Dolls in the Attic

In my parents' attic, I had stored a trunk full of stuffed animals and my Ken and Barbie dolls. Ken and Barbie had lived up there in the dark together for a very long time, like the V.C. Anders children. Perhaps it deepened their love. Perhaps it made them mad and drove them to unwholesome things. But I hadn't had the heart to throw them out for so many years because they had been my friends. I couldn't say exactly when that feeling ended. Maybe never. All I ever wanted was to be as cool as Barbie, and now Barbie is just a bendy lump of plastic and she's gone. It isn't throwing out my 35 year old toys that bothers me. It's just that they are 35 years old... I didn't see it coming.