Oliver had never liked Saturdays before.
They used to mean cartoons in pajamas, Stella’s loud singing from the kitchen, and their mother flipping pancakes while pretending to burn them.
Now Saturdays meant something else.
They meant the bell above the toy store door chiming at exactly 11 a.m., and the faint smell of cardboard and cinnamon drifting through the narrow aisles.
He was 13 years old, but there was something older in the way he carried himself. His shoulders stayed straight. His eyes rarely wandered. Other boys his age laughed too loudly and shoved one another down the sidewalk. Oliver walked alone.
The first time he stepped into Alaric’s Toy Emporium, his hands had been shoved deep into his jacket pockets.
The store owner, Alaric, was stacking puzzles behind the counter. He was a tall man in his late 40s with silver threading through his dark hair and wire-rimmed glasses perched on his nose.
He looked up when the bell rang.
“Can I help you?” Alaric asked kindly.
Oliver nodded once. “I was wondering if I could work.”
Alaric blinked. “Work?”
“Yes, sir. I can sweep. Or carry boxes. Or organize things.”
Alaric studied him. The boy was small for his age but sturdy, with serious gray eyes that seemed too calm.
“You’re pretty young, aren’t you?” Alaric asked.
“Yes, sir. I am 13 years old.”
“Well,” Alaric said carefully, “I can’t officially hire you. But I suppose if you wanted to help out for a bit…”
Oliver stepped closer to the counter.
“I don’t need money.”
That caught Alaric’s attention. “You don’t?”
Oliver shook his head. His fingers tightened inside his sleeves. “I just want that.”
He pointed toward a shelf near the window. Sitting there, surrounded by stuffed animals in bright colors, was a pink teddy bear. It had soft fur, round black eyes, and a satin ribbon tied neatly around its neck.
Alaric followed his gaze. “That bear?”
“Yes, sir.”
Alaric tilted his head. “Why that one?”
Oliver lowered his eyes to the floor.
His jaw tightened.
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
There was no defiance in his tone. Only finality.
Alaric hesitated, then nodded slowly.
And so it began.
Every Saturday, Oliver arrived at 11 a.m. sharp. He never missed a week. Rain or shine, cold wind or blazing sun, he showed up.
He cleaned the floors without being told. He organized the board games alphabetically. He carried heavy boxes from the back room and stacked them neatly against the wall. When younger children knocked over towers of toy cars, he quietly rebuilt them.
He worked without complaint.
In the evening, he would walk to the shelf, pick up the pink teddy bear, and carry it to the counter.
Alaric would inspect the store with exaggerated seriousness.
“Floors are spotless,” he would say.
“Yes, sir.”
“Shelves aligned.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Boxes stacked better than I could manage.”
Oliver would give a small nod.
Alaric would then slide the bear across the counter. “Payment.”
Oliver would take it carefully, almost reverently.
“Thank you.”
The first few times, he left without another word.
But as weeks passed, a rhythm formed between them.
One Saturday, Alaric handed him a broom and said, “You’re more thorough than my old assistant ever was.”
Oliver glanced up briefly. “I just like things in order.”
“Most boys your age don’t.”
Oliver didn’t respond.
Another weekend, a little girl knocked over a display of plush rabbits. She burst into tears when her mother scolded her.
Oliver crouched down and began picking them up.
“It’s okay,” he told her quietly. “They don’t mind falling.”
The girl sniffed. “They don’t?”
He shook his head. “They’re soft.”
Alaric watched from behind the counter, something warm settling in his chest.
Still, Oliver never spoke about the bear.
Not once.
It became routine. Clean. Lift. Organize. Pink bear.
By the seventh Saturday, Alaric found himself waiting for the boy’s knock before opening.
That afternoon, something shifted.
Oliver entered as usual, but there were faint shadows beneath his eyes.
“You’re late,” Alaric said lightly, checking the clock.
“I’m sorry,” Oliver replied quickly. “It won’t happen again.”
“It was a joke,” Alaric said with a soft chuckle.
Oliver nodded, but his lips pressed together tightly.
He worked harder than usual that day. When evening approached, he walked toward the shelf.
Alaric watched him.
An idea had been forming in his mind for days. A test, he had told himself. Nothing more.
As Oliver reached for the pink teddy bear, Alaric cleared his throat.
“We’re out of those bears,” he said.
The words seemed to hang in the air.
Oliver froze. His fingers hovered inches from the plush fur.
“What?” he asked quietly.
“We sold the last one yesterday.”
Oliver’s hand dropped slowly to his side.
His face changed in a way that made Alaric’s stomach tighten. The color drained from his cheeks. His lips trembled. He swallowed hard, but it did nothing to steady him.
“Oh,” Oliver whispered.
He turned slightly away, as if bracing himself.
For a moment, he stood very still.
Then the tears came.
They were not loud sobs. Not dramatic. Not angry.
They were silent, broken tears that slid down his cheeks without a sound.
Oliver pressed his sleeve against his eyes, but more followed.
Alaric felt something twist inside him.
“Hey,” he said softly, stepping around the counter. “I was only testing you.”
Oliver didn’t respond.
“Wait here.”
Alaric hurried to the back room. He rummaged through boxes, pushing aside dolls and action figures. Dust floated in the air as he searched.
“Come on,” he muttered under his breath.
Finally, at the bottom of a half-open carton, he saw it. One last pink teddy bear, slightly squished but intact.
He brushed it off and walked back into the store.
Oliver stood exactly where he had been, staring at the space on the shelf.
“I found one,” Alaric said gently.
Oliver looked up.
When Alaric placed the bear into his hands, something shifted in the boy’s face.
For the first time since he had walked into the store weeks ago, he smiled.
It was small. Fragile.
But it was real.
“Thank you,” he whispered.
Alaric swallowed.
“You earned it.”
Oliver hugged the bear to his chest, holding it carefully, almost protectively.
“See you next Saturday,” Alaric added.
Oliver nodded.
As he walked out, the bell chimed softly behind him.
That evening, Alaric locked the toy store later than usual.
The image of Oliver’s trembling lips would not leave him. Neither would the way the boy had clutched the pink teddy bear, as if it were something alive.
Alaric told himself it was simple curiosity. Concern, perhaps.
Nothing more.
When he spotted Oliver’s small figure walking beneath the fading orange sky, he kept a careful distance. The boy did not look back. He walked with steady steps, the bear tucked safely under his arm.
For nearly 40 minutes, Oliver walked on foot through quiet streets.
He passed rows of brick houses with porch lights flickering on. He crossed two intersections, waiting patiently even when no cars approached. A group of teenagers laughed loudly near a gas station, but Oliver avoided their gaze and kept moving.
The farther he walked, the quieter it became.
Alaric’s chest tightened.
Where could a 13-year-old be going alone at this hour?
Finally, Oliver turned onto a narrow road lined with tall iron fencing. The gates ahead were open. Beyond them stood rows of pale headstones, glowing faintly under the rising moon.
Alaric stopped in his tracks.
The cemetery.
Oliver stepped inside without hesitation.
Alaric followed more slowly now, his breath shallow, his footsteps careful against the gravel. He stayed several rows back, watching as the boy wove through the graves as if he knew the path by heart.
At last, Oliver stopped.
He knelt in front of a small white headstone near a young maple tree. The stone was simple. Too simple.
Even from a distance, Alaric could read the name carved into it.
Stella.
Beloved Daughter.
Aged 7.
Alaric felt the air leave his lungs.
Oliver stood there quietly for a moment, staring at the name. Then he sat cross-legged on the grass and placed the pink teddy bear gently against the base of the stone.
“Hi, Stell,” he said softly.
His voice was no longer the guarded, careful tone he used at the store. It was tender. Open.
“I brought you another one.”
He adjusted the bear so it sat upright.
“I know pink was your favorite,” he continued. “You said it was the color of cotton candy sunsets.”
Alaric’s eyes burned.
Oliver brushed a few dry leaves away from the grave.
“Do you know what happened on Wednesday?” he murmured. “Mom wasn’t feeling good. She didn’t want to get out of bed.”
He paused, swallowing hard.
“She still cries at night. I hear her.”
The wind stirred softly through the trees.
Oliver reached out and touched the engraved letters of Stella’s name.
“Do you remember when we came to this store together?” he asked quietly. “You wouldn’t leave without a pink bear. You said every princess needed one.”
His lips curved into a faint smile.
“You made me carry it all the way home because you said I was your knight.”
Alaric pressed a hand to his mouth.
Oliver took a shaky breath.
“I didn’t get to say goodbye,” he whispered. “They wouldn’t let me in the hospital room at the end. They said I was too young.”
His fingers curled into the grass.
“So I bring these instead.”
He looked down at the bear.
“I work for them,” he explained gently, as if Stella were sitting right in front of him. “Mr. Alaric thinks I just like that one. He doesn’t know it’s for you.”
A tear slid down his cheek.
“I didn’t want to tell him. It feels… private.”
Alaric felt something inside him break.
Oliver continued speaking, his voice barely louder than the wind.
“I thought if I kept bringing you new ones, you wouldn’t feel alone.”
He let out a soft, uneven breath.
“I miss you, Stell.”
Silence settled around him.
For a long moment, Oliver simply sat there, staring at the headstone, as if waiting for an answer.
Then he leaned forward and rested his forehead gently against the cool marble.
“I’ll come back next Saturday,” he promised. “I always will.”
Alaric stepped back behind a large oak tree, tears slipping freely down his face. He had seen grief before. He had felt it when he lost his own father years ago. But watching a young boy carry it so quietly felt unbearable.
He remained there until Oliver stood, brushed off his jeans, and gave the bear one last careful adjustment.
“Goodnight, Stell,” he whispered.
Then he turned and walked away.
Alaric did not follow him home.
Instead, he approached the grave slowly after Oliver disappeared through the gates.
The pink teddy bear sat proudly against the headstone, its ribbon catching the moonlight.
Seven.
Stella had been only seven.
Alaric sank to his knees.
He imagined Oliver cleaning the floors week after week, carrying boxes too heavy for his thin arms, all for this. Not for himself.
Never for himself.
The next Saturday, Oliver arrived at 11 a.m. as always.
He looked surprised to see Alaric already waiting by the door.
“Good day, sir,” Oliver said politely.
“Good day,” Alaric replied, his voice softer than usual.
Oliver reached for the broom.
“You don’t have to start with that today,” Alaric said.
Oliver blinked. “I don’t?”
Alaric shook his head.
“I have something for you.”
He disappeared into the back room and returned carrying a large cardboard box.
Oliver frowned slightly.
Alaric set it on the counter and opened the flaps.
Inside were dozens of pink teddy bears.
Oliver stared, speechless.
“I may have called a supplier,” Alaric admitted. “Turns out they still make this model.”
Oliver’s throat worked as he tried to speak. “Sir, I can’t…”
“You can,” Alaric interrupted gently. “And you don’t have to clean for them anymore.”
Oliver’s eyes filled.
“I know about Stella,” Alaric said quietly.
The boy stiffened.
“I’m sorry I followed you,” Alaric continued. “I was worried.”
Oliver looked down at his hands.
“I didn’t want people to know,” he whispered.
Alaric stepped around the counter and crouched to his level.
“There’s nothing to be ashamed of,” he said softly. “Loving someone that much is never something to hide.”
Oliver’s composure cracked. Tears spilled over again, but this time he did not try to hide them.
“I just don’t want her to feel forgotten,” he admitted.
“She won’t,” Alaric assured him. “Not as long as you remember her.”
Oliver looked at the box again.
“Can I still work?” he asked after a moment.
Alaric smiled gently. “If you want to.”
Oliver nodded. “I do.”
And so the routine continued.
Every Saturday, Oliver cleaned and organized, not because he had to, but because it made him feel close to Stella. And every Saturday evening, he carried a pink teddy bear through the quiet streets to the small white headstone under the maple tree.
Only now, he was no longer alone in his grief.
From time to time, a fresh bouquet would appear beside the bears.
Oliver never asked who left them.
He already knew.