yellowish through years of dust that couldn’t be washed away, the girl protested, and Panda Cat moved into her room permanently. You don’t throw old and trusted friends away, not even the inanimate ones.

Now the girl is a woman, and her mother is gone, but Panda Cat remains, looking older and scruffier than ever. It has every right to of course, being, at her best guess, almost half a century old. Is that old enough for it to qualify as an antique? Probably not, but that’s beside the point anyway. In terms of monetary value it’s completely worthless; it was a cheap, kitschy novelty when it was made. But it’s a true fact that the things that are most important to people are not necessarily the most expensive, and true worth can’t always be measured in pounds and pence. Panda Cat is valuable because it’s full of memories, both good and bad. It has been with the woman through most of her life, from childhood, through her teens, her early adulthood, and now into late middle age, and she wouldn’t trade it for anything. That would feel like the worst kind of betrayal.

And besides, the woman can’t help thinking that maybe, just maybe, there’s the tiniest chance that her mother is still around, watching over her through Panda Cat’s eyes, making sure she’s alright. Just as in her childhood, it’s a comforting thought. For that, and for so many other reasons she can never adequately put into words, tatty though it is these days, to her the silly old ornament will always be a treasure beyond price.

The End