Anne Arnold

The Doll

Glass eyes shimmered in the sunlight where the old doll was displayed in the window of the antique shop, and Skyler couldn’t take their eyes off it. They had passed by on several occasions, always slowing to look at the doll as they passed. For as long as they could recall it had been there, painted porcelain lips smiling even on a rainy day. For just as long, they had always desperately wanted the doll, having often requested their parents buy it for them, promising that they would take extra care of this one particular doll, even more so than all of their other toys. No amount of pleads and promises, however, had gotten them the treasure they sought. Skyler couldn’t understand why their parents were so adverse to the cute doll. With his porcelain face, hands and feet with a soft body and an adorable brown cut of ‘hair’ atop his head and dressed in a blue and white ‘sailor’ uniform it was the sweetest doll they had ever come across.