Bear and Doll by Silverdog

Bear and Doll

Once upon a time there lived an old rag doll. She sat lopsided and smiling atop a broken rocking chair, staring blankly around the dusty attic that was her home for over fifteen years, (almost a century in Toy Time). The attic was the third floor of an abandoned Victorian house that had once been home to a large family for many generations. One of the women in this family had lovingly stitched the doll together by hand as a Christmas gift for her grandchild. Dolly was the grandmother’s name and so it was that the rag doll was named simply,”Doll”.

Doll had had a good life, always sheltered and cherished as she was handed down to succeeding children of the family. She had travelled in trains, planes, station wagons and even mini-vans. Doll had nursed countless children through bouts of measles, whooping cough, and flu and helped to heal dozens of skinned knees and even mended a few broken arms! She knew of secrets sad and sweet, of tender longings, of pain and loss and most of all she knew of love.

Doll was somewhat faded now, with several hanks of black woolly hair missing. Her smile was still bright however, though her body was a bit lumpy and misshapen. She had sat perched on the cane-seated rocker for so long that she had memorized the entire layout and contents of the attic. Everything stayed in place, the only variable being the number of mice and bats that scurried about. After fifteen years, there wasn’t much to interest those creatures though, and Doll regarded them as part of the dismal scenery.

The attic featured a dormer window that was shuttered closed over the broken panes of glass. Narrow slits afforded glimpses of light from time to time though, and the filtered light changed the dreary dusty room in a magical way. For instance, in the bright summer sunlight, the shafts of light were golden and smelled of clover and sage. Moonlight washed the attic with soft silvery mist and through the thin cracks in the shutters Doll could sometimes see the stars. She listened to the river’s songs change throughout the seasons and by means of observing light and sounds, she could determine the passing of the seasons, the passing of time. Time held no meaning for Doll; she simply existed in a state of perpetual longing, waiting for the Next. She wasn’t sure what Next was, but in Toyland, she had heard the elders speak of the Next, and knew it happens to all toys and that it was good thing.

Across the room, under the dormer window sat a large steamer trunk, covered partially by an old patchwork quilt. On top of the quilt, sat a large brown teddy bear. From this vantage point, “Bear” as he was called, looked out through the slats in the shutters with one glassy eye, and could take in most of the attic with the other. Bear too had been loved and cherished in the days when the house had been inhabited. As bears go, he was woolly and plump, and like Doll much of his stuffing had shifted. His glass eyes were as keen as ever though and still he wore a black baseball cap that his last owner had left behind. He knew that he had been alone for a long time now, but Time didn’t matter much to Bear. He passed the days and years by listening to sounds from the outside. He loved the murmuring river, the breezes whispering through the poplars, and the howling of wolves and coyotes on moonlit nights when dust motes shimmered silver like tiny stars.

Bear had noticed the pretty Doll on the other side of the room, and he wished he could get closer to her. Toys have very tiny voices that only special children can hear and though they can talk to one another, their audible range is only a distance of 21 centimetres. Doll and Bear were not strangers, but when they were younger they had obligations to their People and pretty much had no time for other Toys. He remembered fondly a few picnics with Doll, and even being invited to one of her mistress’s tea parties. There the children had danced with Bear and Doll, and made them dance together. After the children had been called to dinner, Bear and Doll had lain together on the sofa, and talked softly. How he yearned to relive that afternoon, but it would take a miracle. Both Bear and Doll were trapped in the eerie dusty silence of the attic, long ago abandoned and too far apart to talk. It was as if they lived in two different worlds.

It was Christmas Eve and the stars were glimmering through the slats on the shutters. Doll could see Bear’s familiar lovable silhouette through the slants of silver light. She was thinking about Next and recalled one day when she had danced with Bear and cuddled with him on the sofa, talking of special things that Toys talk about. She longed to cuddle with Bear and dance with him one more. Doll loved Bear and it was comforting having him so close by, but she wished they had wound up together on the cane-seated rocker or the old trunk.

Suddenly a bright star shone right in front of her, rising brightly in a silver veil of mist. It was Star Bright making an unusual trip to Earth. Doll could not believe this was happening, but wasted no time whispering her wish to the magical star goddess. As soon as she did, a fierce wind blew across the fields and rattled the shutters so hard that they blew away, clattering down the shingles to the ground below.

Star Bright then grew large and luminous, and the dismal attic was transformed into a glowing ballroom, festooned with hundreds of tiny stars. Music from unseen silver wind chimes filled the air and a whirlwind of snow and stars caught up Bear and Doll and cast them together. They laughed and whispered as they danced about the room, and the mice clapped their little mouse paws, enchanted by this Christmas miracle. The wind chimes grew louder and the whirlwind grew stronger and Doll and Bear were caught in a silver centrifuge of stars. Star Bright’s long gauzy train wrapped them together, and swathed in stars and moonlit mists, they soared out the window as one being, headed for the sky.

Love transcends all Time and Space, and so it was that Bear and Doll, one enchanted night, shed those burdens and travelled to the Next on a silvery mist of stardust. There they lived happily every after enjoying the gifts that each day would bring. At night Bear would cuddle Doll as they gazed down to Earth, and she would hold his big bear paws in her own and sigh with gratitude that somehow their two abandoned souls had found their way home. They were both complete and content and both knew that happily , another world yet lay beyond the Next.