Toni loves “ghost shows”– paranormal investigations on tv and in person. Byron, a magician and skeptic, finds all of this just a little silly and avoids participating. Byron, knowing Toni’s subject enthusiasm, indulges her occasionally against his nature. Byron bought tickets this year to a documentary screening and talkback featuring the paranormal activites at a Nebraska farm house.
Entering the independent theater/concert venue/very small convention center, we were immediately surprised to find on site a number of vendors, their folding tables displaying crystals, elaborate ouiji boards, and.. dolls. Lots of dolls from “Ephemera Obscura’s Doll Orphanage.”
For a “per doll” adoption fee, one can adopt some, not all, of the displayed dolls. Some of the dolls are just too haunted for the uninitiated, or the owner is too attached to, or maybe is looking for the right offer to prove the doll is going to a “good home.”
Toni, taken with a few of the haunted dolls, picked out a few, including a 6” tall “Victorian” porcelain doll with one permanently closed eye and a somewhat tattered and “antiqued” dress she intended to gift Kim in North Carolina to hand deliver to its final new (and unknowing) receipient. “Cyclopsia” was tightly packed in a small USPS flat rate box and unceremoniously traveled away from the Fergusons.. never to be seen again. Or so they thought.
And now for the rest of the STORY!
Unable to deliver Cyclopsia to its final destination, Kim contacted Toni to tell her she wanted to send the doll back. Toni replied their was no need to return the doll, just dispose of it. Byron laughed at hearing her tell it. Kim, however, felt “weird” about just destroying the doll and called to be sure. Only this time she got ahold of Byron, not Toni. Toni, already gone for the day, was not at home that fateful day to take that call. Accident, fate.. or the will of Cyclopsia? (Insert spooky coincidental music here)
Kim told Byron that she was uncomfortable trashing the doll and found it spooky. Byron, assured her it was fine, but she persisted. “Not a problem, just send it back to me,” Byron said. “Just don’t tell Toni you sent it back. Tell her you through it away.”
Byron started scheming a prank. Days later, when he received the doll, he took it on a trail walk with himself and returned from the walk, doll in hand. “Your not going to believe what I found out on the trail,” he told Toni.”
Toni went from slow incomprehension to TOTAL FREAK OUT!
“That’s not the doll,” said Toni.
“Yep, it is. I found it on the trail. Looks just like the one you sent to Kim, doesn’t it?” I said.
“It can’t be the same doll. Kim said she threw it away,” replied Toni. Toni quickly dialed Kim up on the phone.
“That is so weird,” said Kim, “I threw that doll away. Send me a picture, I want to see,” she said. Toni complied.
“OMG. That has to be the same doll. How could it have gotten from here,” asked Kim.
Toni called her brother. She repeated the tail. And then, a friend. And then.. Byron, said nothing. Days later, Byron started worrying that if the prank went further he’d be risking death at its reveal and might have to go to his grave without revealing what he’d done. Instead he fessed up. Fortunately for Byron, Toni has a good sense of humor and took the prank in stride. Toni laughed and retold everyone how Byron pranked her. The doll hangs out in a small basket attached to Byron’s home office white board overlooking his work, and appears to be happy with her “new position.” Only occasionally do we find objects moved, or sense a presence in the room.
And now you know the REST of the story.
