Gifts of the Heart

The old man observed Ted as he walked around the white house at the cliff side, slowly dragging his feet as he poured water from the old yellow watering can onto the small Truffula trees that had been sprouting over the past few weeks. He wasn't being at all like himself, that much could be seen. He wasn't being talkative at all, which was one thing he could always rely on Ted to be. The boy would tell him about the changes in town, about how his school work was going, that sort of thing. Today though, he was silent as the grave.

Once-ler gripped at the arm rests of his chair that he had brought outside, and pushed himself to his feet as he approached the young man. "What's up, Ted?"

"Huh?" Ted turned his head to peer up at the tall man whose stomach he only just reached with the top of his head. He wondered if he'd ever be so tall.. "What?"

"What's up. That's what you kids say now isn't it? What's the haps? What up, bro? Yo doggy what shakin' in the hood?" Once-ler asked, waving his hands as he tried to jive talk and promptly failed at every attempt.

Ted resisted the urge to both groan, and laugh, at the antics of the older man. "Hah, no you said it right the first time." he said since the last thing he wanted to do was see the old man try to do a gangster related hand sign.

"So what's up? You aren't your usual, boisterous, youthful self." Once-ler said, setting his hands on his hips. "Girl trouble?"

The young man blushed. "What? No!" his voice squeaked, before he coughed and spoke again, purposely lowering his voice. "No."

"somebody's telling lies." frowned the old man. "Now come on. Fess up."

"…it's Audrey's birthday in a week and I dunno what to get her. I've been to every store in town but nothing seems good enough and I want to take her something amazing you know? Something I know she'll love and want to hang onto but none of the things I've seen seems to do that." he sighed dramatically, setting the watering can down. "I just don't know."

"Oh Ted." the old Once-ler snorted in bemusement before reaching down and clapped his hand against the young man's back. "You have much to learn in the way of gift giving to women."

"Oh, and what are you, an expert?" the young boy asked, smirking.

"Well. No. Not an expert but I've got just the thing for you." he replied, smiling beneath his bristled upper lip.

"You do??" Ted's eyes widened in glee and anticipation and fist pumped the air. "All right!! What is it??"

What he was given, though, wasn't what he thought it would be. He and the Once-ler had moved into the old man's lounge and Ted was now sitting on the man's couch where the Once-ler sat besides him, hands full of wool and knitting needles.

"While something from a store is very nice," Once-ler said as he guided Ted's hands, showing him what to hold and how, and where to lead the wool, "making somebody something just goes that extra mile. It shows how much they mean to you, that you would go to the trouble of making them something by your own hand."

"I, I keep dropping stitches…" Ted said grumpily as he looked at the mess of a 'scarf' he had made so far out of the green wool.

"For your first go this is very good!" complimented the old man, "And holes show character. And strength if you give it to her as is." he leaned back against the couch, hands resting in his lap. "You'll see. Audrey will love it and who knows, you might get another kiss from her in thanks."

Ted's eyes widened and his face flushed red, before forcing an awkward laugh past his lips. "A-hah haaa… y-you know about that huh?" he asked.

"Your grandmother told me."

"Ah."

It took quite a while, longer than Ted would ever admit to anyone, but he eventually finished the green scarf. What impressed him, though, wasn't the scarf itself but the fact that Once-ler had remained sat with him the entire time. Every time he had a question about it, where does this go, what do I do now, the old man would show him without any laughter or teasing. Maybe because he too had once been a new person to knitting? It was hard to imagine, Once-ler, so small like himself learning how to knit because as he'd told him, he had taught himself how to knit from his own grandmothers knitting books.

He had even ended up knitting himself, while sitting next to Ted, his knitting needles working at such a speed, such a pace, Ted had stopped to stare in wonder on more than one occasion. While some might see this as showing off, all it did to Ted was to show him what he COULD be one day, that if he really did want to keep trying at knitting be it to give gifts to his mother, his grandmother, Once-ler himself or Audrey, he too could be as talented as the man before him.

It hadn't escaped Once-ler either that young Ted had complained that knitting was for girls. He liked that, since when he'd been a boy he had been teased by his brothers for knitting, as well as his mother and aunt. They called him 'Once-lette' for a long time, teasingly of course (at least his brothers) claiming he should have been a girl instead. He had to remind himself numerous times that there was nothing unmanly about knitting; if anything, if you were a man and knitted, it showed you cared little for stupid gender stereotypes. Besides, he enjoyed the knitting dates he and Norma enjoyed together on cold nights. They would curl up on this same couch wrapped in her crocheted blanket she had made years ago, and knit together.

Soon the green scarf was done and while it was missing a few stitches Once-ler cleaned it up as best he could for Ted, stitching up a few holes, before adding some tassels to both ends. He held it up in front of Ted, smiling proudly.

"For your first go this is pretty dang good! My first scarf looked like it was made of Swiss cheese." Once-ler complimented as he set it into Ted's hands. "Now, you give her to this and you'll see how happy she is."

"…thank you. I mean, this… thanks, this has been. You know. Kinda fun?" Ted asked, his eyes darting momentarily to the bag of knitting things Once-ler had. He saw this, and the old man went to the bag and pulled out the knitting needles Ted had used, and a few balls of wool before pushing them into a bag and handed it over. "W-what?"

"Take them. You can only get better with practice." Once-ler said warmly once Ted took the bag from him. Next thing he knew Ted's arms were around his middle, young boy hugging him as tightly as he dare.

"Thank you." Ted mumbled again. He'd never really had a father, or a grandfather, to rely on in his life to teach him things like this. Some may see knitting as a fairly unmanly thing to teach a boy but as Once-ler felt, learning how to knit didn't make you a wimp or unmanly at all. Quite the opposite. He chuckled gently and placed a hand to the back of Ted's head, the other to his back.

"No problem." he whispered.

Naturally when Audrey's birthday swung around Once-ler found himself with an invitation and was standing in her backyard. There was a beautiful mural painted on the back of her house of Truffula trees reaching far higher than they ever reached in real life and he found himself watching the painting quite intently during the small gathering of family and friends. He didn't know many people outside of Ted's immediate family and Audrey, so he was fairly quiet, the way he liked it.

But of course he paid keen attention to when Audrey was unwrapping her gifts, and when she came to a pink tissue paper wrapped present the old man rested his arms behind his back as he watched her open it to pull out the green, slightly holey, scarf. Some of her friends giggled and snorted but Audrey smiled brightly and wrapped it around her neck, before turning to Ted who had been standing there, watching her.

"Thanks, Ted!" she smiled brightly, "I love it! You made this, all by yourself?" she asked.

"I had a lil' help." Ted shrugged as he cast the old man a glance, and a smile, which Once-ler returned warmly.

Naturally the young boy got himself a kiss on the cheek in thanks, even a quick hug from the girl, and Once-ler could see how much it meant to him going by how red in the face he went. Besides Once-ler, Grammy Norma giggled to herself.

"Oh now that is cute." she smiled as the young girl moved on to open her next gift. "I remember when you gave me that yellow scarf you knitted for me." the old woman glanced up at the taller man. "Do you?"

Once-ler's face turned a brilliant shade of red and he tugged his own pink scarf up over his face, embarrassed at the memory. How the curvy young woman had giggled at the gift, used it to rope around his neck and tug him down to her level and kiss the ever loving air out of him.

Granted, that hadn't happened here with Audrey and Ted, but who knew.

Knitting could get a guy all kinds of places in life.