The Codger

Prologue

The sweet doll floated gently through the dark night sky until it reached an old, rickety wooden window. Tenderly being grabbed by black, leather clad hands, it was pulled through the window and placed onto an open sewing box. The box was filled on both sides with rusty but sharp sewing tools and trinkets of all sorts.

The leather clad hands turned the doll around and began to cut a line through the back of the soft, white dress it wore.

After the dress was snipped off, the hands pulled on the dark brown wool strings that made up the two neatly placed hair buns on the sides the doll's head. Each thread of yarn was slowly removed from the burlap-like fabric until the doll was completely hairless.

Next came the black button eyes. The hands held a pair of needle-sharp scissors that were tucked under the thread of the buttons and pulled up, cutting the delicate strings. The buttons were then picked off the doll's face, leaving it completely expressionless.

A seam ripper swiftly cut through the doll's mouth, exposing the inner stuffing.

The stuffing was pulled out of the doll, a few puffs of it falling to the floor and landing without a sound.

The hand reached inside the mouth of the now lifeless doll and turned it inside out.

The doll dangled upside down for a few moments before being turned onto it's back to be filled with thin sawdust through the mouth.

Now that the doll had taken it's original shape once again, it was placed back onto the sewing box.

The hands skillfully threaded a needle with tan thread, letting the needle fall down the length of the thread. The hands used the needle to sew the new mouth closed, each stitch being adroitly pulled through the fabric with ease.

The wooden drawer handle was tugged out to reveal an array of dull and dark buttons, all paired together in their own separate compartments. The hands picked out a pair of matching black buttons, sewing them into the face of the doll.

A pair of tweezers placed each strand of blonde colored yarn into the open holes on the doll's head, creating new hair.

New clothes were cut and pinned together from beige colored fabric.

The hand spun the wheel on an old sewing machine, which removed the old cobwebs and started the machine. The clothes soon enough took the shape of a tunic and pants.

The clothes were placed on the doll, and it was sent back through the window to float away into the starry night sky.