The Box

My friend Rose gave me a box of broken treasures – mostly parts of dolls and toys that must have belonged to a little girl. Or, more likely, to little girls, plural. There is an armless china kewpie doll and a piece of hand-stitched quilt from long ago, but there is also a small plastic baby doll and some other miniature toys with plastic parts from a more recent generation. And a pair of shoes. Maybe for a big doll or a small girl. A real conglomeration. And sort of disturbing.

The Top Layer

I can’t remember where Rose said she got it – maybe on eBay. There was just one thing in the box she kept and then she thought of me. Hmmmm. But, in a way, I can see why. We have many such bits and pieces in our house, some of which are displayed in our glass-topped coffee table. Most of them came from our garden which is truly like a gigantic midden. It’s in the lower southeast corner that I sometimes find doll parts. I think that’s where my mother’s sister Sue had her doll house back in the early nineteen hundreds.

The Bottom Layer

I have to say that there’s something about finding broken bits in the garden and knowing who treasured them once upon a time that’s different from looking in a box full of doll-body parts that came from an unknown source. The only thing in ‘Rose’s Box’ that is even a little bit charming (rather than weird, weird, weird!) is a child-sized fan with little girls’ names written on each of its ribs. Rose thought it might have been a party favor – maybe for a birthday party.

I think I like the box, itself, best of all. Once, it had leather handles affixed with short round-headed nails, now badly rusted with only tell-tale remnants remaining. The lid fits snugly into the box and has a single finger-hole with which to pull it up. And, inside is one tray, also removable by finger holes at either end. It’s not until you pull up that lid and see the maimed contents that you feel a little creeped out.

I’ll have to find out from Rose what it was she kept. And, meanwhile, I’m entertaining ideas for what to do with this treasure trove of bits and pieces from the past.