Chapter 8

Tour of the Factory

San was quick to put the disaster in the dining room behind them, physically and metaphorically. Shortly after the plush creatures made their mass exit, San whisked Ty out the door and they resumed their flight through hallways.

“Now,” San said as he ran, “I'm going to show you what wonders this building holds! I have a feeling you are going to be very impressed. If you're not, well, then you can try your luck in the North Pole.”

San chuckled at that, but Ty remained silent, thinking that San sending him to the North Pole out of anger was a very real possibility. He made up his mind then and there, for his own safety: pretend to be impressed by whatever he was shown.

It turned out that wasn’t necessary in the slightest as, true to San's word, there were wonders around every corner and inside every room. Ty saw great machines that spat out—literally, the device was shaped like a robotic mouth—pieces of toys that ran down the building track/tongue on their own accord. Stuffed animals snatched them up as they went, jamming them together and forming a complete toy in seconds. He saw a great room where trampolines were made and tested, creatures flying into the ceiling from ones that were too springy, or through the floor from a particularly bad design.

There were areas where toys were tested for babies, too. Ty watched as baby plushes were handed all manner of toys to see what was safe and what had less than satisfactory results. San saw Ty's look of horror as one choked on something and assured him that they were a-okay, that they had the best doctors on site that knew just what to do in all life or death situations. Still, he wheeled Ty away from that room far quicker than the others...

San's tour went on for what must have been hours, every display stranger than the last. Despite the strangeness (and possible danger) of them all, Ty had to admit that they were amazing. The North Pole had nothing on this place. He was sure that the factory blew many normal kid's minds... but Ty was far from ordinary; he’d grown up in his grandfather’s toy store, giving him slightly different standards.

“Do you ever make the toys for yourself? Without all these machines?” Ty asked.

San looked at him, his face revealing a hint of surprise. He had probably never been presented with that question before. “Why do you ask?”

Ty looked at the floor, this subject still bringing bad thoughts and feelings. “My grandpa. He made toys. I helped sometimes, but mostly I just watched. For hours I would watch him work. There was something... magical about it.”

San smiled, “Ah, I see, you’re part of the toy trade! I knew there was something special about you!” San gently patted him on the back, meaning it as a friendly gesture but almost knocking Ty onto his face. “I have to show you something no other child who’s come here has seen: exactly how the machines themselves are made, and the designs for the toys. You see, we work on a much larger scale than your grandpa, and that's why we need these machines. But that doesn’t take out the touch of a real pair of hands and an intelligent mind. I have many creatures behind the scenes who design the toys. They put real effort and love into both the early builds and the final product! After that, I build the machines that mass-produce them myself.

“Sad to say, unlike your grandpa and my designers, I lack the creative touch. However, what I lack in creativity, I make up for in the area of mechanical construction. Every individual toy produced here has its own personal machine made to build more copies of them.

“So, the designers put love into the toys, and I put my love and intellect into the machines. The hands-on approach most certainly still applies here.”

That made perfect sense to Ty. He’d never heard mass production explained in that way. “Can you show me the designers and where you build the machines?”

“Of course, of course! But... how about some rest first?”

Ty opened his mouth to refuse the offer but a large yawn came out instead. All at once, he was hit with the realization that almost a day’s length of time passed since he first woke up in that cell.

“Rest... sounds really good...” Ty murmured.

They started off down the hall but the boy was even slower than usual, so San scooped him onto his shoulders and ran at breakneck speed through the maze of halls once more. Ty held on for dear life for less than a minute before San stopped in front of his cell door—all the way on the opposite end of the factory, a trip that would have taken Ty hours.

San deposited him on the floor, and Ty looked at the door to the cell with dread. He really had to go back in there? But wait... Upon closer inspection, Ty noticed that there was a doorknob now! The sock monkey and the panel were gone now, too.

“Is this a different room than the one I was in before?” Ty asked, puzzled.

“Yes... and no,” was San's confusing answer.

“What does that—”

“You'll have to see for yourself! I must be going now, I'm quite busy,” San said, already in the process of walking away. “If you need anything, ask anyone you see and they'll get it for you.”

He was gone before Ty had a chance to ask any more questions. He turned back to the door and started to reach for the knob when a loud crack came from the wood, causing him to jump back. The source of the sound was near the top half of the door, cracks appearing on the surface of it as big splinters of wood fell off. At first, it seemed like random pieces, but more continued to break away to reveal what looked like solid gold underneath, spelling something.

“Ty's Room,” now shined back at him from the surface of the door.

Ty smiled and traced the letters with his finger. He opened the door to what used to be a dreary and empty cell, now transformed, then stepped inside.

His mouth dropped. Every inch of the floor was covered with toys: LEGO sets, action figures, wooden toys akin to what his grandfather made, and all kinds of new toys that had never seen store shelves back home (yet, at least). The far wall of the room was obscured by the widest widescreen TV in existence. Not only that, but on the floor in front of it was every game system ever, going from the oldest to the newest in a nerdy timeline. Another wall was reserved for shelves packed with video games to go with all the consoles.

And finally, against a small section of the left wall, a single bed. This sight, what was to be the least extraordinary object in the room, grabbed the tired boy's attention the most. Ty stumbled over toys on his weak and sluggish legs, making his way to the mattress where he collapsed on top of it, not even bothering to get under the blanket. His head fell upon the pillow and he was asleep in an instant, his dreams full of the fun he would have once he woke up again.

Unbeknownst to Ty, he’d already fallen into San's trap.