Little Sebastian and the Little Doll he Loved, Which the Smiling Crab also Courted
A short story by Lucian Merisca
Translation in English by Liana Andreasen
Copyright © 2012 Lucian Merisca
Published by Blacklight Publishers
Blacklight Publishers© is a division of Blacklight Design®
www.blacklightpublishers.webs.com
Damsel Cosanzeana and the Crab – and everyone’s learned lesson)
[Another kind of story. Childish post-reality. Post-literature for adults. Lettre-verite.]
A usual winter evening, in which I (Daddy) was getting some materials ready for the next day. Mommy was watching something on TV while he, Sebastian, busied himself, as usual, with games of his own making. At the beginning, focused as I was on my own work, I wasn’t quite aware of the stake; little by little I began to pay more attention, to participate in the game, and to write everything down – all that was taking place and all the spoken parts, all that was being done and undone and redone…
Sebastian, three years old, was playing with his little doll – but a very tiny doll; she was very pretty and colourful, somewhat like a Chinese girl. His father had given it to him and had told him her name was Damsel Mihaela-Cosanzeana. Sebastian’s Mom, whose name happened also to be Mihaela, had first objected, but then she became submerged in her daily affairs…
Sebastian had barely spent little happy time alone with the colourful doll, when the Smiling Plastic-Crab showed up, and talk with the child - in Daddy’s voice:
“Please, would you bring the little doll closer? I want to see her better!...”
But as it happened, the Smiling Plastic-Crab played a trick on the child and stole Mihaela-Cosanzeana away, in his big claws. He went into the next room and there he took the doll for wife.
“Come back to me!” little Sebastian shouted in pain.
“No, I’m staying with the big Crab, can’t you see how nice his smile is? He’s hugging me with his big arms, or claws… whatever they are.”
“But I love you!” shouted the child. “The Crab is smiling because he caught you in his claws. He wants to eat you!... Come back to me, don’t follow the Crab in the depth of the seaaaa…”
Meanwhile, I (Daddy) was trying to capture on the computer everything that was being said and done. Like that. And, of course, I was also giving voice to the Smiling Crab and to Mihaela-Cosanzeana, respectively.
***
The Crab (with Daddy’s help) places Mihaela-Cosanzeana somewhere very high up, on the bookshelf. Little Sebastian climbs after her, with much effort, but, unfortunately, he drops her (the doll is very tiny) among the piles of magazines behind the shelf.
He asks for a flashlight and a stick to bring her back to surface, from among the years’ worth of papers and magazines behind the shelves…
“It’s useless,” I tell him, “you won’t be able to get her because she’s at the very bottom, between all those things… We’ll find her next spring, when we’ll clean up. You’ll forget her by then.”
“But I don’t want to wait until spring!... And I don’t want to forget her!” he cries.
***
Then, he happily announces that he found another tiny Doll that he can marry. (In fact, I placed it conveniently behind him to find it, just to prove how easily he’d forget the first one.
Only a little while later, he’s proclaiming his love to the new Doll: “I love you, I care about you, and can we get mawied?”
The Doll (the second one – that is! – since the first is gone for good) says (with Daddy’s voice – but doesn’t seem to matter):
“I can’t stay with you… what will people say? I’m very small (just a little Doll), and you are big, you are human, can’t you see how big you are compared to me? Grown-ups don’t marry children and children don’t marry toys. This is the rule.”
“But I really like you, I like you very much! I want a world without rules!”
“And how are we going to live together if people won’t let us be together?”
“I’ll find a place to hide you,” says Sebastian, thinking a bit, “so my parents won’t find you, and grown-ups won’t come there and we can be happy together! We’ll have our own world, without the rules grown-ups made. I know! I’ll hide you in the coffee maker, so Mom won’t find you...”
He hides her and then he can’t get her back out. He asks me (Daddy) to help him get her out.
“But you can see her through the glass,” I (Daddy) tell him. “You can see through the glass of the coffee machine.”
“Yes, but I want to touch Mihaela-Cosanzeana… because I love her and she loves me!”
“You mean this one is called Mihaela-Cosanzeana too?” I ask. “I thought that was the name of the little Doll you lost behind the books, the one you’ll find next spring, when we clean up the house… This little Doll should have another name!”
“No, this one is Mihaela-Cosanzeana! Give her to me!”
I take her out, not without effort, from the coffee machine where he hid it, and I put her in his hand.
“Do you love me?” Sebastian asks as soon as he has her back. “She says she does,” he provides himself the answer. “She says she loves me if I do all she tells me to do. All she wants. To buy her all she wants.”
“Look at that! Dolls too?” I think out loud. “But how do you know that she loves you? It seems to me she’s not really saying anything. (During this, I type down all the conversation, on the computer).
“It just seems like that, to you… You aren’t in our game. She didn’t say she loves me, but I love her,” Sebastian decides, tears in his eyes.
***
Mommy, who has been watching from her couch this whole mini-play (or literary home-happening), is slightly jealous:
“What kind of games are these?! You’re making the child cry… Sebastian-baby, are you serious? What, I’m not the one you love?”
“Yes, but I love Mihaela-Cosanzeana too…” the answer comes promptly.
“Then sleep with her tonight instead,” says Mommy.
“I’ll sleep with you tonight and I’ll do other things with her in the morning. I’ll play with her all the time you’re at work” (our very rational boy has a solution to everything).
***
I (Daddy) have a new idea:
The Colourful-Crab (the same one that had stolen his first lover) shows up again and offers fifty cents for the little Doll. (In fact, of course, Daddy has placed fifty cents in the claw of the plastic Crab and asks Sebastian if he’s willing to sell Mihaela-Cosanzeana).
“No, because I mawied her,” three-years-old-Sebastian answers.
“But I’m giving you fifty cents, you can buy candies with all that money.”
“All right, you can have her,” he gives in, “but do you promise to bring me another girl to marry?”
“I promise, look, I brought you her heart first” (in fact, a red Christmas ball), and then the girl (a big Frog, also made of plastic, the kind that squeaks). The child takes them, a little uncertain that the trade is a good one, and for the sum of fifty cents, the second Mihaela-Cosanzeana ends up in the claws of the same Crab, who takes her to the other room…
For the third time this evening, Sebastian starts the same courting ritual... He tells the Frog (Croak-Croak) that he loves her, he makes a special pie for her in the toy kitchen. He makes her love juice with heart-shaped bubbles… He makes her an ingenious house out of Legos. (I forgot to mention, those were the things he did for the first two, to win their hearts).
In the real-life Mom is truly jealous now. She is still lounging on the
couch and watches our game more than she watches the TV.
***
After a while, Sebastian asks me, ready to cry, his eyes teary:
“Can I see Mihaela-Cosanzeana now?”
“But you have Croak-Croak,” I answer.
“But I don’t like of you,” he grabs the Frog and throws her away. The Frog squeaks.
“But you sold the other one, don’t you remember? You sold Mihaela-Cosanzeana for fifty cents…”
He is silent.
“Can I at least ask the Crab how she is?” (He is actually crying now, he’s not pretending).
“All right, but you should know that she can only visit you with the Crab coming along. She’s his wife now. Hey, Crab, how is Mihaela-Cosanzeana?” asks Daddy.
“She’s fine, she’s in good health, and we both live at the bottom of the sea, in a beautiful sea shell.”
“Please, Crab, you should both come visit me in my house on land,” the kid begs.
“We can’t, because we don’t have the time.”
“But why, what are you doing?”
“We’re building a house on the bottom of the sea.”
“But don’t you need some wood for that? Can I help?” (And he picks up a bunch of pencils, to give them to him). “How about some rocks?” (He looks for his stone collection in the jar).
“No,” answers the Crab, “we are building it from sand and shells.”
“Oh… I think I had a shell here somewhere,” the child says and goes to the kitchen, to look for his shell.
But he is very sad.
***
While I’m typing this literary post-reality (story?) on the computer, or this post-literature, Sebastian, my son, hides under the table and is crying quietly.
After a while, I bend to look at him and he chased me away.
“What are you doing there, crying? In your little house? Are you crying for Mihaela-Cosanzeana?”
“Yes…”
“Are you sorry that you sold her to the Smiling Crab, for money to buy candy?”
“Yes… I wanted the money to buy candy, but I wanted Mihaela-Cosanzeana to stay with me! That’s what I wanted!”
“But it would that be fair?”
“I wanted her to stay with me…” (He’s really sobbing now)
***
We have to find a solution, to fix the mess we got ourselves into. I look around, in the pile of toys, and I spot the Porcupine.
The Porcupine decides to intervene, moved by the turn of events. He knows what it’s like to have a family, because the Porcupine has porcupinies. Porcupines are family animals. And kind hearted animals. The rubber Porcupine says:
“OK, I’ll tell the Crab on the bottom of the sea to make another trade: he will give you back the Mihaela-Cosanzeana Doll, and you give him the Frog, Croak-Croak. Is that good?”
“Yes!” The child is thrilled. He jumps up and down with happiness.
“So now, Daddy, what do I do now that I delvoced her?” (he doesn’t know the word divorce exactly) “Can I marry her again?”
“Yes.”
Mommy, from her couch, agrees. She likes the way the game is going, but she scolds the child to be more careful in the future. Everyone – Daddy, the little Sebastian, the two Mihaela-Cosanzeana dolls, the Crab, Croak-Croak, even the Porcupine retreat inside themselves and learn. With tears in their eyes. And smiling. But do we really think we can learn anything, ever?
***
(1)
Daddy: “And now, what have you done with… Mihaela-Cosanzeana? Where have you put her?”
Mommy: “She’s here,” she shows her to me. “He brought her here so they can get married.”
“Where do you want to marry with me, Mihaela…Cosanzeana? Where do you want us to marry? Where?”
“Let’s ask our friends, the Crab and the Frog, and maybe we can stay friends with them, with the Crab and the Frog and we can go to an island, the four of us, just like that, to have a wedding”
“All right…” (says the child smiling through his tears). “Crab and Croak-Croak, hey, Crab and Croak-Croak, umm… Are we allowed to tell you something?”
“Yes… We’re not angry with you.”
“Oh… We’re all going to an island, the three of us.”
Daddy: “The four of us.”
“The four of us.”
“Should we camp there?”
“Mihaela-Cosanzeana, do you want us to camp there?”
“You decide, Sebastian! You’re the man.”
“Then let’s go camping there.”
(“These are your dreams!” Mommy adds, only seemed preoccupied with her nails until then)
“Let’s go! Come on, let’s go, Croak-Croak and Crab! We’ll make a camp here, on the bed!”
“You know, I have a kind of a sad feeling for losing you, Sebastian,” says Croak-Croak.
“Umm… Do you like of the Crab?”
“I like the Crab too, but you are more handsome… than the Crab…”
“Well… (Umm…) But I like Mihaela-Cosanzeana!”
This part (1) was not recorded so thoroughly, I’m not very certain how it went, so I ask Sebastian and Mommy to recall what each of us said (2):
(2)
“Now where are we going?” whispers the boy.
“The four of you are going to an island, like friends, to camp. Isn’t that a good idea?”
“All right, let’s all go!” (He takes the Doll, the Frog, the Crab, and brings them to the other room. He forgets to thank the Porcupine for the mediation.)
The Frog: “You know, I’m really sorry I lost you, little man…”
“But you’re with the Crab now.”
“Yes, but you are my Prince Charming.”
“But I don’t like you,” he says.
“Am I ugly?”
He looks away:
“No, not too ugly…”
Again, Sebastian, with loud voice:
“Nobody’s talking anymore. That’s it, nobody’s talking! The story’s over! GAME OVER!”
***
I read the story to my boy, the story I’ve written on the computer all throughout the conversation and the game in the apartment, and we correct it together.
“Is that how it went?”
“Yes, that’s good, that’s how we talked… And use words that children like me understand, not grown-ups like you. But please don’t send the story to nobody, I don’t want them reading it.”
I look at him.
“I want it to be secret, only the two of us will know it.”
“Yes.”
***
Five minutes later, I read again to him the whole story, including the part before, with his request…
“It’s come out very interesting,” Daddy says.
Sebastian-boy:
“Does it teach a little bit, at least?”
“Yes, it teaches something,” Daddy answers.
“You’re intelligent, Mommy’s boy,” says Mommy with enthusiasm. “Come, I’ll give you a kiss.”
“Yay! I’m intelligent! I deserve a prize!”
Seeing that I’m still typing on the computer:
“That’s it, GAME OVER. Don’t write anymore.”
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Blacklight Publishers© is a division of Blacklight Design®