FictionPress.com - let the words flow
| FictionPress.com - let the words flow |
|
| Home Just In Communities Forums Beta Readers Dictionary Search | Login Register Extras |
The Doll Speaks
Authors Note: Well, this is what happens when I get inspiration from books in the library. Especially when the novel I was writing before was already dying from lack of work.
The girl was surrounded by presents, laughing friends, brightly smiling parents, and muted silence. Cries of “open this one!”, “Mine first!”, and “How about this one, Lorry?” made the sixteen year old girl smile. There were times she wished that she could speak, to hear a voice for herself, for once in her life. She had always imagined and dreamt of owning a voice, one that was melodious and soft like the timeless tinkle of breaking glass. Or sultry and tempting like she had heard on the movies, like the voices that belonged to the bar maids and dancer girls.
But neither of these would belong to her. She was mute, silent and happy with her silent world. This, the day she turned sixteen, was just as special as any of her other parties. Because she was their only daughter, the girl’s parents spoiled her, but not too much, so every couple of months she would have the house for a party.
A present wrapped in bright red wrapping paper with a lacy yellow cloth ribbon tied in a fancy six loop boy with the tails loose was placed in front of her by her best friend. “Here, Lorry, open this one first,” the Latino girl said, her dark eyes twinkling brightly.
“Go on, Loretta honey,” her mother said. Loretta grinned at her best friend and mother then, carefully ripped into the wrapping paper. After untying the yellow ribbon, she tied it into her hair. Everyone laughed and giggled as she posed humorously, and urged the birthday girl to open her present. Inside, under the wrapping paper, was a box, white in colour and covered in spots where shipping labels and such had been carefully ripped off. With a confused look, she opened the box.
Nestled inside this box, which was just over a food long, was a doll, porcelain skin, and dressed in a frilly black skirt and a black and white corset top with frilly, poofy sleeves, and her hair was done up in black curly pigtails. She’s beautiful! she signed before carefully picking the doll up and holding her to her breast. Thank you, Latisha!
“You’re welcome,” Latisha said with a laugh. The rest of the party went just the same, with the opening of resents, the receiving of gifts, the playing of video games, and the opening of more presents.
Towards the end of the party, only a few people were left; Latisha, her boyfriend Paul, his sister Heather, Karalee, and Crystal were invited to stay the night.
“So what are we doing tonight?” Heather asked in her beautiful voice, with it’s light, airy accent. Loretta loved listening to her friend talk, even though she never heard it at any length unless for school reports. Which, with being in a private school, wasn’t very often.
Paul was about to speak when Loretta’s mother came in with a blue box. “Lor, hun, this just showed up in the back of the pile underneath boxes and a lot of wrapping paper,” she said, handing her daughter the box. “We don’t know who sent it, and I don’t recognize it.”
Lorry gave them all a strange look and took the box. She shook it very carefully before taking a nail to the packing tape. Flipping open the box, she saw, in the packing, a doll. It was a boy doll, with a black and red dress suit on, and a silver haired wig. Taking him gently out of the box, she examined him and noticed a paper in his pocket. Taking the small paper out, she opened it and unfolded it. The letters on it were small, elaborately written in black ink, and read “Vare.” Loretta handed the note to Latisha, who read it out to the rest of the room.
“Oh, he’s sexy,” Karalee said, moving closer to Loretta to get a better look at Vare.
Who sent him though? she asked, setting him down on the box in front of her again. I don’t remember asking anyone for a doll like this.
Crystal picked Vare up and examined him. “He’s a ball joint doll, like Saki and Ren, just a mini,” she said. “I don’t know what company made him, thought.” Crystal handed him back to Loretta.
I think… Mom, was that the last of the gifts? the mute girl signed. Her mother nodded. Good. That means we can go play DDR.
The six friends went upstairs to Loretta’s bedroom suite with the three game systems, both dolls, and the stacks of games that she had gotten as birthday gifts. They spent a little while sorting out what version of Dance Dance Revolution they would play first, and finally decided on Extreme 2.
“Bohyeah!” Crystal cried, having gotten a perfect score on one of the songs. Paul, being next, muttered in her direction about following that performance. “Well, duh, of course you have to follow that. It’s just natural.
“Oh sure, natural she says,” Paul grumbled as he took the microphone from Crystal. Latisha giggled and waited her turn.
“Lati, truth or dare?” the younger girl asked. Latisha thought for a moment, remember that, no matter what she chose, Karalee would bring Paul up.
“Truth,” the Latino girl said, taking the safer route.
“How far have you and Paul gone?”
“Didn’t you ask her that last time?” Crystal asked, throwing a pillow at Karalee from across the room. “Stop asking that horrible question!”
“It’s valid! I’ve gotten to holding hands,” Latisha said, throwing a dirty sock at the other girl. “You really expect my mother to let me do anything else with him?”
Just then, Paul walked into the room wearing pinstripe pajama bottoms and no shirt. “What are you girls talking about?” he asked, sitting down next to Latisha and pulling her down to the hide a bed with him.
“They started playing truth or dare,” Heather replied. “It’s Latisha’s turn now.”
“Alright! Lorry, truth or dare?” the olive-skinned girl asked of the mute girl.
Truth, she replied, not trusting her friend that much.
“Who in our school do you like the most?” Latisha asked.
“Oh come on! That’s even worse than my question! There are no guys at your school!” Karalee cried, flinging a towel at Latisha. “At least ask a question about the teachers, for goodness sakes!”
“It’s a valid question,” Heather cut in. “Let Lorry answer it as she wants.”
Loretta giggled silently. Well, Holly is really cute, but I don’t think that she would even think of looking at me in the same light, she said quickly. Seriously, who, at our school, would she look at? The uniforms make most of us look like frumpy over dressed dolls half the time.
“Yea, they do,” Paul said. Three pairs of eyes immediately fixed on him, making him feel very nervous. “Not that I’m saying any of you are frumpy dolls half the time. Especially you, honey.”
“Good boy,” Latisha replied. “Go ahead, Lorry, your turn!” Loretta thought for a moment, then pulled out a pad of paper and a pencil. She wrote ‘Heather, truth or dare? Read this out to everyone’ on it and handed it over to the British girl.
“’Heather, truth or dare?’ Hmmm…” She thought for a moment, handing the pad back to Loretta. “Dare. And think of a good one!”
Lorry grinned and wrote on the pad before handing it right back to Heather. It read ‘Don’t read this one out. I dare you to call Patrick and tell him you love his hair.’ Heather gave Loretta a pained look. “Do I have to?” she asked, and Lor nodded. “I’m not doing it.”
I double dare you, the mute girl replied with a grin.
“Come on, Heather! You have to, no choice now!” Latisha said, elbowing the twin of her boyfriend. “She double dared you, and there’s no getting out of a double dare.”
“Sure there is,” Heather said angrily, glaring at Latisha and standing up. She walked over to Lorry’s phone and picked up the receiver. “What’s his number?” Lor wrote it down on a separate sheet of paper and threw it at the British girl. “Thank you, Lorry,” she said, uncrinkling the paper and quickly dialing the number. She was silent for a moment or two while the phone on the other end. “Hello. Yes, is Patrick there?” she asked. The girls smothered snickers behind their hands, and Heather shot them all glares. “Hi, Patrick? Yea… I love your hair.”
“What?” they could hear on the other end, and Heather, blushing profusely, slammed the receiver down and hid her face behind her hands.
“That was horrible, Loretta!” she said. “I don’t want to do that again! Never!”
“Never is a very long time, Heather,” Paul said. “Patrick goes to my school, so I can tell him that it was you who called and hung up.” Heather looked at her twin and blushed even deeper before hiding her face behind a pillow as she sat down.
“Crystal, truth or dare!” she asked from behind the pillow.
“Truth.”
“What’s your favorite pass time?”
“Writing, duh,” the brunette said. “What else would it be?”
“I don’t know, you seem to spend a lot of time with those dolls of yours,” Karalee said. “Speaking of dolls, where’d you put Vare, Lor?”
I think he was sitting on the entertainment center next to the 360, she said. I’m not sure if he’s still there or not, I think I might have moved him.
“Well, go and get him!” Karalee said. “I think he’s cute!” Loretta rolled her eyes and climbed off her bunk bed and went into the next room to get the doll. She came back moments later, carrying him carefully. “There’s the hotty.” Karalee stood up and took Vare from the mute girl and sat with him in her lap. Loretta, deciding that she didn’t feel like being higher than everyone else, sat on the floor against the bed.
Later that night, after the game of Truth or Dare petered out, everyone curled up on the floor or in the bunk beds. Loretta had retrieved Vare from Karalee before the redhead fell asleep with him, and climbed back up to the top bunk with him. ‘You know, you’re actually very pretty,’ she thought to herself, looking at him from her side. He was laying down beside her, covered up by the blanket she had pulled up to their chins, his short silver hair splayed across the corner of the pillow. With a smile, Loretta drifted off to sleep, and slipped into dreaming.
“Lor, Lor…” a soft male voice whispered to her. She opened her eyes to see a dark hallway in front of her. She turned around, and looked behind her as well, and saw the hallway continued behind her. ‘Who’s there?’ she thought to herself, turning back around and slowly walking down the hallway. Ahead of her, a door creaked open slowly. With a frown, she headed towards it and looked in.
Behind the door was a field of summer grass, even though she knew that such a place would never exist, at least not at this time of year since there was snow a foot deep on the ground all around. She stepped through the door and into the field. ‘Why is this here?’ she wondered.
“Because you love summer,” the voice said from behind her. The mute girl turned around and saw that the door to the hallway had disappeared. ‘What’s going on in here?’ she asked in her thoughts. ‘This is the strangest dream I have ever had…’
“This isn’t a dream, exactly,” the voice said. “This is the only way I know of that I can talk to you.”
‘What do you want?’ she asked, finally figuring out that she wouldn’t be able to wake up unless she actually talked with who ever it was.
“I just want to talk with you. I’ve been sent to help you, I don’t know why yet,” the voice said. “You seem to be perfectly capable of caring for yourself, despite your problem.”
‘I don’t have a problem!’ Lorry said indignantly. ‘I’ve never had a problem at all in my life, and I’m not about to start having them now!’ She stomped around in frustration. Come on, wake up, I know I’m dreaming. I just want out of here.
“Oh please, none of that!” he said. Lor got a picture of someone holding their hands out and following her, trying to grab her shoulders to get her to stop. She felt a pair of hands on her shoulder and shrugged them off. “Fine then! Don’t ask for my help. I’ll just keep bothering you in your head for the rest of your life.” The summer field faded out of existence and was replaced by darkness.
‘Oh damn…’ was Loretta’s last thought before slipping further into sleep and away from dreams.
The next morning, she woke up to the sound of giggles and the smell of cooking bacon. “Loretta! Breakfast is ready!” her father called up the stairs. “Come on down!” Lorry turned over and hid her face in her pillow, flopping her arms out and accidentally hitting Vare. She lifted her head out of her pillow and looked at him. He hadn’t shifted at all in the night, which was a surprise, since Lor was a very restless sleeper. “Lor, come on! Your eggs are over cooking!”
‘I’m coming, I’m coming,’ she thought, picking the silver-haired doll up and climbing off the bunk. She poked Paul in the ribs with her toe as she walked past, since he was still asleep, and went downstairs for breakfast. Morning everyone! she signed with one hand as she walked into the dining room, since the other was holding onto the doll. Paul is still asleep, did you know that?
“Yea, we knew. He probably won’t be up much earlier than noon,” Latisha said, forking a piece of egg and toast into her mouth. “I mean, really. That boyfriend of mine can sleep through a demolition if he didn’t want to wake up. Did you know he once slept through a thunderstorm without waking up?”
“I think we did, Lati,” Crystal said before biting into her toast. “You’ve told us the story about a million times.”
“Oh.” Latisha was silent for a little bit, eating her breakfast in silence for a little bit. She couldn’t stay quiet, and asked, “What are our plans for today?”
“Well, I was thinking you could all go mow the lawn today,” Loretta’s father said, bringing in another plate of toast and setting it near his daughter. Lorry hit him in the stomach and gave him a look that said “Stop being stupid, Dad, there's snow on the ground!” and he laughed. “You know I was kidding, Lorikeet,” he said, kissing the top of her head and using his nickname for her. She elbowed him in the stomach and snagged a couple of pieces of toast and an egg.
There was a moaning from the door of the dining room as Paul stumbled into the room. “Hey, look who’s awake before noon!” Heather said, pouring Loretta a glass of orange juice. Paul sat down in the last empty chair around the table and hides his face in his arms. “Glad you could join us.”
Paul moaned. “Lemme ‘lone,” he said groggily. “Someone kicked me in my sleep.”
Oh, that would have been me, Lor said. I nudged you with my foot on my way passed. No biggy. Lor noticed that there were crumbs in Vare’s lap and brushed them off. ‘Silly Vare,’ she thought to herself.
“That wasn’t nice of you, Lorry,” Latisha said, frowning at her silent friend. Lor just shrugged and dug into her food.
“Glad you could join us, Paul,” Loretta’s father said, bringing in a smaller plate that had two pieces of toast and an egg on it and set it in front of Paul. “Eat up, you’ve got girls to keep up with all day long.”
“Thanks Mr. Nadir,” the teen said, dipping his toast in the egg yoke and eating it. “We going out and having a snowball fight today?” he asked around the toast and egg.
We could, Lor replied. I think it would be good to get some fresh air after yesterday’s indoor adventure. She looked at everyone. Agreed?
There was a chorus of “Yea, sure”'s from around the table, and Lor grinned at her father. There’s what we’re doing today. We’re going to have a snowball fight.
“Alright then, but remember not to play too rough,” he said with a smile, heading back to the kitchen. “Your friends have to go home in the same condition they came here in or their parents will wonder what we do here.”
“Don’t worry, Mr. Nadir!” Latisha said. “I’ll make sure that Paul doesn’t get a black eye!” Everyone laughed at that one and finished their breakfast in relative silence.