The Dollhouse: A Short Story by Terri Mash

The Dollhouse

    I can still remember how the snow felt between my toes on that cold Christmas morning so many years ago. I was eight years old. In only a thin little nightgown and bare feet, I ran through the trees and tangled shrubs to my Grandma's two-room cottage.

    Grandma was sitting in an old over-stuffed chair in front of her pot-bellied coal stove. She was cutting up whittlins, as she called them. They were pieces of scrap material she used to stuff pillows and quilts.

    I burst through the door carrying my dollhouse to show her. She dropped what she was doing and listened to me rattle on in childhood excitement. Then she started pulling things out from under her big feather bed.

    Grandma saved everything! She pulled out an old suitcase that she had found in the junkyard. She took it apart, then she took some sticks of wood and cut them to one length. She used one half of the suitcase and nailed the four sticks onto it for legs. She had built a little stand for my dollhouse to sit upon. 

    Yes, I loved that dollhouse, but even at that tender age, I was more impressed at her stopping what she was doing to create the pretty little stand for me from nothing but scraps. An overwhelming love and admiration for her filled my heart.

From Ohio USA, Terri Mash is the author of A Cultured Girl: A Collection of Poems and Short Stories. She was born to Lawrence and Mattie Mash, the youngest of six children. Raised in Ohio with a love of art and music engrained in her soul, she would doodle, draw, and write song lyrics then stash them in a closet. It wasn't until recently she got the courage to pursue her passions. Self-taught with a relentless spirit, Terri fulfilled her dream.

Find Terri's book on Amazon