By Julie

I got Stripers from a crane machine when I was 5 or 6. I remember that I kept putting quarters into the machine and that, like always, I couldn’t get anything. I started to cry. But my older brother Danial has this special knack for crane machines. He was about 16 then. He put a quarter in the machine and worked his magic. He pulled out a little zebra with a mane that stuck up and and fuzzy tail, and soft little skin with black and white stripes.
He was mine. I stopped crying at once. I loved him! I named him Stripers. I needed him to go to sleep every night, and I dragged him along everywhere with me.
One day, we were going on a vacation to Nebraska, and we drove. We had to stay at a hotel called Zebra Inn. In our room, there were little zebras everywhere, stuffed ones, plastic ones, glass ones, wallpaper ones. Stripers played with them all. I already had zebra wallpaper, and a zebra or two on my bedspread, and Stripers, but I wanted a zebra collection too. It started out small, and then it grew and grew, until it almost completely covered my bedroom! I even had a sign on my door, a lion one, circling the lion in red paint and then crossing it out. “No Lions” it said underneath. Lions eat zebras, I think.
Even now, and I’m 12 now, my collection still remains, and it’s still, very very slowly, growing. If I had too much more, it would by overflow my room. I’ve way overpowered Zebra Inn, my favorite hotel, now. We go there every time I visit my Gram and Gramps now. Even though my room is a little more black-and-white, it’s still one of the funnest places to sleep the night.
Stripers is still always the jewel of my collection. I still need him to sleep at night, and I still drag him around everywhere. He’s still my favorite among all of the zebra posters and figurines, and the zebra wallpaper, and the zebra mask and costume that I wore for Halloween when I was 7. I don’t think it’s because he was my first one, although I do like him a lot because of that. I think it’s because my brother Danial saw me sad and worked his crane machine magic just to make me happy. I think he has happiness in him. He’s made of heart and happiness, and black and white and zebra.