House of Dolls (2 page)

 

 

 

But Madison Blackberry was bored in her fancy all-white-and-gray apartment that rose so high above the city that the world below looked less real than her dollhouse. She was bored with her fancy toys, bored without any friends to play with. For the dolls, Madison Blackberry's boredom was a terrible thing to behold.

And not only was Madison Blackberry bored, Madison Blackberry was jealous.
She was jealous of her little brother, Dallas George, who was the baby and got all the attention and was never punished for scaring her with his toy soldiers. She was jealous of her mother, who sailed out the door on puffy, sweet clouds of chiffon and perfume to fund-raisers and galas, and who never had time to play with or read to her. She was jealous of her father, who, it seemed, didn't have to do what anyone else in the world said. Who could travel all over the world and stay away as long as he chose and buy whatever he wanted.

Madison Blackberry was especially jealous of the dolls.

For many years Wildflower had been kept in a box in Madison Blackberry's mother's closet. Madison Blackberry was only allowed to touch her with one finger on special occasions because she was “valuable” and a “family heirloom.” This had caused an early resentment toward Wildflower.

Even after Madison Blackberry's grandmother convinced her mother to let Wildflower come out and live in the dollhouse, Madison Blackberry still felt her fingers stiffen when she touched Wildflower. She knew that if anything ever happened to the doll she would have to witness her mother's anger, and, although it rarely presented
itself, it was not something anyone in the house wanted to behold.

Madison Blackberry resented Rockstar because she knew, with a young, female doll owner's intuition, that Rockstar was smarter than she was.

Madison Blackberry resented Miss Selene because of her golden curls, her pointed ears, her lavender eyes, and especially her delicately crafted silver wings. The combination of boredom and jealousy is a dangerous thing. Especially when the person feeling these things is so many times larger than you are.

The result was this: Madison Blackberry sent Guy off to war.

Madison did not feel there was room in the house for Guy. And, after hearing her father listening to the news, she wanted some drama for her dolls.

The dolls did not know that “war” was really a dusty box in a closet of the apartment where the dollhouse lived. It didn't matter. As far as Guy and Wildflower were concerned, that
was
war.

War was life without each other.

Then B. Friend was pronounced MIA by Madison Blackberry. One of his jointed arms had been torn from his body by Madison Blackberry's little brother, Dallas George. Stuffing came out of his furry body as he lay in Dallas George's toy chest among the
plastic machine guns and airplanes. His arm was chewed into an unrecognizable pulp by the dog. His glasses were stepped on and twisted beyond recognition. Not even the cleaning lady had discovered B. Friend. In spite of his broken state, he dreamed of Rockstar day and night in his world of shadows and dust balls.

After the disappearance of Guy, Wildflower was no longer interested in dresses, dancing, or baking play-dough cakes. She wanted, instead, to change the world.

This was not the first time Wildflower had become concerned with changing the world. She had felt the
same way, years before, during another war, when she belonged to Grandmother.

 

 

 

 

 

But then, as now, she did not know what to do.

After the disappearance of B. Friend, Rockstar was no longer interested in dresses, singing, dancing, or baking play-dough cakes. She wanted to change herself.

She had been rejected by Madison Blackberry because she was too intelligent, but Rockstar had never even taken the time to
enjoy her own intellect! She got hold of all the miniature leather-bound books in the dollhouse bookcase and began to read them one by one.

“The classics,” Madison Blackberry's grandmother said approvingly, when she found Rockstar seated in the pale green velvet armchair with a tiny
Moby-Dick
on her lap.

Rockstar also read the miniature
LIFE
magazines from the 70s that were in the wooden magazine stand. Although they were out-of-date, they gave her a sense of the world beyond the dollhouse. She didn't like that world, but she wanted to understand it. Maybe this would help bring B.
Friend back to her.

After the disappearances, Miss Selene just wanted to change clothes. This made perfect sense to Miss Selene. The world was much too big. Especially for a doll! The idea of changing herself felt overwhelming.

And besides, in a way, changing clothes was changing herself. It might even change the world in a tiny way, mightn't it? Somehow make things just a tiny, tiny bit more magical?

Wildflower, Rockstar, and Miss Selene waited, trying to be as quiet and inconspicuous as possible, trying to come up with a plan so that Madison Blackberry would change
her mind and bring Guy and B. Friend back.

Instead, one day, the dresses were gone.

 

 

 

“Where is the blue feather poncho?” “The black velvet pearl-button-encrusted suit with the pink feather collar?”

For the first time they fully understood that Guy and B. Friend were gone and that nothing beautiful was left.

Madison Blackberry had stored all the dresses away in a rose-covered hatbox. Although her mother bought her expensive clothes, she had nothing handmade by her grandmother, nothing even slightly magical. If she couldn't have a pink-and-silver chiffon cocoon jacket or lavender-and-gold silk kimono butterfly-wing sleeved dress, why should her dolls?

Of course, Miss Selene took it hardest of all. She knew clothes weren't the most important things in the world. But for many years she had used them to forget about other things. At the back of her mind, the main thing she had tried to forget rocked back and forth like the empty cradle in the nursery but she
couldn't see exactly what it was, just as you couldn't see that the cradle was empty unless you leaned all the way over and peeked inside.

 

 

 

 

 

One day Wildflower noticed Miss Selene sitting naked by the cradle, rocking it gently back and forth with her foot and suddenly she knew what she could do to help. Perhaps she could not change the world, but she could do this one little thing to help Miss Selene!

When Grandmother came to visit, Wildflower wrote a note on a tiny scrap of paper with a tiny pencil from the rolltop desk and left it out for Grandmother to see.

Grandmother noticed the dead moss
in the garden, the dying bonsai tree, the dusty shelves, and the torn silk and lace curtains, and she saw the naked dolls lying on the floor of their house.

“‘Dress,'” Grandmother read. She wondered what it meant: Dress us? Make us dresses? Dress up? Dress our wounds? Grandmother found some more scraps of paper in the rolltop desk and left them out for the dolls to tell her more.

Early the next morning there were some sketches, so faint you could hardly see them, on the scraps of paper.

Miss Selene had drawn three dresses. A white lace Victorian-style bridal gown for Wildflower, a red suit with a faux-fur collar for Rockstar,
and a peach velvet-and-chiffon bias-cut dress with slits in the back for her wings for herself.

Grandmother held the sketches up against her crisp cotton blouse and hand-crocheted sweater with abalone shell buttons, held them to her heart. They were confirmation of something she had always wanted to believe: As a little girl, she had not really been alone, even after the very worst thing had happened to her.

Grandmother sat in front of the dollhouse and talked. She said, “My name is Rose; Wildflower knows that. She belonged to me when I was a girl. Came with the house. I was so excited! My
very own world where nothing could go wrong. Everything that was beautiful about the real world and none of the sadness. Even after my mother was killed during the war…”

The dolls heard the word
war
and shivered where they lay on the parquet floor.

“Even after that time, this house made me feel safe. But now look at you!” She picked up Wildflower, whose hair had come out of her braids and whose painted features were faded, and Rockstar, whose foot was turned backward on her leg.

Grandmother put them down and picked up Miss Selene.

“Where are your clothes?” Grandmother asked. “That little girl just doesn't understand, does she?”

And Wildflower wished and wished, as hard as she could, so hard that she thought she might break into pieces.

She did not wish for Guy or B. Friend to come back or for dresses or even for the thing Miss Selene had lost that she couldn't quite remember but that made her feel as empty as the empty cradle in the nursery.

Instead, Wildflower wished that Grandmother would make a dress for Madison Blackberry, and that she would love her the way Grandmother's mother had once loved Grandmother.

And that was what happened. Because even though someone is small, her wishes can be big and powerful, especially if the wishes are about love.