Talking Doll

“Talking Doll” is one of the outstanding stories of the first biannual International Short Story Contest 2018 written by Khan Shaharbano Mohd. Shahbaz, Anjuman - I - Islam - A.A.Khatkhatay English School, Vashi, India.

Talking Doll

The talking doll is a scary tale about an old woman who loves dolls and a young woman who hates them.

There was an old couple who had hired a new maid to help around their house. The wife had a huge doll collection, and the maid was expected to dust them once a week. So once a week the maid walked into the room where the dolls were stored and looked at them in disgust. She hated dolls. While she was dusting, she came across a particularly strange doll. It was a talking doll and it had a cord in the back. The maid was interested and pulled the cord. The doll said “hello.” The maid pulled the cord again. “I love my momma”, said the doll. The maid put the doll back and continued cleaning.

A few weeks later, while dusting off the dolls, the maid accidently knocked a doll over. It shattered as soon as it hit the ground. The old woman heard the sound and went to investigate. When she walk into the room and saw her shattered doll, a very sad look came across her face. The maid saw this quickly and said, “I’ am really sorry. I didn’t mean to break her. I won’t to do it again”. The old woman looked down at her sad, broken doll and told the maid that she could only keep her job if she promises to be extra careful around the dolls. The maid agreed.

The next day, the old couple left the maid alone while they went out to run some errands. The maid was in such a bad mood that she neglected to do her job. While she was sitting in the kitchen enjoying some of the couple’s fancy chocolate, the maid thought of a vicious idea. She slowly made her way into the room where the dolls were kept. She thought for a moment about how sad the old woman was about her broken doll. The maid picked up a doll and said, “she must really love these dolls”, and threw the doll on the floor. It shattered and the maid smiled.

She loved the feeling of breaking the dolls. Something about the shattering sound pleased her. She threw more and more dolls to the floor. She was still in her doll-killing rage when the old couple came through the door. The old woman ran to her broken dolls. She looked up at the maid with a baleful expression and asked, “What are you doing?” The husband, seeing his wife so upset, immediately told the maid she was fired.

The maid collected her things and left in a worst mood than before. She was very angry. Later that night, she snuck back into the couple’s home. Knowing they would be sound asleep, she crept into the kitchen, found the biggest knife she could, and made her way to the bedroom.

The next morning, the maid returned to the house and acted like an innocent bystander and told the police that she worked for the couple. She played the story victim that had lost good friends. She told the police that the old couple was very loving, nice, caring people and she had no idea why anyone would want to kill them.

At that point, she slowly walked into the house, saying she wished to make sure no one had hurt the old woman’s precious doll collection. When she got to the talking doll, she picked it up and pulled the cord. “Hello”, it said. She pulled the cord again, and it said “why did you kill my momma?”

The maid looked horrified. “What did you just say?”

“Why did you kill my momma?” asked the doll. The maid stared in shock. She kept pulling the cord. “Why did you kill my momma?’ she was a nice momma. I loved her very much. Why did you kill my momma?” The maid stared at the doll. She could not believe this was happening, “YOU KILLED MY MOMMA!” the doll screamed. The maid threw it to the ground and ran from the house.

The next morning the maid was found dead in her bed. The talking doll was in her arms. When investigators pull the cord on the doll back it just kept repeating, “She killed my momma. She killed my momma. She killed my momma…”

MORAL: WE SHOULD NEVER THINK BAD FOR OTHERS, IF WE WILL DO BAD TO OTHERS. SOMEONE WILL DO BAD TO US.