THE
MYSTERIOUS DOLL
Written By - Prabir Rai Chaudhuri
© All Copyright Reserved By Prabir Rai Chaudhuri- 2023
Beatrice was soon to celebrate her birthday. Eight years. She didn't
really know what she wanted to receive. Also, his mother took him to town to go
shopping. She would find something she liked.
Passing in front of an antique shop, they
discovered a very pretty doll in the window, seated among old-fashioned
watches, silver-gilt cutlery and antique jewellery.
You can't say that Beatrice loves dolls. Not
really. But this one! She found her so beautiful...
-Mom, I would like it for my birthday.
- Don't think about it, darling. A doll like
this certainly costs between five hundred and a thousand Euros. Maybe more. I
can't give you a gift like that.
-Oh, mom, we could come in and find out. Let's
ask the merchant for the price, it's not binding.
They both entered the store. The salesman
greeted them kindly.
"The doll in the window," he said.
For the little lady? She's lovely, isn't she?
-Yes. But I think it will be too expensive for
my budget, mum sighed.
-Madam, how much do you think it costs?
-Oh, I don't know... It's not for me to give
the prices, but... certainly five hundred euros and more.
- Well, madam, I'll leave it to you for fifty
euros.
-Would it be broken? Did we pick it up? mom
asked.
-Not at all.
-Is she cracked?
- A cracked porcelain doll no longer has any
value, except sentimental. But this one does not have the slightest crack. She
is intact. But, look at his hands.
The antique dealer undid a rubber band which
held the arms behind the back. He showed both hands. Long, thin black fingers
like spider legs decked out this pretty doll.
-How could someone who knew how to shape such a
lovely object give it such ugly hands? Mom asked.
"I can't tell you," said the
merchant. But you're probably going to celebrate the little girl's birthday. I
leave it to you for forty euros only.
Mom leaned over to our friend.
-Do you really want it, honey?
-Yes ! I would still like it. I'll tie his
hands behind his back with a string. We won't see them. I will sit it on my
work table.
The deal was made. The merchant slipped it into
a beautiful box, closed the lid and gift-wrapped it.
As he was leaving, he whispered something in
Beatrice's ear.
- Never leave your doll in the sun, little
girl, warns the merchant.
- Would it melt?
-No, something bad will happen to you...
Our friend came home impressed.
The following Sunday, Béatrice celebrated her
birthday with a dozen friends from her school. François was there.
They had even brought this gentleman who tells
so many stories once a month in class and whose creations they all love.
When she received the gift from her parents,
she unwrapped her doll. The other children cried out when they saw the long
spider fingers.
Béatrice, both upset and saddened by the
reaction of her guests, took the doll in her arms and ran to her room. She put
it on her bed. She carefully checked that the sun was not shining on this part
of the room. She saw no rays, the sky was covered with clouds.
Our friend closed her door and went down to her
friends.
An hour later, she did not notice that the sky
was clearing little by little and that the sun, sometimes hidden behind the
clouds, had now just appeared between two of them.
A large ray of light fell on the doll.
In the evening, after all the friends had left,
Beatrice went upstairs to take a shower and put on her pajamas. Mom and Dad
came to hug her. She thanked them for their gifts and the beautiful party. Then
they turned off the light and closed the door. She tossed and turned, a little
agitated by the emotions experienced for her birthday, before falling asleep.
Suddenly she opened her eyes. She saw the room
bathed in blue light.
-What is that ? said the little girl aloud.
She sat up in bed, then she got up. The blue
glow came from his table. The doll was there, stripped of her clothes.
"I'd rather wash them, darling," Mum
had said as she passed through the bedroom earlier. It is unknown who handled
her before.
The body, sewn in a thick fabric, in jute,
rested on the table. The old dolls are like this. Only the feet, hands and head
are porcelain. However, the strange blue glow that intrigued our friend came
from the eyes of the doll.
She approached both curious and surprised. She
touched her eyes and immediately felt a tingle in her fingers.
She put
her doll back on the table and went back to bed a little worried. She ends up
falling asleep.
She woke up when her mom called her to come to
lunch and go to school.
But the moment she opened her eyes, Beatrice
realized with horror that her fingers had lengthened. They now appeared long,
thin and black, like those of her doll. Each of them now measured about twenty
centimeters and looked like a spider's leg.
Our friend, horrified, first felt like crying.
Then she thinks. She decided not to show this to anyone.
She called her mother.
- Mom, mom, how should I dress?
-You put on your denim dress, the blue one,
with the little embroidered flowers, and the white belt. And your blue
sneakers. The weather's nice.
-Okay.
Buttoning her dress in the back, with eight
inch fingers, was very difficult. And it took time.
Once she had put on her canvas sandals and her
belt, she went noiselessly down the stairs, opened the street door and shouted:
- Goodbye daddy, goodbye mommy. I leave
quickly, otherwise I will be late for school.
- My darling, come at least to take your milk.
Come eat a toast.
-No thank you, I am not hungry. Goodbye Mom.
And our friend ran quickly down the avenue.
A little further on, she saw François. He had
just left his house. They say girls are curious, but some boys, I swear! Both,
of the same age, go to the same school, often together, and attend the same
class.
Beatrice hid her hands.
- Why are you putting your hands behind your
back?
"Like that," replied the little girl.
- You are hiding something.
-No, I'm not hiding anything at all.
"Come on, show me," insisted the boy.
"No, I don't want to," whispered the
little girl.
Francois approached his friend.
-If you keep your hands behind your back, I'll
give you a kiss on the mouth.
-Candy! cried Beatrice. I will show you my
hands. Looked.
-Oh! said the boy.
Francois let out a little cry, then burst out
laughing.
-What happens to you? It's funny!
-Ah, you find that funny, do you? said our
friend, tears in her eyes. I don't find it funny at all, you know. It's
appalling.
And she told the story of her doll's eyes.
Francois asked her what she intended to do.
Beatrice planned to spend the day in the park. She didn't want to go to school
like that. All the boyfriends and girlfriends were going to make fun of her.
- Spend the day in the park! Impossible, warns
the boy. The guards will take you. They will take you back to school or to your
parents. We are children. We can't hang out in the park all day like that,
alone, when we have to go to class.
-I did not think about it. Thank you for your
advice. But what will I do?
-Come to my place, proposed François. Dad and
mom are at work and my little sisters Olivia and Amandine go to kindergarten.
You will be very quiet. You can even cook for yourself. And then, around four
o'clock, all you have to do is go out, before I come back. Here, here is my
key.
-Thanks.
Beatrice headed to her boyfriend's house with
the intention of spending the whole day there.
At noon, as she was hungry, she tried to eat a
yogurt, but swallowing a yogurt with a spoon and twenty centimeter fingers was
really very difficult. She spilled half of it.
A little before four o'clock she left her
friend's house and waited for him, hidden behind a hedge.
When the boy came to her level, she called out
to him.
-Listen, Francois. I know what I'm going to do.
I'm going back to the merchant, the antique dealer who sold the doll.
"Good idea," the boy agreed.
-Would you like to pick her up at my parents?
"Yes, I will," replied François.
But... will your mom give it to me? She may ask me questions.
-You just have to say that we are doing a
speech on the toys, that we are preparing it at your place, and that we need
the doll.
- Well, if you want, accepted François. I don't
like lies very much, but to help you, okay.
The boy went to ring Beatrice's mother's
doorbell. He received the doll, which she had just dressed after washing the
clothes. She didn't ask any questions.
The little girl took it to the merchant.
-You left your doll in the sun, I see, said the
old man immediately.
-Yes, sir, but I didn't do it on purpose.
-Too late now. Besides, you touched his eyes.
Serious mistake. Do not touch a doll's eyes. How about your elbows and
shoulders? Can you still move them?
"Yes," Beatrice wondered. Why?
-You are lucky. Your elbows and shoulders could
be paralyzed, locked.
-Oh, my God, sighed our friend, it would be
even worse. Do you think my hands will ever go back to normal?
-Yes, said the dealer, you can find hands like
before, but it won't be easy. You must go and sit under an oak tree at least
five hundred years old, on a full moon. Exactly tonight. And during the twelve
strokes of midnight on the church clock, you must hear three cawing crows, and
you see a bat pass in front of the round disc of the moon. If you do this, your
fingers will return to normal.
Beatrice returned home. She discreetly opened
the door of the house, ran up the stairs and went straight to her bedroom.
When called for the evening meal, she pretended
not to be hungry. Yet her head was spinning, she was so hungry.
She kept her dress on and slipped into bed. His
mother came to kiss him a little later.
- How are you, darling?
- Yes, Mom, I'm fine.
She kissed him and noticed nothing.
Dad arrived in turn, to say goodbye to his
daughter, like every evening. Beatrice gave him her little kiss.
-Oh, my darling, you don't hug me anymore?
Dads love to be hugged and our friend knows it.
-I want to do it, but then you close your eyes.
Dad closed his eyes. He rested his face right
against his daughter's. Beatrice pulled her two arms and her long,
spider-fingered hands out from under the covers and hugged her father's neck
tightly.
"Here," Daddy whispered, after a
minute. You can let go of me now. That's enough.
Our friend tried to spread her arms, but she
couldn't anymore. His elbows and shoulders were locked!
"You can let go of me," Dad repeated.
-I can't.
She started crying. Mom came into the room at
this moment. She saw the horrible fingers.
Beatrice told her whole affair to her parents.
She also explained how to go about unlocking her elbows and shoulders.
-One more chance, said dad smiling, it's the
full moon tonight. I can't see myself going to the office tomorrow, with my
daughter hanging around my neck.
- And me, added Beatrice, I can't see myself
going to school and sitting on a bench in class, with my dad stuck in the crook
of my arms.
Mom led our friend and her father a few miles
away, where there was a thousand-year-old oak tree. She left them both at the
foot of the tree. Then she went back to the house to put Nicolas, the little
brother, to bed.
Dad, still tied in our friend's arms, sat down
against the oak tree with his daughter on his lap. Nine o'clock struck... They
both chatted while waiting for midnight.
Dad recounted his meeting with Mom. He
described the birth of Beatrice. He talked about his work, his projects. They
broached the subject of the next vacation.
Beatrice talked long and wide about the school,
her friends, her friends, about Francois.
They both had a good time, clinging to each
other, under the oak tree, sharing memories, and talking about their respective
worlds.
Finally midnight struck. They heard a village
steeple, in the distance, give off a very soft sound. The moon appeared quite
round. They saw a crow on one of the branches of the old tree. He was silent.
"Come on, crow," Beatrice begged.
Croaks.
The bird seemed indifferent.
-Dad, cried Beatrice, maybe you should clap
your hands, so the crow will fly away and caw.
Dad clapped his hands. The tenth stroke had
just sounded. The crow flew away, releasing three "croa",
"croa", "croa", furious at being disturbed.
Just then, something passed in front of the
moon. Was it a bat? They never knew. At the twelfth stroke, the girl's fingers
shrunk and returned to what they were before. She was able to open her arms,
move her elbows and shoulders, and free Dad.
So, joining hands, Beatrice and her father
returned home. A long march awaited them. They did not arrive until one o'clock
in the morning.
When entering the house, our friend whispered
in her dad's ear.
-You know, I liked being locked around your
neck. And then, I appreciated our conversation with two. We had a good time
together.
"Yes," Dad answered.
And he gave his daughter a kiss.
Beatrice went to bed, and the parents too.
In the morning, when she woke up, the little
girl looked at her hands and fingers. She is happy to see them completely
normal. Mom called him.
- Beatrice! Beatrice!
- Yes, Mom, I'm coming. How should I dress this
morning?
-You put on your denim dress, the blue one,
with the little embroidered flowers, and the white belt. And your blue
sneakers. The weather's nice.
"Here," said our friend to herself. I
heard that yesterday morning.
She dressed quickly, took her satchel and went
downstairs.
Suddenly, Beatrice became anxious.
-Mom, I didn't do my math homework on Tuesday.
I will have a punishment.
"You'll have plenty of time to do it
tonight," mum replied.
-This evening?
- Yes, my dear.
- It's Tuesday, mom!
-But no. It is Monday.
-Monday?
- Yes, Monday. Are you still sleeping? Have you
already forgotten the party, yesterday, Sunday, for your birthday?
-But then, murmured Béatrice, if it's only
Monday morning, my long hands, the oak tree, the doll's eyes, dad stuck in my
arms, it was a dream...
She rushed to her room, grabbed her doll and
looked into her beautiful blue eyes. She dared not touch them.
The following Sunday, Beatrice showed her doll
to her grandmother.
"What beautiful eyes," said the old
lady.
-Don't touch them, launched our friend.
-Why? My dear.
"I don't think you should ever put your
fingers on a doll's eyes," Beatrice explained.
Then she told her strange dream.
Our friend still wonders if she dreamed that
night, or if she really lived this terrifying adventure...
The doll is on the table, hands behind her
back. She looks at our friend with her beautiful blue eyes, which she has never
touched again.
