All My Dolls

“I have so many dolls, I can’t count them all,” Anna said to her best friend Candice, while they were being driven home from kindergarten by Candice’s mom.

“Can I have one of your dolls? I only have two.” Candice said, pulling at her seatbelt strap.

“Candice. You shouldn’t be asking; two dolls are enough for you, and if you didn’t keep losing them, you’d have more,” her mom said, looking in her rearview mirror at the two girls in the back seat.

“But I’m missing Samantha,” Candice said.

“If you look hard enough, you’ll find her.” Candice’s mom said.

Anna looked down at her feet and fidgeted with her Princess Cambra school bag. She loved all her dolls and couldn’t wait to have a tea party with them and tell them everything about her day.

“Can I come and play with you and your dolls?” Candice said, pushing her face into Anna’s.

Anna pulled back. “Not today. My mom wants me to clean my room,” Anna lied.

Candice frowned, and then her face brightened. “I’ll help you.” 

“No, I have to do it by myself. Maybe we can play outside after I clean my room,” Anna said.

“But I want to play with your dolls,” Candice said.

Anna shrugged and looked away.

“Here you are,” Candice’s mom said, as she parked at their home, next door to Anna’s home.

***

Anna pulled the big wooden front door open.

“Hello, sweetie.” Her mom held a basket of laundry.

“Hi Mommy. Can I have some tea for my tea-party?” Anna said as she kicked off her white school running shoes.

“What about Candice? Aren’t you going to invite her to play with you?”

Anna looked down at her feet. “No, she can’t play. She has to clean her room.”

“Well, all right. It’s been a while since you played with her. I hope everything is well between you.” Her mom walked down the hall with her basket.

Anna heard noises coming from her younger brother Samuel’s room. He was playing with his toy cars. Usually, when she came home, he tried to play with her, and Mommy pushed her to play with him, even when he didn’t play nice with her dolls.

She opened the door to her bedroom, and screamed. Her dolls lay on the rug and floor, all wrecked. There was lipstick smeared all over Missy’s face and on Juju’s bum and on Cally’s legs and arms. Ginger had her hair pulled out and Samantha’s legs looked broken.

“Anna, what’s wrong?” her mom called out from the kitchen.

“Samuel wrecked all my dolls,” Anna screamed." She flung open the door to her younger brother’s room. More of her dolls lay scattered around. He was pulling out Baby Timmy’s eyes on his small blue table.

She grabbed the doll from him, and let it go, and pulled his favorite firetruck off a shelf, and smashed it onto the table. The ladders broke off. She kept hitting it against the table.

Samuel screamed. “Mine, my firetwuck. Gi me back.”

“Children, stop fighting,” their mom called out.

Anna stood on the little blue chair, pulled open the window and threw the broken fire truck out the window. Samuel grabbed her feet. For four years old, he was very strong. She lost her balance and fell off the chair.

“Whaaa… Mommy…. Samuel… made me fall…”

“Anna wrecked my twuck,” Samuel cried out.

Their mom appeared in the doorway, her arms crossed. “To your room, right this minute, Anna,” she said, her eyebrows squishing over her eyes.

“He did it first, not me.” Anna pointed at Samuel.

“She bwoke my firetwuck.” Samuel cried.

“He ruined all of my dolls.”

“I said, go to your room, Anna,” her mom said.

Anna went to her room and sat on her bed. She stroked the Cambra Princess faces on her bedspread, but she didn’t feel better. She sucked her thumb.

There was a knock, and her mom came into her room. Her mom rubbed the sides of her forehead with her fingers.

“Anna, you can’t behave that way to your little brother.”

“He killed my dolls, and you didn’t get mad at him.”

Her mom breathed in, making a sharp sound. “Samuel didn’t do that to your dolls. He wrecked some of them, but I’m sure we can fix them.”

Anna folded her arms. “No, they won’t be the same as before. They’re hurt forever.” Tears flowed down her cheeks.

Her mom sat on her bed and sighed. “I don’t know how you have so many dolls; I’ve lost count of them. Your brother only has a few toy trucks and cars. He said he did it, because he was feeling mad, because you never let him play with them.”

“They’re my dolls. He’ll steal them.”

Her mom stood and looked around her room.

Anna fidgeted with Samantha’s broken leg. She had a bad feeling in her tummy.

Her mom opened up her closet and picked up several dolls from the floor, which she dumped on Anna’s bed. Anna bit her thumb. Next, her mom knelt and looked under her bed, and pulled out many more dolls, which she also dumped on the bed. Anna’s bad feeling was getting bigger and climbing into her heart. Then her mom opened up her dresser and pulled out more dolls, and dumped them on the bed beside Anna.

She wiped her forehead with her hand. “I thought something was going on.”

Anna pulled as many dolls to herself as she could. “They’re my dolls.”

Her mom crossed her arms and frowned. “I suspect there’s more.” She stared at Anna.

Anna put her thumb back into her mouth and chewed it.

Her mom’s eyebrows raised. “Are they all yours, Anna? I don’t remember buying you the one with the twisted leg you were holding, or most of these.”

“Daddy gave them to me, as a secret.” Anna said, looking down at the Cambra Princess on her bedspread. She could feel her mom looking at her, waiting for her to tell the truth. “Candice gave Samantha to me.” she said in a small voice.

“Anna, look at me, and take your thumb out of your mouth. You’re in kindergarten now. You’re too big to suck your thumb.”

Anna looked up at her mom’s angry face, and then back down at the Cambra Princess. Her thumb felt cold outside of her mouth. She clutched Samantha to herself. “It’s not fair. Samuel killed my dolls. You’re not even angry at him. You’re always angry at me. I did nothing wrong.” She cried so loudly, she felt she was behind a waterfall, and she couldn’t hear her mom talking.

But she felt her mom’s hand on her arm. Her touch was gentle. Anna cried even louder, and let her mom hug her.

“Sweetie, I’m not mad now, and I want you to tell me the truth.”

Anna looked down at her bedspread.

“Candice didn’t love Samantha. She was always saying ‘bad doll’ to her, so I took Samantha to live with me. Now Samantha is broken.” Anna wiped her tears that were falling on Samantha’s face.