Oddity by Eli Brown

Author:Eli Brown [Brown, Eli]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781536211979
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Published: 2021-04-14T16:00:00+00:00

Clover peered into the bag. “You can talk!”

“Talk is junk,” Susanna said.

“I have so many questions,” Clover said, pulling the Doll gently from the haversack. In the dim light she could see that the mouth was not sewn shut. It was a tiny buttonhole, and the voice that emerged was raspy, like that of a toddler recovering from a bad cough.

“Junk questions.” Susanna crossed her arms irritably.

“I haven’t asked them yet.”

“Junk!”

Clover found herself admiring the grumpy Doll again. “Let me ask you this,” she said. “Do you wish I had let Mr. Agate take you back?”

“Stinky old cigar box.”

“You don’t mind sleeping in my bag? I mean — do you miss your home?”

“Need no home.”

“Where do you come from?”

“Old Missus Seamstress.”

“The Seamstress made you?” Clover was shocked. “But she makes vermin. You’re not scraps of skin and wire.”

“I am many stitches strong,” Susanna said, arms proudly akimbo to show off her little body.

“I don’t understand,” Clover said. “You are nothing like those nasty beasts.”

“I am first best,” Susanna said. “Before junk. Old Missus makes me to carry bags and wood and rocks. To clear the tumbledowns. To dig deeper tumbledowns. To make the mountain home. Then Old Seamstress wants more.”

“More Dolls?”

“She wants tooth bringers and junk whisperers. She tries to steal my stitches so she can make junk.”

Clover remembered the blue Thread she’d seen in the neck of the vermin Squirrel and understood the connection. “She tried to pull you apart to make vermin?”

“So I leave mountain home. Need no home. Stinky old hole.”

“That’s terrible,” Clover said. “But how did she make the vermin without your Thread?”

“Bits and scraps. Junk whisperers just one stitch. Not strong. I am many stitches strong. Want to see?”

“I have seen your strength.”

“I am not afraid.”

“I believe you, Susanna. I think I understand now.”

Susanna climbed back into the haversack.

Clover blew out the lamp. She couldn’t claim to be fearless. But with Susanna nearby, she found the courage to sleep.

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