6. Helen

(Helen has influence. A good quality in such a young person.)

 Helen has fallen in love with both dolls.

 Will it be Amy or Isabella who comes to live with her?

The auctions end tomorrow; what if Daddy can't get either one?

  Isabella is an heirloom doll.
Handmade. With a beautiful hand painted face.
Helen just dreams.
And she knows in her heart that Isabella is dreaming about her, too.

 Snarf chews on her too.  He likes the toddler spit in her hair.
And sticky little pieces of toddler food that are stuck to her.

Nobody seems to mind that this is not a sanitary practice.
If  Helen has to pick her up, she uses tongs.



 

Abby doesn't care one bit that her leg is missing or that she isn't pretty because
Abby's favorite thing about Jeannette is chewing on her yarn hair.
She carries her around in her teeth like a dog.

 Jeannette is definitely not pretty.
Plus, she's  missing a leg. She gave Jeannette to Abby.

Too big for the castle, too.
 She could probably take on the dragon. 

  She's plastic and tiny, most definitely not beautiful, and too big for the house.

 Helen has never had a really beautiful doll.
She has a little doll for her doll house.

 She loves Amy too.
Especially the little patch on her dress and her pink cheeks.

 A new doll is named Isabella.  Helen looks at her every day.

Olivia is Helen's first love.
John spaces out and misses the auction. 
Helen is heartbroken.
But there were no bids, so Helen hopes that she will be relisted.

There's a lady on eBay who makes dolls.
The most beautiful dolls.
Daddy's going to bid.

 Helen wishes that her parents would let her have a Paypal account.

 When she's challenged for her obscure little words,

she gets out her big ol' dictionary, and they lose a turn.
 (She has a collection of  really good words...that she memorizes.)

She's way good at Scrabble.

The adults used to spot her points at the beginning, but no more.

 Until she gets pretty good.

Sometimes in secret.

When she's not good at something, she practices.

They know now, of course. 

  She reads everything.

Helen was reading at age five. 

She didn't want her parents to know.

*****  HELEN  *****