Work Text:
White. Everything here in Siena turns white during the winter. It’s snowing today as I walk through the alleys. Usually there is nothing entertaining here, especially on these snowy Sundays.
Always walked though such streets, but this time I had the strange feeling that something on that street, the one I had never dared to enter (I was afraid, irrational!), attracted me. The fear was gone, and now it was calling me, inducing me to speculate.
I entered, and soon realized what was pulling me. At the heart of the alley there was a rather morbid building, a store, and on the showcase, a child. No. It wasn’t a child, it was doll. If it were not for the eyes as gray as stone, almost too empty, I’d say, it would be my twin. She was the one thing that attracted me.
I needed that doll! I looked around, saw nothing, didn’t see anyone, so I returned my gaze to the showcase. But she was gone. Where was it? “I must be mad.” I thought.
Some seconds past I settle down and walk a little further, just to find an access to the establishment. Locked. In a moment of despair, made a snowball with my hands and threw it against the door. On prompt, nothing happened, after all, it was only snow.
When I was about to leave, something seems to hear my prayers and the door ranges, right after, it opens wide, asking for me. It didn’t need to ask two times, I soon entered. Finally, I found the toy again. The doll was on a table a little afar, I ran to her, but before, bumped into something that fell.
It was only another puppet, luckily (or not), on a bicycle, one of these, that, if you wind up, they move. This one starts a rhythmical beat as it spanks itself on the door, now closed.
I turn my attention back to my doll, but she was gone for a second time, however, this time it was easy to find it. It was on the shelf, which luckily had a sofa right below it, that allowed me to climb over.
Then, the one that has given me that much trouble, it is within the reach of my fingers. I don’t hesitate to touch her. Suddenly, everything becomes messy and my vision gets blurred, and then I understand, I was the one on the shelf… And my vision seemed ...
One word: panic!
It seemed that a sort of plastic was placed before my eyes. And on the spot where my hunter used to stay, there was a redhaired and green eyed doll, on the outside of the store, a girl with eyes of the same colour.
2010. CAMPAGNOLI, Rebeca.