The Belsire Little Doll

Meeting the Neighbours

Cornelius awakens. He looks around expecting bright colours. But it's just his normal room, moving boxes, cracks in the ceiling nothing's changed. He notices the button-eyed doll on the chair where he left it, where the other father was sitting.

He picks it up, absentmindedly goes to scratch his wrist. He stops, noticing that the rash on his wrist is gone. "It's gone, my poison oak, it's gone!" He rush to the living room, he goes to the little door, still ajar. He peeks behinds and finds the wall of solid bricks. "Huh?" He look at his wrist and saw a purple ribbon bracelet, his heart beats fast in his chest. 'She's is real.' He thought.

The kettle blows from the kitchen, Breakfast. Marc and Charlie finish their "Go Lean Breakfast Twigs." and mugs of instant coffee. Preoccupied with their work, they half-listen as Cornelius recounts his dream, his breakfast untouched. Fog lies outside the windows. "It was incredibly real, dad! Only you weren't really you, you were my other father." He said.

"Buttons for eyes, huh? Cornelius, you only dreamed you ate all that chicken. Take your multi-vitamin, at least." Disapproving at Cornelius dream, his mom Charlie walks in the kitchen with papers hold by her right arm. "You were in the dream too, mom. You had wild-looking pajamas and orange monkey slippers."

Charlie laugh what her son said.and pretend offended. "Orange? My monkey slippers are blue." Whispers over her shoulder to son and tell him about writer's rash. Marc clears his throat, interrupting glare at his wife. "If the real Charlie Jones wants her pages edited, she'd batter wrap them up ASAP." She leave out the door. Marc shut the refrigerator door. "Cornelius, why don't you go visit downstairs? I bet those "actresses" would love to hear your dream." Cornelius play the spoon. "Miss Spink and Forcible? But you said they're dingbats." His dad nods and walk away.

Cornelius wearing his yellow rain poncho with garden shears in his hand, opens the front door. Stepping out onto the porch, he notices a big bundle of mail, he picks it up and starts leafing through the envelopes. "Bobinsky...Bobinsky...Bobinsky..." Smells something bad, sniffs the envelopes. "Ohh, Poo-eeeee!" He goes down front steps and finds a sign that reads "Bobinsky there" with an arrow that points up long, winding outside stairs and he goes up.

At the top, he knocks on the door, a little anxious. "H-hello?... I think our mail got mixed up. Should I leave it outside or..." The door swings open, curious, Cornelius catches the other  packages and peeks inside. It's dark and cramped with something boiling on the stove and a chicken.

"See-kret..." he whips around to find Mr. Bobinsky upside down, reaching right at his face! He ducks and he reaches past him to his actual target, his door knob and pulls it shut.

"Famous jumping mouse circus not ready, little boy!" He scowled eat some radish or something? Cornelius confused what he said. "Circus?... Oh, Uh, I brought this for you." Cornelius hold his mail. Bobinsky takes it, smelling the stinky envelopes deeply.

He sniffs. "Mmmm...Noviseer." Cornelius confused. "New cheese samples." He swings down like a spider monkey and stands besides him on the balcony. Cornelius backs away. "Very clever, using this mix up to sneak my house and peek at meeshkas." He said. "Meeshkas?" Cornelius said in confused.

"The Mice." He yelled. "Oh, sorry. I'm Cornelius Jones." He said. He Bows. "And I am the amazing Bobinsky! But you can call me mr. B, because amazing I already know that I am." He smells his mail again, then seems to fall off the side of the third story porch! Cornelius rushes over, looks down. He cartwheel in from the porch railing behind him.