I've often had that same reaction to popular 'plushy' children's toys -- they're down right creepy!

Plushy toys creepy? No way. My Nana gave me a Teddy bear for my first birthday and I treasured him like a brother. I still have the damn bear today. Only toy to survive my childhood

Thanks for the read.  

Glenn,

For me the story began on page 6 - I think you really hit your stride there and the situations and dialogue were, for me, funnier.  I also like (a) the premise, that you become what you most fear, and (b) the result - that Jefferey becomes cured, but passes the phobia along. In my twisted mind, that's poetic justice!

I didn't read every comment here, but I see that a couple of people remarked about the mall shoppers going crazy and the skydiver, and I echo that. For me, it seemed just too fantastic and a bit of a contrivance.

And it appears I'm the only one who didn't love the scene with the doctor.  While I think it could play funny on screen if it were isolated, I didn't buy into the psychiatrist the way it was set up - he came off too "Pythonesque" for me.

I think this could benefit from playing with the timeline a bit - for instance, have Jeffery start of at Dr. Morrison's office and have him relay to the doctor the events at the mall.

This way Morrison could start out with a "professional" demeanor, and as the weird events are described to him, he can gradually lose it. For me, that would play funnier and more believable. And since he knows the reason for Jeffery's visit, he can still have the Teddy handy to shake at him (I think with this timeline you could also lose the whole taxi scene as well without messing with the story).

Lastly, I would work on tighter narrative descriptions. I think a few of your three line narratives could become two, thereby adding to the flow of the piece and getting the reader to concentrate on the dialogue and the mental images.

AJR