“Bessie’s Doll”*

This is a bitter sweet story between two innocent village kids. Unwittingly, the innate empathy they had for the others had helped turn a cruel world around them into a gentler and happier place.

Being neglected by his own parents, Tommy was unkempt and a mischievous boy. By no means, he was the one his neighbors would open their welcoming arms to. This was the very reason why Miss Octavia, one of the villagers, always shot Tommy away whenever she spotted him near her well-tended flower garden.

But for Bessie, a disabled girl next door, Tommy was the world for her. Not only he was her best playmate. Tommy also protected her from being bullied by others. When they first met, Bessie’s sweet greeting enthralled Tommy. Being a village’s poor urchin, there was never anyone else had ever welcomed Tommy like what Bessie had to him. From then on, Tommy became Bessie’s best friend.

One day, after Tommy took Bessie to see a doll in a blue silk outfit in the window of a village store, Bessie made Tommy promise that he would take her to visit the doll in the store window every day. Even though neither of these kids could ever afford to buy the doll with golden locks, Bessie decided to call the doll with “uncanny brown eyes”* Roselle Geraldine. And it broke the feeble little girl’s heart and body when she learned Roselle was sold.

Since Tommy was the one who showed Bessie the doll in that store window, he felt miserably too. While wondering about the village trying to see how he could mend Bessie’s broken heart over the loss of Roselle, he overheard that Miss Octavia was away and the unexpected frost overnight would definitely ruin the dahlias plants she had in the garden. Notwithstanding the many unpleasant face-offs he had had with the owner of these prized plants, for his love of flowers, Tommy decided to cover Miss Octavia’s plants with old newspapers.

When his neighbor returned and discovered what Tommy had done to save her plants, Miss Octavia had a change of heart on this unkempt kid living in the poorer side of the town. She asked him if there was anything she could do for him. Yes, Tommy replied. He asked for a doll so he could give it to Bessie.

To reward Tommy’s unselfishness, his providence must have worked overtime. Miss Octavia also happened to be the one who bought that coveted doll from that village store. - Ayee

*Against the odds: tales of achievement by L. M. Montgomery, 1993 edition edited by Rea Wilmshurst