THE DOLL

The rules:
1) Use the photo and the 5 words provided in your story
2) Keep your word count 500 words or less.
3) You have until next Tuesday to link up your post.
4) Link up with your blog hostess (Nicole, Carrie, Tena or Leanne)

5) Have fun, don’t stress, let those creative juices flow.

And here is the photo:

And here are the words -

factory

dock

comedy

sign

riddle

Here is my entry:

THE DOLL

Jennifer took the proffered tissue from the box.  She wiped the tears from her eyes and sniffed a few more times.  The smell of the leather couch comforted her as she sank back against the plush cushions. 

The psychiatrist sat, patiently waiting until Jennifer had control of her emotions again.  Last week they’d finished their session with the question of why she was always waiting for a sign.

Jennifer recounted the recurring nightmare of a shop window full of dolls heads leering at her, some smiling, some grimacing, some upside down, all waiting for something or someone to put their lives together again.

That is how she felt most days, as though she was a ship in dry dock waiting for repairs to be made to her hull, her interior fittings and fixtures needing updating, refreshing and revitalising.

Jennifer told her counsellor that if she could clock in everyday as she did at work in the perfume factory then she could organise her moods accordingly. 

It was her private life that let her down each day, the riddle of her birth that she couldn’t come to terms with.  Knowing what she now knew about her natural mother didn't make it any easier to deal with.

The two people who had brought her up were always fighting, always squabbling.  Why she was ever allowed to live them was obviously a strange comedy of errors.

Anna lent forward with a compassionate face.  ‘Tell me how often you have these recurring nightmares, Jennifer,’ she said in a hypnotic voice that made you feel you wanted to tell her everything.

‘It seems to have been forever and a day,’ Jennifer replied.  ‘When I think about it though, it was probably five years ago when my doorbell rang.’

Prompted gently by Anna’s nodding head she continued. ‘I looked through the peephole and saw a grinning face, plastic skin covering baby blue eyes, black lashes curling out from the eyelids and gently cascading down on to her shoulders was a mass of curly brown hair peeping out from a lace edged bonnet.’

Jennifer looked up and found the courage to continue her story.  ‘My boyfriend had bought me a fantastic doll, clothed in a pretty lace dress, with fancy pantaloons, she was a very expensive doll and I loved her.  She took pride of place on top of my dresser in my bedroom.  I called her Clarissa.’

A big gulp, a throat swallow, ‘then Roger left me for my best friend and since then all I can see is a discarded head, bald and decapitated.  I put Clarissa back in her box and shoved her in the bottom of my wardrobe.’

Anna cleared her throat and apologetically said, ‘we’ll have to leave it there for today, Jennifer.  I think we’ve covered a lot of ground.  Can you make an appointment with my secretary for our next session?’

Jennifer smiled a tight, false smile, another brush-off, another dismissal.  Maybe she wouldn’t bother coming back.

Word Count: 499