House of Dolls by Francesca Lia Block

Author:Francesca Lia Block
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2010-11-10T22:00:00+00:00

Of course, Miss Selene took it hardest of all. She knew clothes weren’t the most important things in the world. But for many years she had used them to forget about other things. At the back of her mind, the main thing she had tried to forget rocked back and forth like the empty cradle in the nursery but she couldn’t see exactly what it was, just as you couldn’t see that the cradle was empty unless you leaned all the way over and peeked inside.

One day Wildflower noticed Miss Selene sitting naked by the cradle, rocking it gently back and forth with her foot and suddenly she knew what she could do to help. Perhaps she could not change the world, but she could do this one little thing to help Miss Selene!

When Grandmother came to visit, Wildflower wrote a note on a tiny scrap of paper with a tiny pencil from the rolltop desk and left it out for Grandmother to see.

Grandmother noticed the dead moss in the garden, the dying bonsai tree, the dusty shelves, and the torn silk and lace curtains, and she saw the naked dolls lying on the floor of their house.

“‘Dress,’” Grandmother read. She wondered what it meant: Dress us? Make us dresses? Dress up? Dress our wounds? Grandmother found some more scraps of paper in the rolltop desk and left them out for the dolls to tell her more.

Early the next morning there were some sketches, so faint you could hardly see them, on the scraps of paper.

Miss Selene had drawn three dresses. A white lace Victorian-style bridal gown for Wildflower, a red suit with a faux-fur collar for Rockstar, and a peach velvet-and-chiffon bias-cut dress with slits in the back for her wings for herself.

Grandmother held the sketches up against her crisp cotton blouse and hand-crocheted sweater with abalone shell buttons, held them to her heart. They were confirmation of something she had always wanted to believe: As a little girl, she had not really been alone, even after the very worst thing had happened to her.

Grandmother sat in front of the dollhouse and talked. She said, “My name is Rose; Wildflower knows that. She belonged to me when I was a girl. Came with the house. I was so excited! My very own world where nothing could go wrong. Everything that was beautiful about the real world and none of the sadness. Even after my mother was killed during the war…”

The dolls heard the word war and shivered where they lay on the parquet floor.

“Even after that time, this house made me feel safe. But now look at you!” She picked up Wildflower, whose hair had come out of her braids and whose painted features were faded, and Rockstar, whose foot was turned backward on her leg.

Grandmother put them down and picked up Miss Selene.

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