Mother May I
by Colleen M. Criswell

Miranda loved to play with the dolls her mother made for her.  Even when the other young girls,  entering their teens, stopped playing with dolls, Miranda continued to brush their hair and make little dresses to put on her dolls.

"Mother, " Miranda would ask, "may I take my dolls out to the porch? "

"No, my dear, you may not. " Miranda's mother would respond, "Your dolls are much to fragile and special to be taken outside. "

As time went on, Miranda continued to play with her dolls.  She loved her dolls her mother gave her.   Miranda would dress up her dolls like the girls at school she watched.  She would create the dresses they wore to dances and play out the lives they lived.

"Mother, " Miranda asked, "may I go to the dance? "

"No, my dear, you may not. " Miranda's mother would reply, "You are much to fragile and special to go to a dance. "

Miranda would sit by her window and play with her dolls, watching the world go by.

"Mother, " Miranda asked one day, "may I have a friend? "

"You have your dolls and me, " her mother replied, "that is enough for a girl such as you.  Make a new doll, my dear, and that will be a special friend for you. "

"But Mother, I must leave the house to find the items to make my doll, " Miranda explained, "Mother may I go out to find my supplies? "

"Yes, my dear, you may. "

Miranda placed her favorite porcelain doll on the special shelf and left to find what she needed to make her friend.

She walked down the road, watching and wondering how she would create her doll.  She first needed to select the perfect body.  The shape of her friend should be curvy.  She noticed a young woman sitting on a bench that was just the right shape.

Taking her idea home with her she started to craft the body they way she wanted it.

"What a lovely body for your doll, " Mother replied as she looked down at the work table, "However the legs are all wrong. "

"Mother, " Miranda asked looking down at her work, "may I go look for a better idea for legs? "

"Yes, you may. "

Miranda set aside her tools and went off to find some better legs.  What better legs than those of a dancer?  Miranda went to the theatre to admire the dancers in the local musical.  One actress caught her eye.  She had such lovely movements, fluid and light.  Miranda was mesmerized by those legs and filed them into her memory.  After the performance Miranda ventured back stage, but having never communicated with people of the outside world, she was unable to speak.

Later that evening she returned home and started working on the legs of  her doll.  It took a week to get them the way she had wanted. She was pleased with how they looked,  so graceful with the lush curves of the body she chose.  "How lovely my friend is becoming, " she muttered to herself.

"But the hair is not right, I do not think this lank dull hair that you have here is good enough, " Mother said behind her.

Miranda glanced at the doll and agreed, she needed shiny and bouncy hair, Miranda thought.  

"Mother, " she asked, "may I go to the beauty shop tomorrow and see if I can find some hair that would work? "

"Yes, you may. "

The next morning Miranda went to the parlor and sat among the women, watching and waiting.

"May I help you? " the young woman behind the counter asked.

"Yes, " Miranda said, "you may. "

She allowed the young woman to take her by the hand and lead her to a strange chair.  Miranda sat mesmerized by how deftly the woman worked, snipping and trimming as her own hair bounced around her head.  The golden curls shone like a halo around her head. 

"Such lovely hair, " Miranda said shyly, "so full of life. "

"Thank you, " the girl said and continued to snip and style Miranda's own lackluster locks.

Miranda knew she must have that type of hair for her doll.  It would be perfect and she knew Mother would be pleased.  After her hair was styled to as close as perfection as it could get, she waited so she could get another glimpse before she left for home with her idea.

Miranda fussed and pulled the hair to make it fit properly with the face and body she chose.  It looked almost like an angel, but something was not right.

"The eyes, " Mother said behind her.

"The eyes, " Miranda repeated, "yes, the eyes are

"Mother, " Miranda spoke aloud, "may I go search for the right eyes? "

"Yes you may. "

Miranda strode out of her house, looking for just the right eyes.  She had an idea in her head, blue and large eyes. Something that looks intelligent and sweet, to fit her new friend.  She walked up and down the street looking in the faces of those she passed, searching for the perfect size, shape and shade.  It seemed an almost impossible task, but she knew she must find what it was she was looking for.

Walking past a window she caught a glance, the perfect eyes for her doll.  Just the perfect eyes.  They were so lovely, just the perfect blue, like sapphires. She realized with a start that the owner of those eyes were herself.  Rushing back home she did not notice the buzz of people surrounding her old Victorian home.  Pushing her way through the throng of bystanders she ignored the police officer who yelled at her to stop, and she rushed into the house.

She ran to her work room, ignoring the uniformed officers who were riffling through Mother's things.  She locked the door behind her and glanced in the mirror at the eyes she chose.

"Mother, " she called, "may I use my own eyes? "

"Yes you may. "

She took a long wooden craft stick and gently pulled her eye out of the socket with a loud pop.  She pulled the eye out of the socket and placed it in the space on her doll.  When she heard the door slam open she glanced up with her one good eye in horror as her beautiful doll Mother had made slipped off the shelf, "MOTHER! " she screeched as the doll fell to the floor, shattering and the black ashes that filled her clouded the room.

Miranda fell to the floor.

In the paper the next morning, it stated that Miranda Witherspoon, age 68, was taken in today for psychiatric evaluation.  The officers on the scene were investigating reports of a strange odor coming from the house.  The bodies of three missing women in the community were found  on the premises, mutilated almost beyond recognition. "It was a ghastly scene, like she was creating some sort of sewn together monster, like a mad scientist, " Officer O'Grady, said in a press conference last evening.  When asked if there was a reason behind the woman's actions, the officer in charge stated she simply said her mother had said for her to do so.  Miranda Witherspoon's mother, Agnes Witherspoon, a doll maker by trade, passed away over 30 years ago.  It is reported that at that time, Miranda became a shut in, and was often seen watching the street by her picture window, brushing the hair of the doll in which she had her mother's ashes contained.