‘I’m pleased to meet
you, too and I have no idea, who I am, nor do I know how you know your own name.’
I blurted out.
‘It’s easy, I asked Ms
Parker, that’s why I wasn’t at my place a moment ago. Judging by your hair,
you’re Rapunzel.’ She saw that it didn’t help, the name and the tale of
Rapunzel was unknown to me.
‘We’ll get a second
name anyway to tell us apart and we’ll watch your movie soon. After the movie,
the heroines of the movie get a private lesson. The Snow Whites and the
Cinderellas had the pleasure.’ But then we heard Ms Parker telling everybody to
get back to their original places, the next movie, Sleeping Beauty was about to
start. But after the movie there was a break and I went to her to talk it over
and to complain that I won’t be able to tell those princesses apart. So many
with yellow or black hair! She was really patient and gave me some tips.
‘You see, Snow White
is the only short haired girl with black hair. Cinderella and Aurora may both
have long golden hair but Cinderella has blue eyes while the other lady has
unique violet ones.’
‘Aurora?’
‘Sleeping Beauty also
known as Briar Rose. But Aurora was the name her parents gave her.’
‘I thought she is
Rose…’
‘Yes, the fairies
called her Briar Rose but that was a disguise so she was safe from the bad
fairy.’
’Who is that with the
bright red hair?’I asked curiously. She seemed to know everything! She had a
piece of paper in her hand with notes but she didn’t even glance at it before
answering.
‘That is Ariel, the
little Mermaid. The one next to her, who has a bit darker skin, long black
hair and big brown eyes is Jasmine, an arabian princess.’
‘But there are two
dark skinned black haired girls!’
‘Yes but look at the
form of their faces, the other girl has a more angular face. She is Pocahontas,
the only pricess loosely based on a historical person. She didn’t get a happy
end in her movie.’ I looked at the serious face Belle pointed at. She was
right, nothing like that Jasmine princess.
‘Which lands princess
is she?’
‘She is the chieftain’s
daughter in her tribe, she is a native American lady.’ I thought this over and
looked at the last two black haired girls. One type had such funny eyes...
‘She comes from China
that’s why she has eyes like that’ Belle said, as if she could read my
thoughts. ‘She is a very brave girl.’
‘And who is that, whit
that funny frizzy hair? She is the last girl with black hair, isn’t she?’
‘The characters name
is Tiana, Tia for short. She works very hard to reach her goals in her movie
and is an excellent cook.’
‘Does this mean that
the dolls made to look like her are all great cooks? It must be great to have
her around!’
‘No’ she replied ‘I
don’t think we are completely like our movie conterparts.’
‘But surely we are
similar’ I insisted ‘What is Rapunzel like?’
‘Your original has 70
feet long golden hair that has magic powers. That is the reason why you were kidnapped
and locked up in a tower.’
‘There is another
Ariel! But how come she has freckles now?’ I exclaimed pointing at another
doll.
’Because that is not
Ariel. She is called Merida and she doesn’t want to be princess and has a
conflict with her mother because of that.’ I looked around again.
‘I suppose the redhead
over there with a white steak isn’t Ariel, either. She has freckles, just like
Merida.’
‘No but I don’t know
who she is, only that she is the sister of the other girl with very light blond
hair.’
‘What about your
story? You tell everything about the other but what about you?’
‘Uh, well now, my
story isn’t that interesting. Belle befriends a beast and objects that are
alive but actually are all bespelled humans. At the end, they turn back of
course.’
‘What a pretty story!
I can’t wait to see it! But I would like to know more about Ariel and Jasmine
and… well, everybody!’
‘Then just watch and
listen carefully for now it is The Little Mermaids turn.’ she said pointing at
the screen. She was right, Mrs. Parker already asked for silence but it was
overheared since all the princesses were chatting and singing and made such a noise!
‘They are quite lively
today’ Mrs. Parker said to herself. ‘Be quiet please, my ladies. Silence,
please. I said SILENCE!’ That worked, so we could watch another film. And since
a so called “weekend” came, we got to watch even more films, more than usually
the dolls get to see. We exchanged opinions and views and talked everything
over. Oh yes and we got out second names as well, given names to tell us apart.
It was like a huge lottery, and everybody won a name. My friend Belle is called
from now on Elisabeth Belle and I got the name Rosemary. To avoid that two
girls representing the same character get he same given name Mrs. Parker did
this lottery in batches. First all the Snow Whites got a name, then all the
paperpieces were put back and it started again for the Cinderellas and so on.
Mrs. Parker stated that those names only accompany us till the stores.
‘Once you get to your
owners, you’ll never know, what may happen. Collectors will most likely call
you the characters name while children tend to give you a completely new name.
It’s for them to decide, it can be the other way around as well, you never know.
Children can be sometimes rough but they spend more time with us than
collectors. Some dolls owned by collectors are just displayed and never removed
from their boxes. That’s a piy but sometimes the price of freedom is high: the
dolls belonging to children can easily end up with tangled ugly hair, bitten
feet and ugly stains and marks on their dresses and bodies. Children usually
also get more easily bored.’ My heart sunk. Neither of these fates seemed
desirable to me.
‘There are always
advantages and disadvantages. And Mrs. Parker knows, since she has had 15
different owners already.’ Elisabeth Belle murmured to herself. ‘She has
travelled around the Earth and is kind of the lucky charm of the factory owner,
to whom she belongs now. She is allowed to wander around as much as she
pleases. He gave her the name Mrs. Parker, he named her after his own old nurse.
She was not made to look like someone.’
‘With her strict eyes
and self confident manners she was just like how I imagine a teacher’ Belle
smiled.
‘Well, she is kind of a teacher to us all.’
‘She isn’t that
pretty, either.’
‘Appearance is not
that important’ my friend said wisely. ‘It’s her wisdom that makes her so very
suitable for this job. She taught thousands of dolls, knows all the movies by
heart and has a lot of experience with both adults and children.’ I didn’t
listen anymore, I thought about my future home. I hoped for lots of freedom and
adventures but also for someone who would take good care of us. But such
humans were quite rare and I’ll likely end up with a child who cuts my hair or
tears out one of my legs. Belle was just as scared as I was but it helped us
both to talk about it. There was a lot to discuss that weekend anyway.
