The Doll in the Garden

Chapter 11

Miss Cooper's Demand

MOM LOOKED AT ME. "Ashley, what have you done now?"

"Nothing," I whispered as I listened to Miss Cooper's feet thump slowly up our stairs.

Mom went to the door and opened it just as Miss Cooper stepped onto the porch.

"That girl," the old woman said to Mom, "took something of mine and I want it back!" She was out of breath from the climb to our apartment, but her eyes bored into me with such anger I drew back frightened.

Mom turned to me. "Ashley?"

"I didn't take anything of hers," I said.

Miss Cooper shoved the empty box under my nose. "Where's my doll?"

"I don't know." I wasn't used to lying, and my voice sounded like someone else's, weak and trembly, almost a whisper.

"You're lying, missy! You stole her and hid her away somewhere, and I want her back." Again Miss Cooper was eye to eye with me, and I felt like a bird facing a snake.

"Miss Cooper," Mom said, "please tell me what you're accusing Ashley of."

The old woman swung her head toward Mom. "There was a doll in this box, a valuable antique doll, and your girl stole it."

"A doll?" Mom sounded confused.

"In the garden," Miss Cooper said. "My garden where I told them they had no right to play. But she and that Smith child, they went in there and tore things up, flowers and all, just destroyed everything, and this one stole the doll."

"Ashley, is this true?" Mom's face was pale, and her eyes probed mine.

"We were fixing the garden up," I told Mom, "making a place to play. We didn't pull up anything but weeds." I started crying then, I couldn't help it. If Miss Cooper got her hands on Anna Maria, I'd never be able to return her to Louisa.

Mom put her arm around me, and I pressed my face against her side, ashamed of my tears. I hadn't cried for a long time, not since Daddy first got sick.

"Don't you hide behind your mother!" Miss Cooper's voice rose angrily.

Just then the telephone rang in the living room. "Excuse me," Mom said as she went to answer it.

"Give me what's mine!" Miss Cooper hissed at me.

"She's not yours," I sobbed, "she's Louisa's!"

Miss Cooper stepped backward so fast she almost stumbled over Oscar. "What did you say?" she gasped.

"I said she's Louisa's doll." I stared at the old woman, puzzled. What did she want with a doll anyway? And how did she even know about her? Unless she'd buried her there herself. My hand flew to the old scrap of paper in the pocket of my shorts, but I didn't need to look at it. I knew who had signed the letter.

In the silence, I stared at Miss Cooper. "You're Carrie," I whispered, sure I was right. "You're the one who stole the doll, not me!"

Miss Cooper grabbed for the edge of the table. Her face was white and her mouth sagged open. Trembling, she sank down on a kitchen chair.

At that moment Mom came back into the room. "Are you all right?" she asked the old woman.

Watching Miss Cooper, I tried to see the freckle-faced little girl Louisa had described, but all I could sec was the old woman she had become. Nothing of the child Louisa had known remained.

Suddenly Miss Cooper got to her feet. "You get my doll," she said to Mom. "And bring her down to me, or I'll have you out of my house tomorrow."

Refusing to let Mom help her, Miss Cooper opened the back door and began making her way down the steps.

I ran after her but stopped at the edge of the porch. Looking down on her, I could see her scalp through her wispy hair. "I have a message for you," I called softly, hoping Mom wouldn't hear me. "Louisa wants Anna Maria back. You Ye had her long enough."

Miss Cooper ignored me till she reached the ground. Scowling up at me, she said, "Either you're a lying little hussy or you're the devil's child." Then she vanished around the side of the house.

The screen door opened and shut behind me, and Mom touched my arm. "Maybe you'd better tell me what's going on," she said. "Do you have Miss Cooper's doll?"

As tears welled up in my eyes, I tried to wipe them away with the back of my hand. "It's not hers, Mom," I said. "It belongs to somcbody else."

"But you have it?"

I nodded.

"May I see it, please?"

I led Mom back to my room and carefully lifted Anna Maria out from under my sweaters. Wordlessly I laid her in Mom's arms.

"What a lovely doll," Mom said. "Did you really find her buried in the garden?"

"Kristi and I dug her up when we were trying to pull out a thistle. Its roots had gone down deep and it left a big hole in the ground. Kristi saw the corner of the box sticking out of the dirt."

"But why would Miss Cooper have buried her?"

"Because she stole her from somebody else a long time ago."

"How do you know that, Ashley?"

"I just do." I reached for Anna Maria but Mom cradled her against her chest and shook her head.

"I'm sorry, but that's not a good enough answer," she said.

Oscar rubbed against me, purring to get my attention. As I stroked his fur, I let the silence between Mom and me grow until it became impossible to speak. Too often, when I was little, I'd made up stories about fairies and elves and unicorns and sworn they were true. "True make-believe," Mom used to say. If I told her the truth now, she'd never believe me. In fact, more than likely she'd be angry. So, keeping my face hidden, I said nothing.

"You'll have to return the doll to Miss Cooper," Mom said after a while. "You found it on her property."

"No, please don't make me!" Pushing Oscar aside, I threw my arms around Mom, begging her, in every way I knew, to understand.

Mom sat silently on the bed beside me for a few minutes. Finally she said, "Miss Cooper isn't very pleasant and you might not like her very much, but she's old and frail and we're living in her house."

She paused and rubbed my back gently. Outside I could hear Max barking and a lawnmower roaring into life.

"Why don't I take the doll to Miss Cooper?" Mom asked. "Then you won't have to face her."

Taking my silence for a yes, Mom stood up. With my eves squeezed shut to hold in my tears, I heard her open the back door and walk slowly down the steps. I hoped Krisd was watching. Maybe now that it was too late, she'd be sorry she had told Miss Cooper about Anna Maria.