literature

Lannie Doll 4

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Literature Text

Lannie Doll and the Annoying Shopper

Kelly never liked to admit it, but she was terrified of the smothering dark of night. She never told a soul, and always slept with a night light in her room. So naturally, the worst part of Kelly's new life was the dark of her box. She would savor the daylight and the feeling of the world around her, but come night Lannie would always shove Kelly Fool back into the pitch black of her box, where her toy would wait desperately for the morning.

While she waited, the jester would dream herself into another place. Sometimes, she would dream about being with Mark, going to work, or even performing foolish acts for a king. And while Kelly did dream of doing to Lannie what she had done to her, the toy would only ever do so in the first half of the night. It was in the first half of the night when Kelly hated her owner the most. Unfortunately, her dreams were always invaded by the oppressive black of her box and always short lived.

So, for most of the night she waited with frozen anticipation for the music box to begin to play. The sound would begin distantly and quietly at first, but it grew in strength into a childish crescendo, and then . . . The box lid would rocket into the air, Kelly Fool not far behind. Each of her arms and each of her legs would spread out to the four corners of the world, and the foolish toy would greet the world with the insane smile of a woman about to perform the world's greatest stunt. And Lannie was always there to smile back with sparkling white teeth and brilliant blue eyes.

"Good morning, Kelly Fool. How was your night?" She would say in a sing-songy voice. Then she would tap her toy upon her head and skip away to begin the day. That brilliant, bright face was the reason Kelly would only dream nasty things about Lannie during the first half of the night. Because during the first half of the night, the image of Lannie shoving her toy back into the black box was fresh in her mind. But Kelly's mind would soften through the night as she remembered it would also be Lannie to rescue her from the oppressive black.






Saturdays had taken on a great deal of importance to Lannie since she got her silver key, because it was on Saturdays that she could finally draw cute pink circles on each cheek., put on her puffy pink dress, and simply unwind from the week behind her. But this Saturday was shaping up to be different on account that Christmas was incoming and Lannie still needed to buy presents.

So on this particular Saturday, Lannie put on a constricting pair of tennis shoes, jeans, and t-shirt to brave the world, hoping they would not see through her façade of normalcy.

"I have to go shopping," Lannie pouted. She was standing in front of Kelly Fool and Comrade Georgia, both of whom looked at her with contagious smiles. Lannie's silver key stood between them on their shelf and was the centerpiece of her collection. "I know you want to play, but this is something people need to do." Her toys continued to smile at her. "Stop looking at me like that. We can play other days, just not today. OK?" When neither toy replied, Lannie nodded her head pertly and walked out the door. But two seconds after she locked it, she came barging back in, sprinting back to the shelf, where she picked up her silver key.

Lannie smiled sheepishly to her dolls, "You never know." She said.






Lannie had tried her very best to stay away from the mall that day. But after only managing to get a quarter of her gifts over the span of three hours, she had to admit defeat and charged headlong into the over-packed mall parking lot and the thousand crazed shoppers inside.

In the span of forty minutes, Lannie came across a driver who waited in the park aisles waiting for a person to back out of their spot, a soccer mom who smelled like she had been shopping since five in the morning, a gaggle of children who ran in front of Lannie and nearly tripped her, a quick moving man in a business suit who tackled her for just getting in his way, and thirty shoppers who dug around in their pockets or purses for exact change.

So, at six o'clock, after seven hours of hurling across town and across mall concourses, Lannie took a comfy chair at the bookstore to rest her sorrowful feet and forget about everyone in the entire world inside a book. For a while, everyone around her respected Lannie's wishes to ignore them, until a girl sat down in a seat across from her.

She was younger than Lannie, probably college aged with a body that looked like it couldn't get fat. But Lannie couldn't really tell, as the girl was wearing baggy blue sweatpants and a black hoodie one size too large. She saw the girl look a little sadly at her Christmas list. The girl sighed and opened a collection of poetry.

That should have been the end of Lannie's interaction with the girl, but five minutes later an annoying sound crashed upon her ears like an ocean wave. It was a constant, monotone hum, and it was incessant upon its invasion of Lannie's mind. She looked up to find that the girl was the surprising source of the humming. She was now flipped around with her legs dangling over the armrest, her foot bobbing up and down in her loose Ugg boots to an unheard rhythm. She stopped humming for a bare few seconds to refill her lungs of air, and then proceeded to make the incessant noise once again.

"Excuse me," Lannie said, "could you please stop that?"

The girl looked up quickly. "What?" she asked.

"You were humming just now and it was a little annoying."

She put her hand over her mouth quickly while her cheeks grew red, "Ohmigosh. I'm so sorry. I just forg – I'll stop." She said, realizing she was making things worse by talking.

"Thanks." Lannie said, returning to her book and feeling for the first time today that she had accomplished something. The beautiful silence lasted only three pages, and just as Lannie was about to fully wrap herself inside the fantasy world, she heard the monotone humming once again.

"Excuse me, but you're doing it again."

The girl looked over, and again she turned red. "I'm sorry; I don't even realize I'm doing it." The pair both turned back to their books, but a minute later Lannie heard the girl rummaging though her plastic bags, once again breaking the serene silence of the reading nook. Lannie looked over to her, and the girl quickly noticed her staring. "Sorry," she said, "I'm just going to get moving. I'll be out of your way in just a minute." But just as she said that one of her large gray backs broke, spilling out clothes, toys, and DVDs.

The girl's shoulders slumped, and she slid down to the ground, legs stretched out in front of her, and her head lolling back on the chair seat. The way she sat immediately sparked a thought in Lannie's mind, and she remembered the silver key in her purse. But she put that thought aside and got up to help the girl with her presents.

"This was going to be the first time I spent my own money for Christmas," the girl said, "and the first time I was going to be living on my own." She rubbed her eyes, "And then the wreck happened . .  . does it get easier?"

Lannie shook her head, "It gets bigger. You move into larger houses and get more stuff."

The girl deflated a little more, and Lannie put a hand on her shoulder.

"You know, sometimes what I do to unwind is put on a set of really soft and comfy clothes and just sit on my bed."

"And do what?"

"Be a toy." Lannie said, "Just sit and pretend that I don't have to do a thing in the world but be there for my owner when she comes home."

"That sounds nice." The girl said as Lannie handed her a pile of folded clothes. She recomposed herself and gathered her things together. She turned and made the best curtsey she could to Lannie with shopping bags in either hand. "I'm Erin, by the way."

"My name's Lannie." She said, nodding in return. The girl waved her hand and walked off. Lannie watched her go, and wondered how much longer it would be for the world to overwhelm Erin once again. She once again thought about the key.






Erin was invigorated by her conversation with the brunette woman. She felt, for now, that there was a light she could reach if she worked hard enough for it. But as she was walking away she felt the strangest feeling on her back, and she immediately stopped moving. The feeling was almost imperceptible, like someone pushing a rounded plastic cup into her spine. Whatever it was froze her in place. She then began to hear a clicking noise grating inside her body, like someone was winding a watch inside her.

The clicking stopped and Erin felt the familiar sensation of prickling needles across her body, as if she had been numb all her life and was just waking up. It didn't hurt, and in fact it made her feel alive. So entranced was she by the feeling that she didn't notice the changes that began to sweep over her body.

Her black hoodie zipped itself together and from the bottom edge turned white as short fur sprung up all over it. Erin's blue sweatpants split into a top and bottom halves. The top half changed to black and began to grow fur, while the bottom tightened into black form-fitting leggings. Her suede boots, too, turned black, but remained a bit loose on her feet. Erin's sleeves separated from her hoodie and scrunched up below her elbow, the bottom end wrapping around her hand to form furry black paws. Her T-shirt below also lengthened until it covered every bit of her arms in tight black cloth.

With the bulk of her costume finished, Erin began to shrink. Her head and neck, the only places of her skin still exposed, gained the soft textured pattern of cloth, and white fur hood flipped up to reveal round black ears. She then fell to the ground, now only a little doll wearing a white and black panda bear costume. Erin began to become aware once again of herself, and felt warm and soft fingers wrap around her middle, squishing her tummy and abdomen more than they should have. She was picked up until she could look into the Lannie's caring blue eyes.

"I think this will help you relax a little." Erin believed her.






Later that night, long after Lannie had returned home and introduced Erin Bear to Kelly Fool and Comrade Georgia, the doll's owner began to prepare for the night. One by one she turned off lights through the kitchen and living room, coming ever closer to her shelf of dolls. Worry and fear began to build inside Kelly Fool. The dark of her box seemed to be reaching for her, clawing and scraping to smother the jack-in-the-box in shadow.

Kelly began to plead, her mind crying for somebody – anybody – to hear her screams. The dark whispered at her ear, and Kelly tried to escape it, but her box mounted her in place. Lannie came to the fool, and her fingers pressed down on Kelly's head. The doll began to plead louder, and in her mind, she threw her plastic arms around her owner's finger, trying desperately to stay in the light. The shadows of her box reached up and smothered Kelly's bright yellow legs in the inky black. The jester cried a final, hopeless, shout.

Lannie stopped and let her fingers off Kelly's head. The jack-in-the-box jumped back up, springy arms and legs throwing off the hungry shadows of her box. The doll's owner looked at the doll with a wary sideways glance, perhaps wondering if she had heard something.

"I'll leave you out tonight, Kelly Fool. How does that sound?" The jester replied with her normative crazed grin. "That's what I thought." She tapped her doll quickly on the head, then left for bed. For the first time in ages, Kelly had a real dream. Funnily enough, she dreamed she was a jester dancing for her queen.
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charlee718's avatar
I'm loving this story and she had a good way to make toys and dolls