The girl and the doll

Welcome to the Spot Writers. The prompt is to start with the sentence “When he was a child, he’d been told dolls were for girls.” 

This week’s contribution comes from Chiara De Giorgi. Chiara is currently in Berlin, Germany, doing her best to catch up with semi-abandoned writing projects. Her YA novel “Mi chiamo Elisa” (My name is Elisa) was published in Italy by “Le Mezzelane Casa Editrice” in September 2020 and recently in Turkey with the title “Benim adım Elisa”. Her children’s book “Şebnem ve Schrödinger’in Kedisi” (Chiara and Schrödinger’s cat) was published this year in Turkey by Sia Kitap and in Italy with the title: “Chiara e il Gatto di Schrödinger”.

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The girl and the doll

by Chiara De Giorgi

Image by Gordon Johnson from Pixabay 

This story is dedicated to my amazing brothers,

who always attended my banquets with great enthusiasm

When he was a child, he’d been told dolls were for girls. Which was quite confusing, given that he came from a planet where things worked in a different way, where there was no distinction based on physical appearance or other details, and everyone was just a living being. On Earth, he was a boy. And dolls were for girls. Okay, got it. He didn’t really like dolls anyway. He liked trains and dinosaurs, which made it easy for him to act as the boy society expected him to be. He made friends with other kids regardless of their sex, and always made sure to bring dolls to those who were girls. Some of them were happy to get a doll, some were puzzled, some were not interested at all. One, his favourite, accepted the doll he gave her with a big, toothless smile.

“Thank you!” she said. “This is exactly what I needed. Will you play with me?”

“Sure”, he replied, but he was actually not sure: how could he play with the girl who played with the doll, if he wasn’t supposed to play with dolls?

He was intrigued by the child's nonchalant invitation, however, because he would often watch her play, sometimes with other children and sometimes alone, and she always seemed very caught up, as if the game she was playing were the real world for a while, and anything could happen.

The little girl stuffed the doll into her backpack, then she called him.

“Come on, we’re done with the shopping”, she said. “Let’s get back to the banquet.”

She pretended to open a car’s door and sit behind a wheel. He did the same and pretended to sit beside her, then followed her, keeping her pace as she started to walk and then run around the schoolyard. It was very funny: she honked, braked, yelled at other drivers and even turned on the radio, which played silly advertisements.

She finally stopped and they both pretended to get off the car and slam the doors, then she ran behind the bushes, and he followed her.

“I’m back, my friends!” she said, throwing the backpack on the ground.

“Who are you talking to?” he asked. And she showed him: there were several figurines made of stones, sticks and flowers, which were supposed to look like people, sitting in a circle. In front of them, were small clumps of dirt decorated with pebbles and blades of grass.

“These are our friends!” she said. Then she opened the backpack and pulled the doll out. “We’re having a banquet”, she explained, “but the cook disappeared after the appetizers were served, so I had to go find some food to prepare something special.”

She laid the doll down in the middle of the circle and embellished it with small clover blossoms. She inhaled deeply and encouraged the boy to do the same.

“Mmmmh, can you smell it? Isn’t roasted chicken just the best? I added wild herbs, you know.”

The boy nodded, but he was quite puzzled. He had never seen a girl play with dolls that way.

Some kids joined them, they were clearly familiar with the girl’s banquets.

“Wow, you really outdid yourself this time!” said a blond-haired, scruffy kid.

“Yes, it smells delicious!” added another one, sitting down and clapping his hands.

A girl arrived and offered her own doll. “Take this, I brought more chicken!”

“Oh, how wonderful!” laughed the inventor of the game. “But isn’t that a goose?”

“Of course, you are right, this is a roasted goose.”

“This banquet is amazing!”

Everyone seemed to have a great time pretending to share a grand meal made of dirt, grass, flowers, and dolls.

The boy was confused, so he approached his new friend and told her: “I have never seen a girl play with dolls this way. Aren’t they supposed to be babies?”

The little girl rolled her eyes and made an impatient gesture. “Dolls are toys! Believe me: I have a bunch of small brothers at home, and they are babies. Dolls are toys and they can be whatever you want them to be. I love roasted chicken, so today my doll is a roasted chicken. Do you understand?”

The little boy nodded: he understood. His friend’s explanation made sense. Actually, it made more sense than the rule someone had imposed on him, to not play with dolls because he was a boy.

 

The Spot Writers—Our Members:

Val Muller: http://www.valmuller.com/blog/

Catherine A. MacKenzie: https://writingwicket.wordpress.com/wicker-chitter/

Phil Yeats: https://alankemisterauthor.wordpress.com

Chiara De Giorgi: https://chiaradegiorgi.blogspot.com/