Tag Archives: short-story

Once upon a time, there was a doll

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A long time ago, there was a doll. For some time, it was Goldie’s only doll. It was dressed in night clothes. Her eyes were closed. Her arms were spread out ready for a hug. She was covered in pink from head to toe. She had a slight smile to her which made her eyes grow dimples.

One day, Goldie was rocking her doll. As she swayed her back and forth, she dropped her. Her ceramic head cracked. “She’s hurt!” Goldie cried.

“Oh Goldie, you have to be more careful!” I scolded. There was a line right at the side of her forehead going down toward her ear. Goldie instantly found the box of band aides. The crack was covered in to time with a little criss cross of band aides.

“It’s okay,” Goldie said stopping up her doll up rocked her again. Goldie’s arms floated high up into the air and the doll lay loosely on her palms of her hands.

“Why don’t you put the doll to sleep?” I suggested. “Maybe she should rest now.” I thought this was the best advice. She shouldn’t rock her anymore, and break another part of her face.

Goldie stopped rocking her. She gave me the doll and went to her closet.

I looked at the doll again. The band aide criss cross hid the crack and a small corner of one of her eyes. If only there were a doll hospital that could make her well again. I knew there was such a place. If I knew where, I would have called the doll doctor right then and there.

That doll was so cute when we first saw it. She was dressed in pink from head to toe. Pink was and still is Goldie’s favorite color. Her eyes had cute dimples. Her mouth showed the beginning of a smile.

“Here is your doll,” I said handing her back to Goldie. She had two doll sized blankets in her hands. I watched Goldie as she lay one on her bed and smooth out the wrinkles. She lay the doll right in the middle. The other blanket she draped over the top of her.

“Goodnight,sleep tight!” Goldie whispered and then kissed her again right where the bands aide were. She straightened the blankest so they were wrinkle free and said “Time to sleep.” she whispered.

Goldie tip toed out of her room. I did too.

Goldie began to twirl a long ribbon on a stick. She made big wide circles in the air. I began to sigh and wonder if Goldie would ever really play with dolls. There were other dollswithout band aides. They spent a lot of time, staring at the world. Some got a change of clothes once in awhile. All of them had plenty of sleep. But only one had a crack with two band aides. Yet, Goldie didn’t mind. To her, she was her doll.

Years later, I found the doll buried in a bunch of stuffed animals that are destined to be given away. She was pink, rosy, and sleeping soundly. The band aides were still in place. I rocked it, and rubbed my fingers over her forehead. “There , there, ” I said. “Time to get some sleep.” I snuggled her into the stuffed animals and tip toed out of the room.

Raining

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After it rained, steam rose from the ground, and swirled around. Goldi put on her bathing suit, ran out into the steamy air, and started to jump. The puddles were clean, round, and deep. They were perfect. A gift the rain gave to Goldie.

“There’s another one way down there!” Goldie cried as she skipped through a stream that rippled down the street and swirled around at the end of the culd de sac. The giant perfectly round clear puddle was suddenly lit up with sparkles. The grayish blue sky canvassed a rainbow. The sun lit it up long enough for everyone to look and wonder.

“Come on! It’s great!” Goldie’s hair was combed with fresh water drips. There was not a dry spot on her. Her wide open smile seemed to drink in the refreshment from the sky.

That was the happiest kind of rain.

Goldie held a blanket and a giant stuffed pink rabbit. She sunk down in a puffy beanbag jammed into the corner of her closet and closed its door.

“Goldie? Goldie are you in there?” My voice accompanied my eager knocking on her bedroom door. “Are you ok?”

Goldie didn’t answer. Even if she did. I would not have heard her. The thunder kept interrupting.

The sky blinked many times in a row. Then there was darkness.

“The power went out!” Goldie burst out of her closet. “Where is the flashlight?”

“Look,” I said placing the giant flashlight in the center of her room.

Goldie looked all around at what looked very familiar but to be sure- she felt each toy, book, and pillow. The darkness had not erased everything dear to her.

“When will the lights come back on?” she asked squeezing her pink bunny again.

“I am not sure. We’ll have our eyes closed most of the time anyway. It’s bedtime. “

“Oh,” Goldi said hurrying herself in blankets and other stuffed animals.

That was the mean and scary kind of rain.

“You are not going to like this question,” Goldie sighed and looked one way and then the other. “I am just wondering , is it supposed to rain tonight?”

Since spring, Goldie had been asking me the same question nearly everyday. Knowing if it would rain, cancelled any inkling to have a friend over, go shopping, or walk to the library. If I asked her, “Would you like to go to the bookstore?” She would say, “Maybe another day, today it is supposed to rain.”

“I will look at the forecast.” I assured her.

The forecast didn’t look very assuring. A nearly 100% chance of rain. Rain that we needed. Rain that would green up the world. Rain that would feed the lakes, rivers, and streams. Rain that would grow her favorite vegetable and make my flowers grow.

“Yes, it is supposed to rain. It says 100% chance”. “

“Is it going to be bad?” Goldi wrinkled up her forehead She squeezed one set of fingers with the other hand and then rubbed her palms together.

“I don’t know. But there is one thing I do know!” I said bouncing eyebrows up and down.

“What?” Goldie’s eyebrows jumped up and stayed up high in her forehead.

“I know who wants it to rain. I know who will show how big and powerful He is when it does.”

“That’s true. ” Goldie said looking out the window. In her long look, the sky was sometimes full of clouds and sometimes full of sun. The trees waved to her and then were still. She could hear the frogs singing.

The windows were soon washed. Then the whole house seemed to be in a bath. It seemed like a bucket of water was being dumped from above. The trees must have waved goodbye. We could not make them out through the window. . All we could see was wet. The sky didn’t blink but the bossy thunder made the window pane rattle.

“I’m scared.” Goldie said softly.

“I know,” I said standing shoulder to shoulder next to her. “and HE knows too”. I pointed up to the sky.

That is the stretching and growing and have to be brave kind of rain.

That is the rain that we have now.