Annabelle looked around the dollhouse nursery, felling restless. "Bobby," she said to her brother, "let's play tag."
Bobby Doll was propped up in the corner by the stairway landing in the dollhouse. That was where Kate palmer had left him before school that morning.
"Do you think that's safe, Annabelle?" Asked bobby. "The captain is right outside." Annabelle didn't have a chance to sender his question. "No, it's not safe!" Mama Doll called from downstairs. Mama was standing on her head next to the piano, which was where Kate had left her that morning. It was a most uncomfortable position. "If you move around now, Kate might come and see you. And bobby right? The captain is just outside."
Annabelle looked out side of the window of the dollhouse and saw the round yellow eye of a cat staring back at her. She sighed. The captain take a nap? Annabelle flopped on her bed. She tried to remember where Kate had left her that morning. It had been somewhere in the nursery. On her bed? Sitting on her bed playing with baby Betsy? Calling to Nanny from the doorway? Annabelle got on her feet again and peered through the window. The captain was still standing on the shelf on witch the dollhouse sat, staring in at the Dolls. When he saw Annabelle he licked his lips. Annabelle stuck her Tongue out at him. "Scat!" She called in her tiny dall voice.
"Annabelle hush!" Nanny said.
Annabelle couldn't se Nanny, but she pushed herself away from the window.
"This is so boring," she exclaimed "my life is boring."
No one answered her.
"Kate won't be home from school in ages!"
She went on.
I am going to die of boredom,
Thought Annabelle. She flopped on her bed again. "Mama, can I ask you a question?" She called out.
"I it a quick question?"
"I want to know how Auntie Sarah is related to us. Is she your sister, or is she Papa's? Or is Uncle Doll your brother and--"
"Annabelle, that is not a quick question,"
Called Papa Doll from somewhere.
And at the moment, Annabelle heard the Palmers' front door slam, herd Kate shout
"I'm home!," heard feet clattering on the stairs. The feet where somewhere near the top of the staircase when Annabelle remember just where Kate left her that morning. In a flash, Annabelle scooted across the nursery, and landed right on Bobby's bed. By the time Kate ran into the room, Annabelle was propped against the head board, her legs sticking out in front of her, her painted eyes staring ahead.
For the next three hours, while Kate did her third-grade homework, telephoned her friend Rachel, and tried to keep her little sister, Nora, out of her room, Annabelle sat on Bobby's bed and thought about her secret. Her secret was wonderful, and it was the only thing, the only thing, that prevented Annabelle of actually dying of boredom.
Annabelle recalled the moment she made her discovery. It had been during a night when Kate closed the front of the dollhouse before she had gone to bed. She rarely did this, and when she did, Annabelle was delighted. It meant the dolls had plenty of privacy during the nighttime, the time the humans slept and the Doll family could move about there house. They could be a teeny but more quiet, a teeny sit more free. Even the Captain, that usually snoozed at the end of Kate's bed, couldn't harm them.
And since they would have more freedom than usual on that night, Mama Doll said, "How about a sing-along, and then free time?" "Yes!" Annabelle had cried. Sing-alongs where always fun, and free time meant time when the Dolls could go anywhere in there house, and do anything they wanted to do, within reason. "Remember," Papa often said, "never so anything you can't undo by the time Kate wakes up in the morning."
The Dolls gathered around the piano in the parlor (a parlor is pretty much just a living room). Uncle Doll propped two song books in front of him. One was a book of hymns. It had come from England a hundred years earlier with the Dolls and the house and the furniture. The other book had been purchased mrs. Palmer, Kate's mother,when she was a young girl and the Dollhouse had been hers. On the cover of the doom was a rainbow. Written across the yellow band of the rainbow where the words great hints of the sixties. "Let's sing 'Natural Woman,'" Annabelle had suggested. "Yuck," said Bobby. "Okay, then Respect,'" said Annabelle.
"R-E-S-P-E-C-T!" Sand Bobby.
"Sockittome, sockittom, sockittom, sockittom!" Annabelle chimed in.
"How about a quieter song?" Suggested Nanny.
The Dolls had sung song after song while Uncle Doll played the piano. Outside the dollhouse, Annabelle caught a glimpse of The Captain. He sat silently on Kate's bed, Listening to the falls voices. He could barely hear them, but they where there, all right. The Dolls ended the sing along after two choruses of "Bring in the Sheaves" from the hymndook. And then their free time began. Annabelle knew exactly what she was going to do. She wanted to examine the books in her library. And she wanted to do it privately. Lately, Kate and Rachel had talked of nothing but Nancy Drew and how she salved mysteries. They had even rea a couple of the mysteries about to each other, and Annabelle had listened intently. She wished she could be a detective like Nancy. And now she thought she might find something interesting on the dollhouse bookshelves. It was unlikely. But possible. Annabelle knew that most books on the shelf were not real. They were simply flat blocks painted bright colors, with book titles written on one side in gold ink. But perhaps she might find a secret compartment in one of the shelves. Things like that were always happening to Nancy.
So, in the glow of Kate's night light, Annabelle had begun her search. She started by removing the books from the shelves, one by one. Persistently she discovered that some of the books were attached to one another. She could remove a whole block of books at once. That was interesting, but not very mysterious. Then she discovered that some of the books were, in fact, real. Like the song books. She could open their covers and inside were a few pages with crowded wording: Classics of Modern Poetry, Oliver Twist. Annabelle read the 20-page story about the little boy named Oliver with great interest.
Eagerly, she pulled out every book from the shelves. But the others were pretend. She checked for secret compartments. Nothing. She strode on a stool and tacked the next shelf. Only pretend books. She stood on tiptoe and reached for the shelf above. And that was where she found Auntie Sarah's journal.
From the outside it looked like all the other books on the shelves. Is was dark green, with gold writing stamped on the cover. The title was My Journal. It was fatter than most of the books, thought, and continued dozens of pages as thin as onionskin, filled with spidery black handwriting and even some drawings.
Annabelle stepped off of the stool and sat on the floor to look through My Journal. She opened to the first page. And there she found the words "The Private Diary of Sarah Doll, May 1955." Sarah Doll. That must be Auntie Sarah, Annabelle had thought. She gasped. And she heated the voices of Mama and Papa on the staircase she had shoved the book under the hem of her dress.
"Annabelle," Mama had said, "let's have a bit of family time while we can still talk freely, and then we will have to go back to our places. Kate will be up soon."
"All right," replied Annabelle. She had managed to scurry upstairs without anyone seeing the fool,and she had hidden it under the covers of her bed. She knew that was dangerous what if Kate, of all people, should find the doom there while she was playing in the dollhouse? But Annabelle couldn't help herself.
For the last week she had read the book in snatches, whenever Kate was gone or asleep, and Annabelle family was in other rooms. Each time she read a few more pages she would close the book and once again place it under the covers, feeling restless. Annabelle was used to feeling bored. But not restless. Something was wrong with her life. Something was missing. It wasn't anything spastic such as a hair brush or a shoe. Annabelle didn't even think it was Auntie Sarah. Not exactly. It was... what was it? Was it possible to miss something you had never had?
Annabelle now sat stiffly on Bonny's bed, waiting for Kate to be called downstairs for supper. She thought about the last time the Dolls had seen Aunt Sarah. Annabelle remember the day like any other, except that one moment that Auntie Sarah was in the parlor, and the next moment she wasn't. And she hadn't been seen since.
Annabelle thought again about Auntie Sarah's Journal. Many of the pages where filled with drawings, mainly drawings of spiders. In some of the drawings Auntie Sarah had even labeled parts of the spiders. Annabelle had read just a few of the pages with words, and Tia had taken her a long time because Auntie Sarah had crawly handwriting that was hard to read. All Annabelle had learned so far was that daily life in 1955 had barely been different from Annabelle's life today.
Annabelle let out a sigh, hoping Kate wouldn't hear her. If Kate had a secret, Annabelle thought, whom would she tell it to?
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Note: omg 63 reads already?! Sorry this chapter took so long. I'm a little lazy... ok a lot lazy lol
