Dale's Doll

Dale's Doll - Part Seven

"She's waking! Thank God, she's waking!" Stroking the side of my face, I hear the relieved voice of my husband. "You're okay, my darling...you're going to be okay now." I feel his soft lips, gently kissing my forehead.

With my weak eyelids fluttering, I try to keep them open long enough to see his worried face looking down at me. "Wh...what...happened?" Weakly passes my dry and sore lips.

"You and the car had an argument with a tree, and lived to tell the tale." Vince feebly tries to joke, before feeling the desperate need to lean over and kiss me again. "I thought we had lost you." He so sadly goes on to say, lovingly now caressing my jawline. "I don't know what I would have done if I had—" he looks so emotional, so choked up.

"Hey, I'm okay." I wearily tell my forlorn husband, feeling so happy that it's his face that I first woke up to. "Where's Delilah?" I anxiously ask, suddenly feeling the need to have her beside me.

In a loving and assuring way, Vince comforts me with more of his husbandly caresses and a small smile. "She's just outside with mum and dad, I'll get her in a minute." He then frowns, sighing a little while he does. "What happened, Jules?" His fingertips gently trace across my bruised brow and forehead as his concerned eyes stare down at me.

Trying to remember, it hurts to even think. "I'm not sure. I had this awful headache. It got so bad, that I tried to pull over...that's the last thing I remember."

Quietly satisfied, Vince smiles again. "I know things haven't been great between us, but I love you, Jules...I want you to know that."

Content to hear his loving words, I reach for his hand. "I know, and I love you."

Lacing our united hands together, we both fall quiet for a little while. Just glad I think, to be able to have this feeling of togetherness again. "Did you hear about Debbie from the nursery?" I weakly ask, beginning to remember all of the horrible events before I had my car accident.

Nodding with understanding, Vince holds onto my hand even tighter. "It's not exactly been a good day, has it?" He's looking at me now, smiling softly.

It is while Vince is smiling at me, that the enormity of what has happened today suddenly hits me—Debbie, my headache, the nightmare—it all unnervingly hits me. "Vince, I need to talk to you about Delilah and that—"

"Mummmmmmmmmmy!" Our eager little girl comes running over to the hospital bed, interrupting all that I was just about to say to her daddy about her doll.

"Sweetpea! I'm so glad you're here!" Elated to see my darling daughter, my aching arms are waiting for her to just fill them.

We cling tightly to one another, with such happiness and such love. "You got a baddie, Mummy." Her tiny fingers point to an aching cut that I can feel I have on my cheek.

Smiling away the ache, I nod gently. "I do, but baddies don't last for long, do they?"

Delilah blinks quickly, cutely pursing her cherub-like lips. Then, bringing up her doll, to sit it right onto my slightly sore stomach, she is now beaming in my direction. "Don't worry, Mummy. Dale said he can keep the baddies away."

Looking into the brown eyes of Delilah's doll, I see the same dark nothingness that had surrounded me in my nightmare.

I want to look away, but can't.

I want to ignore the empty gaze, but can't.

Trying to sound cheerful, I look back at Delilah. "That's good to hear, sweetpea. I'm sure Dale will take very good care of me...of all of us." In my nightmare, Dale was a gentle giant; a gentle giant who had been wrongly murdered.

Our little princess now grins, holding her beloved doll by its waist. "Yaaaaaaaay Mummy! Dale said you would learn to like him. Yaaaaaaaay!" She excitedly bounces where she's sat closely beside me, still holding her doll in place on my stomach.

Gazing into the dark depths of emptiness in Dale's eyes, I know that I can't fight this. He is here to stay. He showed me why and how he has ended up here. He has also shown me the lengths that he will go to, just to ensure that he stays.

So no, I can't fight this.

Dale isn't just a doll.

He is a dead man inside a doll.

In life, he felt like he had no control.

In death, Dale does.