Doll House

II. The Dancing Bunch

 "The days were shorter when I first came here. Stranger, too. I could tell you I remember that first day well, but the truth is, I would be lying. I don't remember my first days much at all, just that they all passed by in a daze, which leads me to think they must have been shorter than they are now. Because days now are endless, stretching on for hours and hours, forgotten on this cold shelf.

Have you noticed it? No, of course you haven't. You didn't know the days as they used to be, did you?"

The little girl listens in silence. She does not know about the days that were.

"The house was kinder in those days, there was no Miss Francine. But there was an Overall Man, so despite my first impressions, things weren't quite so idyllic."

The doll's brow appears to crease, only for a moment, when she mentions the Overall Man. "I was happy when I came here, and so were the children. There were more girls than boys. There have always been more girls than boys here and I have always wondered why. At first, I didn't much care, because it suited me. Girls play with dolls a lot more, even though in those days, all the children played with all the toys indiscriminately. I suppose it's because there were so few toys. There was me and Natasha-With-The-Black-Dress. That was to distinguish her from the first Natasha, who had long black hair and a tattered pink skirt. She'd lost her shirt somewhere, but one of the older children had made her a napkin shirt that always smelled like birthday cake.

"The first Natasha was one of the oldest dolls, some said as old as the house itself, but I don't think that's quite right. Houses live a lot more than dolls, don't they? And it just goes to show that the house is still here, whereas the first Natasha is not."

The girl looks around the room, a touch of longing in her eye, as if she might conjure up the image of this long-gone doll.

"Natasha was the unofficial leader of the toys. There was careful order in those days, one that nobody contested or complained about. She always made sure that her rules were just, as were her punishments and besides, for many of us, this was the only home we'd ever known, so we weren't going to spoil it.

Weirdly enough, it was the second Natasha, Natasha-With-The Black-Dress, who started stirring trouble in the first place. Nattie was a real wild card, you know? We arrived on the same day and I don't remember where I came from – the other toys said that meant I was really young and I always sort of wondered, if maybe there had been some other child before coming here. Someone who loved me, but who I can no longer remember, and that seems really sad, don't you think?"

"No one here knows where they come from," the little girl says, almost without thinking.

"No, I suppose they don't, not really. But some remember fragments more than others and Nattie was one of those people. She came from a very different place and she always spoke about it fondly, about the olden days. Nattie liked to sit in her corner – they always left her in the corner – and pass the night with memories of her old home. She said there were a lot less children in that house. And she said they weren't like here. Nattie always hated the children here because they weren't like her old children. The old children had names, as all children must, but I suppose I've forgotten them. All of this happened a long time ago now."

The doll's eyes appear glazed, as she sees before her images from her past.

"But Nattie hated the children and I think the children knew. Maybe they could sense it on her cold, white skin. Or maybe, they saw it in her unblinking eyes. One thing was certain though, the children started playing less and less with Natasha-With-The-Black-Dress, always gave her a mean little voice when they did.