Dolly

DOLLY

My grandmother lived in a cottage in the country all on her own. I always loved visiting granny’s house. She had such a gentle way about her. The first thing she did when somebody came to visit was make everybody tea. She always filled the same rusty teapot, and then she’d hobble over to the stove with the teapot rattling in her hands.

Almost everything in her house was old and antique. My brother and I loved exploring it and playing with all the interesting knick-knacks around granny’s house, like the little wooden figures she kept in a cupboard, or the clock encased in glass whose pendulums spun back and forth.

There was one room that was off limits, the room at the top of the stairs. We were never allowed to go in there and when we got too close to the stairs, granny would call to us
“Don’t go up there children.”. She always kept one eye on us even when it didn’t seem like she was paying any attention.

The room was opposite her bedroom room and she always kept it locked. I had seen it once though. It was just for a second. Granny was putting something away and I stood outside on the stairs and peeked in. It was a chaotic mess of furniture, boxes, trunks, and old clothes, all sorts of things piled on top of each other. Most of it reached the ceiling.
Imagine an entire antique shop all crammed into one bedroom sized room. There was light coming from a window in the back but the mountain of stuff obscured it. I couldn’t see how you could reach it without climbing over everything

That room held no end of wonder for me. To explore it would be like finding pirates treasure I thought. That was the first time I ever saw inside that the room. Granny quickly left and locked the door behind her, and shooed me away in her gentle way.

"Down stairs now, that’s no place for little boys." she said

Granny rarely went in there herself and when she did she always left in a hurry. Then she would quickly lock the door as if she couldn't stand to leave it open too long. I liked to imagine there was a dragon hiding in there, way in the back, somewhere behind the armoires and pine tables, protecting its treasure. Once I was sure heard movement and shuffling from inside. I got down and my knees and tried to peek underneath the door. I couldn’t see anything so I called out.

"Nana? "Can I come in?"

"Yes, Yes. Open the door, yes."

But it wasn't Nana’s voice that replied and I suddenly felt scared. I ran downstairs quickly and out into the garden where Granny was playing with my older brother. I didn’t mention what I’d heard to Granny but later I told my mom about it. I began to believe a ghost lived in there.
Curiosity eventually took over from fear and I asked mom if we could open the room and see if the ghost was still there. Of course she always refused and so did Granny. Mom was afraid I might break something but I always felt Granny just didn’t like the room at all.

My brother spent that summer at summer camp. I couldn’t go because I was too young and so I had to stay home by myself. I watched TV, I played PlayStation, which was fun not having to share but eventually I became bored. There isn’t much to do outside when you’re alone and mom was mostly too busy. I started looking forward to my brother coming home.
One-day mom asked me if I’d like to spend the weekend at Granny’s, I agreed. Mom was going to spend to weekend with old friends of hers while I stayed at Granny’s.

Granny smiled and made a big fuss about me when I came over. She made up a spare room for me. She would give me little jobs to do or make up games to keep me busy and let me build forts out of chairs and blankets in the kitchen. Sometimes she fell asleep in her chair and I would creep up behind her and yell “Cockadoodle-doo”. Looking back, that must have been pretty annoying but she just laughed. At night she made cocoa and we played cards on the kitchen table.

Sometimes when I passed by the locked door at the top of the stairs, I’d turn the knob just to see if Granny forgot to lock it. She never did. I heard the footsteps again inside. I quickly pressed my face to the carpet so I could look under the door. I could just make out the jumble of furniture, and through the spaces in the pile I could see light and for a second something eclipsed the light. Something was moving back there.

“What’s in that room?” I asked Granny one day

“Just old things.” she said

“Can you take me inside?”

“No...It’s too dangerous. Its not safe to play in there.”

“Why not?”

“It’s all clutter and its not safe. Something could topple down and hurt you. You might be trapped and I might not be able to get to you.”

I imagined a mountain of old chairs and tables falling down on me, burying me in a pile of antique furniture.

“I’ll have to clear it out one of these days,” she said

She looked troubled for a moment until she smiled and said, “I have something I need you to sort through.” She took a biscuit tin a high shelf off the cupboard and handed it to me. It was full of random junk for me to sort and tidy. It would probably become a mess again before too long. Granny was a hoarder and there were containers like this one all over the house. But I enjoyed it and she always seemed genuinely grateful for my job well done.

I became very sick one night. I’d felt funny all day and hadn’t eaten very much and now my head was splitting and I was sweating with fever and throwing up a lot too. Granny gave me a damp cloth to put on my forehead. She didn’t own a phone so she decided to walk to the neighbors who lived down the road so she could call the doctor.
“I won’t be long.” she said “Stay in bed and keep warm.” then she left.

My headache made my ears ring. Somehow the fluorescent lighting in the room seemed brighter than usual and I closed my eyes to it but I kept hearing little taps somewhere in the house and I’d open my eyes to stare into the dark hallway outside my bedroom.

Shortly after hearing one of those unidentifiable noises my stomach began to churn. I ignored my fears and ran to the bathroom where I threw up in the toilet. I felt a little better after but my head was spinning and when I looked in the mirror I saw how much I was sweating, my hair was sticking to my forehead.

Walking back to my room I stopped outside when I heard two loud taps. TAP! TAP! I knew where they had come from right away.

“Open the door please.” a voice asked from inside.

It sounded like a young a girl but her tone was harsh and gravely. I went to the door and asked,

“Who’s are you?”

“My names Dolly.”

“How come your inside there?”

“I can’t open the door. Could you get the key?”

“I don’t know where it is.”

“It’s behind the clock in the kitchen. It’s taped to the wall.”

“I-I’ll tell Granny to let you out when she gets back.”

“No, please, its dark in here. I want to come out.”

“…Ok.”

I was scared to open it but I couldn’t leave her in there if she was scared. I walked shivering to the kitchen wishing Granny would come home. I had to climb on a chair to reach the clock. The key was taped behind it like she said. I returned to the door.

“Hello?” I called

There was no answer at first and when she did answer I could tell she had moved further into the room.

“Open the door please.”
I turned the key and swung the door open. A cool draft hit my bare feet. The air was cold and musty. The light of the hallway barely penetrated the room. Thin dark shadows bathed the room.

“A-are you in there?”

“I’m over here.”

“I can’t see you.”

I felt the wall until my fingers found the light switch. I saw the piles of furniture towering over me, threatening to crush me if it fell. A large wardrobe directly below the ceiling light was almost touching the bulb itself. I scanned the maze of furniture looking for where she was hiding.

“O-Ok comes out.”

She didn’t answer. I was convinced she was a ghost after all and I wanted to run but I saw something worse. There, between a ladder of chairs and some bookshelves I could see two milky white eyes watching me. I ran from the room slamming the door behind me. I ran back to my bedroom and shut the door, bracing myself against it. I waited hoping to hear the sound of my grandmother returning. Instead I heard noisy footsteps walking towards my room. Then she began to speak in her raspy girls voice.

“Are you hiding in there? Don’t be afraid of me.” I kept perfectly still, trying to hold back tears.

“Your sick. I heard you in the bathroom. I know what will make you better. “

I heard her footsteps leave the door and walk down the hall. I heard cupboards being opened and a pot being filled with water. I didn’t move from where I sat by the door shivering and scared.

The front door opened and I heard my Grandmother come in, there was a moment of silence, as if Granny had noticed something and stopped, then she started screaming. I heard heavy, cracking wooden sounds. Granny panicked screams continued.

Then it was quiet and I decided to call out for her. Footsteps hurried towards my room and I braced myself against the door as it began to open but my grandmothers voice reassured me that it was safe and I let her in. I was hysterical and crying by then and she put her arms around me. Her face was bright red and she was still trying to catch her breath.

“What did she do to you?” she asked

“I ran away,” I said sobbing.
Grandma took my hand and led me out of the house and as we hurried through the kitchen I saw something I couldn’t explain. A pot was boiling over on the stove and all over the kitchen counter were empty bottles of bleach, boxes of detergent and all kinds of cleaning chemicals, all now empty. And on the floor was a life–sized wooden doll. She wore a blue dress and a smile was painted on her face. As Granny led me out the door I saw her woodenhead was cracked and all around her laid the pieces of a wrecked kitchen stool.

I stood on the grass outside while Grandma returned to turn off the stove. She came out with a blanket and then we walked in the dark towards the light of the neighbor’s house. The doctor came to examine me there. Apparently I was sicker than I knew. I was given medicine to help me sleep and I don’t remember anything after that.

I woke up several hours later to the sensation of somebody shaking me and saw that I was back in Granny’s house and she was holding a tray with some soup. While I ate she told me about Dolly.

“She belonged to your mother,” she said

“I found her playing with it one day and I asked her where she found it. She said it was in her room when she came home from school that day. She thought I had left it there for her.”

Grandma began to whisper, “She said it spoke to her and told her to do things. I didn’t believe her until I heard her voices coming from her room one day. I listened to them talking. Dolly was telling her…bad things. Trying to trick her into doing bad things”

Rain was beating against the windows outside and I found my eyes drawn to the bedroom door. I hadn’t asked where Dolly was now. Grandma continued

“Later I found that when the cat died, it had been Dolly who told your mother to put turpentine in its bowl. She didn’t know what she was doing. She cried when I took it away. I locked it in the spare room but I couldn’t bring myself to get rid of it. She loved that doll and it broke my heart when she asked me where it was and begged me to give it back ”

“Where is she now?” I asked finally.

“Gone. Burned up. I did it this morning while you slept.”

Mom called and I told her I was sick. I got to stay at Granny’s a while longer until I got better. I told mom everything that happened. She remembered Dolly and how Grandma had taken it away but she didn’t believe what happened. She told me I was hallucinating from being sick and that her conversations with the Doll were only pretend. But my memory of the night is so vivid and real. I knew where the key was, I heard her footsteps and I remember her raspy voice.