Malcom's Reality

Malcom was, in some respect retarded. He couldn't count more than his fingers, basic math extended to two-digit addition only and he ate strawberry flavoured cornflakes for breakfast. Somehow he had found a home for himself, it was in a rather lonely place. The only neighbours he had were the Cressners, who had a farm and a poultry for themselves. He didn't bother with socialising with town people because had found out through experience that it often led to him being laughed at. He sometimes cried at night, lonely to himself because no girl would come near him, because often children would look at him strangely and their parents would clutch their child's hand and leave.

So he was accompanied by dolls.

Its often the case with lonely people, smart people become a broken personality and dumb people befriend non-living things its pretty simple. They love these objects because they can't talk, they won't opinion them so that they look dumb. In children its called growing up but in adults its mental retardation. So Malcom Jacy started collecting old dolls from anywhere and soon he'd learn to mend them- a neat trick. One day he had picked up a doll and fixed its right arm by gluing both the pieces together and he had grown fond of the doll as he was overjoyed by his achievement. He still kept that doll and named her Cindy.

He later collected two more dolls, Roger, and Joyce. Roger was a male doll dressed in red-black checked shirt with sand-coloured trousers. His eyes were blue and big, they were painted by Malcom himself. Joyce was a curly haired doll with black eyes and a florescent pink lipstick, dressed in a purple dress which came short of her knees and she wore red heels.

Malcom had set these dolls one day on his table and suddenly he grabbed Cindy and brough her to his face,

"I gave you a home. D-Do you like it?" He asked her, then there was silence.

But in this silence the gears in Malcom's mind began to work. The expectation of being told "Yes Thank you." Overrode his sensibility and then he mimicked in a shrill girly voice,

"Yes, Thank you."

*

Two months passed by and Malcom had changed. He was looking more happy than usual, he even found work at the local garbage disposal. His job was very simple, to simply load in the garbage that the big green truck dropped in the pit into machine. He understood the work fully and began to do it. But the reason Malcom seemed so happy was not because he found a job. The dolls made him feel confident.

An insensible affection to dolls is something we've heard very often but it not the affection which is spine-chilling it is the reason. Various people blossom such strange friendship due to various reason, in our case, Malcom had felt left-out of the society so he sought to create his own. In a friendly place where his thoughts mattered and where he chose the person to speak. He played the creator in his own game.

One day while he was returning home from work he spotted another doll. It was thrown away in a bin that was left above the pit. Malcom reached into the dirty bin and grabbed hold of the doll. He looked at it, he recollected his own memories, when he used to play with a similar doll as this. Only this doll was made out of wood.

Its rare to see porcelain doll in this plastic-run generation but when you do spot it, it either creeps you out or makes you love.

Malcom took the doll home and began working on it. He was expert enough to sew the leg of the doll and draw out two perfectly new sparkling eyes on the face. It still looked pretty bad but he was having his moment and in this moment he named the doll, Miley.

That night he decided to hold one of his talks with the dolls again. So he slowly walked towards his doll set and brought out all three of his dolls out. He placed Roger and Cindy beside each other and Joyce on the other side.

"Listen guys look who we have here." He said to the dolls,

"Who?" He mimicked Roger a deep but fair voice,

"Its Miley our new friend." He spoke to the doll.

"Miley?" Malcom mimicked Joyce.

"Yes Joyce, this Miley who will be your new friend! I know you've been feeling a little lonely since Roger and Cindy got married but its okay honey now you have a friend!" He said.

He placed Miley the porcelain doll right next to Joyce and then suddenly... Miley moved. Her arm latched on to Joyce's and in an instant Joyce disappeared. Malcom curled up in his chair like a mouse. He saw Miley now dressed in purple dress get up creakily and moving towards Roger and Cindy. He wanted to stop Miley but he was shocked at the sight of a walking doll. Soon Roger and Cindy both were absorbed by Miley.

Then she turned to Malcom. Malcom wanted to scream at the top of his lungs but he was panicking, his lungs were stiff and his mouth dry. Miley was coming towards him, Malcom shook her off by making a fragile attempt to hit her but she kept coming, her eyes frowned. She walked over Malcom's leg and tore of her leg and gouged Malcom's leg with the needle. Malcom screamed and the neighbours hear it.

They came running from their home to Malcom's and after frequently rapid knocks they broke open the door to see Malcom hammering Miley into shreds. His fond reality broke.

"YOU DID THIS!" He pointed at his neighbours with a hammer. He was later charged by the police for the murder.

When a person's perception of truth breaks they become madmen.