Empowerment. Engagement. Authenticity.
Manequin Musings - Sanctuary
"Our little miss is sad, Stella. I wanna help
her." Andy slouched on the white four-poster bed, its pink-and-white
checkered bedspread trimmed with a triple layer of ruffles. Like the
matching curtains, the spread and pillow shams were dotted with cloud
bursts where Snoopy skipped in a field of flowers. "She cried herself to
sleep last night," Andy went on. "Even though she held me tight, I felt
powerless."
He studied his floppy body in disgust. One good tug he grimaced and his
blue tuxedo would rip right through. And what superhero had threads of
red hair sticking out at all angles and patches of leftover felt for
eyes? Raggedy indeed.
Stella turned from the louvered window where she'd watched her little
miss leave for school. "Oh, Andy. I think there's worse stuff out there
than we can ever imagine." Her sapphire blue eyes moistened under her
crop of blond curls. "When I came to her, she was no taller than I am,
just turned three and only then taking her first steps. She called me
her walking doll."
Stella's cheeks and lips were tinted bright pink from the marker her
little miss had used as makeup the afternoon before. It matched Stella's
pink skirt and white top. Much better than the orange pasted on her last
week. The colour had nearly driven Stella mad. Oh but how her little
miss had beamed!
"I've been to the hospital with her, remember? Three brain operations in
three weeks last year, poor thing. Been through way too much for a
ten-year old." Andy's zigzag mouth drooped. "Still placed second in her
class, though. But she told me last night that no one talks to her at
school. Guess all those get well cards her classmates made were just for
show."
"We are not powerless!" the Cabbage Patch Kids chorused from their place
under the little miss' desk where remnants of last night's tea party
still sat. Pink plates, pink cups, pink cupcakes on the pink shag
carpet.
"We can't do anything about the bad stuff out there," yellow-haired Amy
Cabbage Patch said, watching the purple bougainvillea nod in the breeze
beyond the window. "But we can keep her safe when she's in here."
"That's right!" Dawn Cabbage Patch chimed in, her brown ponytail
bouncing. "In here, none of the bad stuff matters."
(c) Kristy Kassie, 2017
Manequin Musings
Giving human traits and voices to inanimate
objects is an interesting way to tell a story.
