The Little Wooden Doll

A Story by Nia Hope

Just a little story I wrote a bit ago. I hope you enjoy it!

Once there was a girl who owned many dolls. She had plastic dolls and porcelain dolls, Russian nesting dolls, and many other kinds of dolls. One day the girl's grandmother came to visit after her trip from Africa. "And for you my darling" she began "a wooden doll made from an acacia tree because I know how you love collecting dolls."

"Thank you grandmother" the girl said half-heartedly. The little wooden doll was very simple. She wore a solid colored tunic with only one button and her hair was made of black thread. Her facial features were simply painted on her completely round face. This doll didn't quite fit in with the other dolls who all had fair colored skin and light colored eyes and fancy clothes and faces contoured to look like those of people.

The girl placed the little wooden doll on the shelf next to her Russian nesting dolls her grandmother had brought home with her from her trip to Russia a few years previously. The girl closed the door and shut off the light. The other dolls gave the little wooden doll odd looks and began to whisper about her.

She stood up and walked towards the Russian dolls and said "Hello, my name is Acacia"

"Just because we are both made of wood that doesn't mean you can talk to me!" The largest said curtly.

With a look of sadness she walked towards the other dolls. She straightened up and smiled and introduced herself again. Some of the dolls ignored her completely while others just stared at her seeming almost disgusted. A few of the dolls whispered about her with their backs turned as they looked back every few moments. Acacia began to feel insecure and walked back to where she had been put. She sat down defeated. As she heard the other dolls begin to laugh she turned around to see what was funny, only to find out that they were laughing at her. She turned back around even more defeated and sat close to the wall trying with everything in her not to cry. After the laughter of the other dolls died away they heard the door open as the lights snapped on. All of the dolls sat still as if they had never moved and Acacia followed their lead. Days turned into weeks and weeks into months that Acacia suffered this cruelty alone. Even if she was lucky to get a sympathetic look it was of no help.

She sat and watched as the other dolls were taken off of the shelf and played with and had their hair brushed and had their clothes changed as the girl giggled gleefully. One gloomy day the girl took Acacia off of the shelf. "I get to be played with today! Hooray!" She exclaimed to herself as the other dolls watched the dust on and around her mix in with the air and fall again.

The little girl held Acacia and began to pain her face the same color as the other dolls. "There now you can fit in with the others." The girl declared "now maybe they will be friends with you and like you."

"Sweetheart what are you doing?" The girl's mother asked as she walked into the room.

"I'm helping her fit in with all of the other dolls so she can have friends."

"You shouldn't be friendly with someone just because of the way they look, you should be friends with someone because they are nice and care about you."

”If only the other dolls could hear that." Acacia thought.

The girl brought the doll back to her room so it could finish drying and that night as she slept, Acacia got up and walked towards to other dolls. "Hello everyone!" She beamed as the others turned towards her.

They looked at her quizzically and they all began to laugh. "What's wrong were you left out in the sun too long?" "Were you washed with the white clothes?" "You look absolutely ridiculous!" "Even worse than before!" They all laughed.

She looked down sadly and said "I just wanted to be like you. I wanted to have friends." They laughed even harder. As she tried to walk away another doll walked in her direction, tripped over Acacia and went falling to the floor silently in fear of waking the girl. All of the dolls cautiously peered over the side and saw that the fallen doll had lost her arm. It had been broken off cleanly at the shoulder and lie a few inches away.

"Look what you did!" "And you want us to be your friends!" They said as they all walked towards her forcing Acacia to back up. She backed up so far that she too fell off of the shelf. It was only about four and a half feet from the ground but to both of the fallen dolls it had felt like four thousand miles. "Serves her right!" "That’s what she gets!" "She deserved it!" they said as they looked down at the little wooden doll with a missing leg. It also lay a few inches away from her. Acacia crawled towards both limbs and pushed the ceramic arm towards its owner. She looked at the arm then the little wooden doll who had tried to help her then she began to cry harder.

"I didn't mean for you to fall I'm sorry is there something I can do?"

"Just stay away from me! That’s what you can do my beautiful body is imperfect because of you!" The doll said with anger filled fear.

"I still think you are beautiful" Acacia said in a timid voice. The other doll cried even harder and Acacia decided that it was best if she stayed quiet.

The next morning, the girl awoke to find two dolls lying on the floor with broken bodies and broken hearts.

"Mommy!" The girl called down the hallway. Her mother rushed in and saw what the girl had yelled about.

"We'll get them both fixed up and looking good as new and we'll take off the paint from the doll that grandma gave you." The girl nodded sadly as she walked with her mother down the hall.

A few days later both dolls had been returned back to their shelves and all of the other dolls disliked Acacia even more. Every day she sat alone with no one to talk to or laugh with like the other dolls seemed to be able to do. She sat sadly and saw the girl play with all of her pretty dolls as if she did not even exist. Lonely days turned to solitary weeks and at the end of the month long solitude when the girl and her mother were away shopping for school their home had caught on fire. The dolls began to scream and they became afraid. The ones of plastic began to melt as the porcelain dolls tried to escape. The Russian nesting dolls could not get away quickly enough and they didn't make it out. All of the dolls except one were burned. The girl's favorite porcelain doll was now covered in soot and the ashes of the other dolls. Acacia had been one of the last to be taken by the fire. The girl and her mother had arrived home to firefighters putting out the remains of the fire. Luckily for the girl she had her favorite doll and luckily for both the mother and her daughter only the laundry room and two of the bedroom walls had been destroyed but it would be a long time until they could get the repairs finished.

Right outside where the wall would be, a little flower started to grow. It had only one color of petals, the same color that graced Acacia's simple dress and its center was the same color of the button on her dress as well. The little girl had never noticed the flower but her mother had so she picked the flower and put it in a small flowerpot that stayed in her bedroom. Acacia's true beauty may not have been noticed by many but the few who did notice it had cherished it.