Teddie fell onto his bed,
back in his room,
and let out a deep breath of relief.
Now, if everything would just go as planned,
he would escape all possibility of blame.
Or, at least, there would be no way of pinning the crime directly to him.
And after all, that was all that really mattered.
Sally was gone and Teddie was going to get away with the crime of the century.
Besides,
Teddie pondered to himself as he hurriedly dressed into his jeans and pull over jersey,
even if his mom or sister did suspect anything, there wasn’t anything they could do.
Sally would still be broken and nothing his mom could do to him would come close to taking away the joy he felt at Sally’s demise.
Even if he lost all his own toys,
which wouldn’t happen because he had been too smart,
but even if he did, it would have been worth it.
All the feelings of guilt and remorse were gone.
Teddie was happy it had happened.
It served Tammy Lou right. Teddie didn’t even care if his old witch of a grandma would be upset or not.
She was an old cow anyway.
She could think of anything she wanted.
She always blamed him for everything anyway,
even if she was usually right.
She would probably blame him for this too,
but she could just go ahead.
He didn’t care.
The old bag couldn’t do anything.
Teddie wasn’t afraid of her.
With a smile,
Teddie finished tying his sneakers and grabbed his basketball from his closet.
Maybe he would get in a little hoop before breakfast and before the discovery.
He really didn’t want to be there when his mom or Tammy Lou sat down on the couch.
Even though they would think that Sally had fallen into the cushion by mistake and that she had broken when they sat down,
Teddie didn’t think that he would be able to show the proper amount of pity for his sister.
He was afraid that he would give himself away when Sally’s fate was finally known.
His final thought as he dashed out the front door was that it would be great if Tammy Lou were the one to sit down and think that she broke her beloved Sally doll.
Maybe his stupid ole grandma would even get mad at Tammy Lou for a change.
After all, it would be Tammy Lou’s fault that Sally was left on the couch.
Maybe this could work out better than Teddie’s wildest dreams.
There were just so many possibilities.
With a grin, Teddie lofted his first shot toward the basket.
It was a perfect Swish.
Nothing but net,
he thought to himself.
It was going to be a great day.
At least, that was what Teddie thought.
Teddie’s quickly formulated plan had worked better than he could have hoped.
It turned out that shortly after Tammy Lou got up for the morning,
while she was still upset and searching for her Sally Dress-Up,
their mom was the first to sit on the booby-trapped couch.
Her weight caused the pieces of porcelain to rub together and make an odd grating-like crunching sound.
When she lifted the cushion to investigate, her curious expression immediately transformed to one of horror.
Teddie knew that his mom immediately concluded exactly what he had wanted her to think upon the discovery.
She thought that she was the one responsible for breaking Tammy Lou’s treasure.
Needless to say, she was a little upset.
Tammy Lou on the other hand was far more than a little upset.
Even though her mom tried very hard to break the bad news to her as gently as possible, t
here really was no easy way to tell someone that a dear loved one is gone.
Tammy Lou considered Sally to be as real as any of her other friends.
In fact, Sally had been Tammy Lou’s best friend.
Tammy Lou took Sally’s “accident” very hard.
She spent the rest of the day sobbing and crying in her room, alone.
She wouldn’t eat.
She wouldn’t go down stairs.
She even exploded with rage and screamed at her mom when it was suggested that they go out to try and find a special replacement for Sally.
Tammy Lou was so pitiful that Teddie even began to feel a little bit of sorrow and remorse for what he had done.
However, that lasted only about 10 minutes after their grandmother arrived.
Their mother had been so worried about Tammy Lou that she had called her mother-in-law.
She asked if there was anything she could think of that would help.
Grandma Garvan had immediately gotten one of her neighbor friends to give her a ride to their house so she could help comfort Tammy Lou.
After her arrival a short time after the call,
