Free House of Dolls by Francesca Lia Block Page B

her delicately crafted silver wings. The combination of boredom and jealousy is a dangerous thing. Especially when the person feeling these things is so many times larger than you are.
    The result was this: Madison Blackberry sent Guy off to war.
    Madison did not feel there was room in the house for Guy. And, after hearing her father listening to the news, she wanted some drama for her dolls.
    The dolls did not know that “war” was really a dusty box in a closet of the apartment where the dollhouse lived. It didn’t matter. As far as Guy and Wildflower were concerned, that was war.
    War was life without each other.
    Then B. Friend was pronounced MIA by Madison Blackberry. One of his jointed arms had been torn from his body by Madison Blackberry’s little brother, Dallas George. Stuffing came out of his furry body as he lay in Dallas George’s toy chest among theplastic machine guns and airplanes. His arm was chewed into an unrecognizable pulp by the dog. His glasses were stepped on and twisted beyond recognition. Not even the cleaning lady had discovered B. Friend. In spite of his broken state, he dreamed of Rockstar day and night in his world of shadows and dust balls.
    After the disappearance of Guy, Wildflower was no longer interested in dresses, dancing, or baking play-dough cakes. She wanted, instead, to change the world.
    This was not the first time Wildflower had become concerned with changing the world. She had felt thesame way, years before, during another war, when she belonged to Grandmother.
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    But then, as now, she did not know what to do.
    After the disappearance of B. Friend, Rockstar was no longer interested in dresses, singing, dancing, or baking play-dough cakes. She wanted to change herself.

    She had been rejected by Madison Blackberry because she was too intelligent, but Rockstar had never even taken the time toenjoy her own intellect! She got hold of all the miniature leather-bound books in the dollhouse bookcase and began to read them one by one.
    â€œThe classics,” Madison Blackberry’s grandmother said approvingly, when she found Rockstar seated in the pale green velvet armchair with a tiny Moby-Dick on her lap.
    Rockstar also read the miniature LIFE magazines from the 70s that were in the wooden magazine stand. Although they were out-of-date, they gave her a sense of the world beyond the dollhouse. She didn’t like that world, but she wanted to understand it. Maybe this would help bring B.Friend back to her.
    After the disappearances, Miss Selene just wanted to change clothes. This made perfect sense to Miss Selene. The world was much too big. Especially for a doll! The idea of changing herself felt overwhelming.
    And besides, in a way, changing clothes was changing herself. It might even change the world in a tiny way, mightn’t it? Somehow make things just a tiny, tiny bit more magical?
    Wildflower, Rockstar, and Miss Selene waited, trying to be as quiet and inconspicuous as possible, trying to come up with a plan so that Madison Blackberry would changeher mind and bring Guy and B. Friend back.
    Instead, one day, the dresses were gone.

 

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    The dolls wandered through their house crying out, “Where is the lemon-yellow satin chemise?” “The bejeweled green silk strapless mermaid evening gown with the tulle tail?”
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    â€œWhere is the blue feather poncho?” “The black velvet pearl-button-encrusted suit with the pink feather collar?”
    For the first time they fully understood that Guy and B. Friend were gone and that nothing beautiful was left.
    Madison Blackberry had stored all the dresses away in a rose-covered hatbox. Although her mother bought her expensive clothes, she had nothing handmade by her grandmother, nothing even slightly magical. If she couldn’t have a pink-and-silver chiffon cocoon jacket or lavender-and-gold silk kimono butterfly-wing sleeved dress, why