ATF Little Britches Fantastic Dreams Series: Dream 11 by Lu

It was Friday afternoon. Vin and JD had just been taken home from school by Gloria Potter, their housekeeper and babysitter. Gloria let the boys go outside to play while she started cooking dinner for when Chris and Buck came home. They were expected to come home on time today, which was the first time that week. She knew that the boys were glad about that news; they hated it when they had to wait even longer for the men to come home.

JD and Vin played "Tag" and their pups joined them. Soon the game was in chaos and the boys ended up in a heap on the ground with their pups. Unfortunately the ground was quite dirty and the boys' clothes soon became filthy.

Gloria stood in the doorway, alerted by the giggles and barks and realized the boys would need a bath before dinner, before their dads could see the state of them. Gloria called JD and Vin into the house upon noticing that they didn't have long before Chris and Buck would be home so would have to hurry with the baths.

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Once both boys had been bathed and put into clean clothes, they were sent to watch a DVD in the den where they wouldn't get dirty again. JD took "Toy Story" off their shelf of DVDs and put it into the player while Vin turned on the TV.

"How many times have we seen this already?" moaned Vin. He knew he shouldn't have let JD choose the movie.

"But I likes it," whined JD. "You did say I gots to choose."

"I didn't think you'd want to watch 'Toy Story' again," answered Vin, hoping their dads would be home soon so he wouldn't have to watch too much of the movie. He figured he knew most of the script and could say the each line before the characters.

The boys managed to watch about fifteen minutes of the movie before the men walked in the front door and the boys joyfully ran to greet them.

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After dinner, Vin and JD went back into the den to watch "Toy Story". As they'd had their baths early, they had more time before bed.

Vin found himself actually enjoying watching the movie again, despite having to endure JD singing along and talking some of the time.

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JD woke up suddenly when he felt someone touch him on the shoulder; he must've fallen asleep watching the movie. "Vin?" he asked as he got up to face the speaker.

"JD? There's an emergency - I've lost my hand!" answered a Barbie doll who stood there.

JD blinked his eyes in disbelief. A Barbie doll? A Barbie the size of him? He decided he must be dreaming.

"You've lost-ed your hand, Miss?" asked JD, trying to get into the swing of things. "Where did you last have it?

"I don't know," answered Barbie, bursting into tears. "I think the baby might've swallowed it!"

JD's eyes bulged at the thought of a baby swallowing someone's hand. "Your baby?" he asked, knowing that some Barbies had babies.

"No, our owner's baby brother, silly. My baby wouldn't be able to swallow my hand."

Buck Wilmington happened along just then and walked to Barbie, wrapping his arms around her upon seeing her tears. "It's okay, darlin', we'll get your hand back for you," he said softly to her.

"Please do. I'm right-handed so I'm not very good at doing everything with my left, Mr. Wilmington."

"Please, call me Buck."

"Da, we better start looking for her hand," said JD, wanting to help the sweet doll straight away.

"Son, I'll look over that side, you take the other side. Ask any toys you see if they've seen it," ordered Buck, taking charge of the situation. Then he walked over to his side of the room and started looking for the hand and asking toys if they'd seen it.

JD walked over to his side and began looking for the hand as well. He now knew that he was in his bedroom, but he and Buck were the size of toys so he could crawl under furniture to look for the hand there. He did wonder where the doll had come from though - he and Vin didn't have dolls!

"What are ya lookin' for, pard?" asked a voice.

JD turned around and saw a cowboy upon a horse, one of Vin's toys. "Miss Barbie's lost-ed her hand, Sir, an' I'm trying to find it."

"What's a Barbie doin' in yer room?"

"I dunno. Me an' Vin don't play with dolls," answered JD, not wishing the cowboy to think he and Vin liked girls' toys.

"Maybe that kid next door took it for one of his experiments," suggested the cowboy.

"We don't have kids next door," said JD, puzzled by the cowboy's words.

"He's always been there."

JD walked to the bedroom window and looked out. It was the view like in Toy Story and he could see the next door backyard of the same kid that was in that movie.

"Course he'd probably prefer her head or somethin'," said the cowboy. Surely the kid wouldn't be interested in Barbie's hand.

"I gotta protect her an' make sure nothing bad happens," decided JD, as he stopped looking for the hand, hoping it would just turn up eventually. The little boy walked away to find Barbie and make sure she was safe from that horrible kid. JD didn't want to see her walking around without her head - that would be horrible.

"I'm sure he'll find it soon," said Buck, as he looked into the doll's blue eyes with a smile upon his face. Buck had already finishing looking on one side of the room and had gone back to console Barbie.

"You have a lovely son, Buck," said Barbie, looking into Buck's eyes dreamily.

"Umm, Barbie?" asked JD walking toward the doll and Buck who seemed to be staring at each other.

"Have you found it?" asked Barbie expectantly. She really needed her hand back soon, life would be very hard without it.

"No, but I think the boy next door might have it. I came to make sure you are safe 'cause Cowboy said the nasty boy might want your head," said the boy, deciding he should tell Barbie the truth.

"Oh my!" gasped Barbie in fear. "Buck, you have to protect me from him." She rushed over to Buck and stood against him. Buck wrapped his arms around her protectively.

"I came to pr'tect you, Miss," complained JD, not wanting Buck to end up dating a doll. She wasn't a real person and he didn't want her to be a new mom to him.

"I still don't have my hand back," moaned Barbie. "You'll have to get me a new one from someone else, JD."

A look of horror appeared on JD's face. The doll wanted him to take someone's hand off and give it to her - she was crazy. This dream was turning into a nightmare.

JD decided to run away; she couldn't force him to get someone else's hand. The little boy ran toward the door. Unfortunately, he had no idea how he'd be able to open the closed door. He was sure he wouldn't be strong enough.

"Where...are...you...going?" asked a robot walking slowly towards JD.

"I need to es-cape from Barbie," explained the boy, sure that the robot would take his side.

"No-one...escapes...from...Barbie." The robot moved his arm up and suddenly a fishing line extended from it and hooked around JD's belt. JD was unable to escape, the hook was stuck solid. A siren went off and a small toy police car came racing toward the boy.

"I thought you'd be on my side, Robot," said JD angrily. The police car stopped against the door. There were no people inside the car and JD laughed, he wasn't scared of a toy car that couldn't hurt him.

A group of action men in army clothes came running along, followed by a large tank. JD recognized the toys; he'd caught Buck and Chris playing with them not long after they'd bought them for the boys. He'd thought maybe they didn't have cool toys like those when their dads were kids a long, long time ago.

"Since there are no police here, we have been ordered to catch you. Come with us," ordered one of the army guys. They were all taller than JD and carried rifles.

"No, I don't wants to," objected JD. If they were only toys and this was only a dream, they wouldn't be able to really hurt him. He didn't want to play along anymore. He felt braver knowing it was only a dream. JD watched as the men lifted their guns to aim at him, but stood his ground. No-one could really hurt him in a dream.

"We will shoot you if you don't find another hand for Barbie, boy," threatened the army man, who must be the one in charge.

"Go on then," said JD, not convinced that the rifles could really shoot him. JD stood bravely; ready to laugh when they were unable to shoot him. What happened next, startled him.

The men pulled the triggers on their rifles and bullets came out, heading for JD. The little boy screamed in horror.

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Buck heard the scream and quickly got out of bed. He slipped on his bathrobe then dashed to the boys' bedroom to see what was wrong.

JD opened his eyes as his dad opened the door and walked over to him.

"Son, are you alright?" asked Buck in concern. Judging by the scream, JD had suffered a terrifying nightmare. Buck knew it was JD who'd screamed as Vin was peacefully sleeping in the top bunk. Not even JD's scream had awakened him.

JD found that he was breathing heavily, terrified by what had been about to happen. "I had a bad dream, Da," said the boy before he burst into tears. That was a horrible dream.

"It's okay. The nightmare's ended, Little Bit," reassured Buck as he handed JD a tissue from the box in the boys' room, then hugged the boy comfortingly.

"Can I sleep in your bed until morning, Da?" asked JD, too scared to sleep alone for the rest of the night.

"Of course you can, Son," said Buck as he lifted JD up, settled him on his hip, and carried him out of the boys' bedroom to his own room. If JD woke up again screaming, he would be right there to comfort his boy. He wondered what JD had dreamt about. It couldn't have been what he watched on TV before bed as Buck knew that he and Chris had carefully selected DVD's for the boys that wouldn't cause any nightmares.

The End

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