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‘What’s the matter?’
Alicia Coombe, who had got up late, came down the stairs, hobbling a little precariously for she had rheumatism in her right knee.
‘What is the matter with you, Sybil?’
‘Look. Look what’s happened now.’
They stood in the doorway of the showroom. Sitting on a sofa, sprawled easily over the arm of it, was the doll.
‘She’s got out,’ said Sybil, ‘She’s got out of that room! She wants this room as well.’
Alicia Coombe sat down by the door. ‘In the end,’ she said, ‘I suppose she’ll want the whole shop.’
‘She might,’ said Sybil. ‘You nasty, sly, malicious brute,’ said Alicia, addressing the doll. ‘Why do you want to come and pester us so? We don’t want you.’
It seemed to her, and to Sybil too, that the doll moved very slightly. It was as though its limbs relaxed still further. A long limp arm was lying on the arm of the sofa and the half-hidden face looked as if it were peering from under the arm. And it was a sly, malicious look.
‘Horrible creature,’ said Alicia. ‘I can’t bear it! I can’t bear it any longer.’ Suddenly, taking Sybil completely by surprise, she dashed across the room, picked up the doll, ran to the window, opened it, and flung the doll out into the street. There was a gasp and a half cry of fear from Sybil.
‘Oh, Alicia, you shouldn’t have done that! I’m sure you shouldn’t have done that!’
‘I had to do something,’ said Alicia Coombe. ‘I just couldn’t stand it any more.’
Sybil joined her at the window. Down below on the pavement the doll lay, loose-limbed, face down.
‘You’ve killed her,’ said Sybil. ‘Don’t be absurd . . . How can I kill something that’s made of velvet and silk, bits and pieces. It’s not real.’
‘It’s horribly real,’ said Sybil.
Alicia caught her breath. ‘Good heavens. That child –’
A small ragged girl was standing over the doll on the pavement. She looked up and down the street – a street that was not unduly crowded at this time of the morning though there was some automobile traffic; then, as though satisfied, the child bent, picked up the doll, and ran across the street.
‘Stop, stop!’ called Alicia.
She turned to Sybil. ‘That child mustn’t take the doll. She mustn’t! That doll is dangerous – it’s evil. We’ve got to stop her.’
It was not they who stopped her. It was the traffic. At that moment three taxis came down one way and two tradesmen’s vans in the other direction. The child was marooned on an island in the middle of the road. Sybil rushed down the stairs, Alicia Coombe following her. Dodging between a tradesman’s van and a private car, Sybil, with Alicia Coombe directly behind her, arrived on the island before the child could get through the traffic on the opposite side.
‘You can’t take that doll,’ said Alicia Coombe. ‘Give her back to me.’ The child looked at her. She was a skinny little girl about eight years old, with a slight squint. Her face was defiant.
‘Why should I give ’er to you?’ she said. ‘Pitched her out of the window, you did – I saw you. If you pushed her out of the window you don’t want her, so now she’s mine.’
‘I’ll buy you another doll,’ said Alicia frantically. ‘We’ll go to a toy shop – anywhere you like – and I’ll buy you the best doll we can find. But give me back this one.’
‘Shan’t,’ said the child.
Her arms went protectingly round the velvet doll. ‘You must give her back,’ said Sybil. ‘She isn’t yours.’
She stretched out to take the doll from the child and at that moment the child stamped her foot, turned, and screamed at them.
‘Shan’t! Shan’t! Shan’t! She’s my very own. I love her. You don’t love her. You hate her. If you didn’t hate her you wouldn’t have pushed her out of the window. I love her, I tell you, and that’s what she wants. She wants to be loved.’
And then like an eel, sliding through the vehicles, the child ran across the street, down an alleyway, and out of sight before the two older women could decide to dodge the cars and follow.
‘She’s gone,’ said Alicia. ‘She said the doll wanted to be loved,’ said Sybil. ‘Perhaps,’ said Alicia, ‘perhaps that’s what she wanted all along . . . to be loved . . .’
In the middle of the London traffic the two frightened women stared at each other.
