Raven's Story: Third Installment (Silken Flame Barbie reproduction, brunette)

(I apologize for the delay in posting this. I will be continuing my story from the point where I left off. Thank you for your patience.)

I was still walking at this point, my eyes cast down, too lost in my thoughts to really pay attention to where I was going. Considering the size of Treesa's collection, I suppose it was inevitable that I collided with another doll. "I'm so sorry," I apologized out of common courtesy before I'd even looked up to see who I'd collided with. When I did look up I saw that the doll in question had long black hair, an 'Asian' style head mold, and an outfit that had obviously been pieced together. 'A common playline doll,' I thought out of habit.

But the doll's voice was soft and pleasant as she spoke to me. First she pardoned me for my role in the collision. Then she looked at me for a moment and said, "I don't think we've met before. Do you have a name?"

"Raven," I told her.

"My name is Nokia," she said.

Nokia

Despite my long held opinions regarding 'common' playline dolls, even I had to admit that Nokia seemed polite and composed as well as friendly. When Dandelion had initially arrived in her first and my second owner's collection she had been, in my opinion, a little too eager in her attempts to make friends. I understood that she was a young doll, just out of her box, experiencing the larger world for the first time. But still, there was such a thing as decorum. Dandelion's idea of 'personal space' also hadn't been quite the same as mine.

Just then, Nokia and I both heard a male doll's voice calling Nokia's name from across the room. Nokia smiled as she turned her head towards the voice. I followed her gaze and saw a dark haired male doll dressed in casual clothes. He crossed the room to where we stood and spoke to Nokia.

"Sorry," he said with a smile. "I guess I still have trouble keeping up with you sometimes." Nokia laughed. Her laughter wasn't like the tittering giggles I've heard come from some female dolls, the sound of which has always irritated me. Nor was it like the loud, snorting laughter that I've always thought was so unladylike coming from a female doll. Nokia's laugh had a delightful, musical sound to it, a sound that I knew I'd never be able to replicate. They say that practice makes perfect, and I've never been one to laugh often.

The male doll's eyes seemed to sparkle when he heard Nokia laugh. Then Nokia turned back to me. "Raven, I'd like you to meet Jimmy," she said.

Jimmy

The male doll, Jimmy, extended his hand and said, "Nice to meet you, Raven." I shook his hand once, politely, then let go. This must've seemed odd to Jimmy because he looked slightly puzzled afterwards. Perhaps he wasn't used to such a formal handshake. I've known many dolls who are much more vigorous when it comes to shaking hands. Then Jimmy shrugged and turned his attention back to Nokia.

"Did you find the book you wanted?" he asked. Nokia shook her head. "No, I didn't see it in the bookcase," she said. "But it might be on Treesa's bed. It is one of her favorites."

Jimmy smiled and said, "Do you want me to climb up there and check?" Then I saw a hint of mischief in his eyes before he added, "Or maybe we should both climb up. If the book's not there we could borrow one of Treesa's blankets and just sit for a while, maybe catch up with some of the 18 inchers." 

Nokia laughed again. "It's too warm inside to be cuddling under blankets," she said. Then after glancing in my direction she added, "And I was already talking to someone."

Jimmy looked embarrassed, as if he'd forgotten I was there. Then he quickly apologized. "Sorry for butting in," he said. Jimmy then turned back to Nokia and added, "I'll go look for the book. That'll give you and Raven time to talk."

"You could join us," Nokia suggested. She turned and asked me, "Do you mind if Jimmy stays?"

The fact that Nokia was considerate enough to let me make the final decision bolstered my positive opinion of her. I felt it was only right to try and be gracious in return, despite the fact that Jimmy hadn't made quite as good of a first impression as Nokia had. Jimmy wasn't the type of doll I typically would have chosen to be friends with. There seemed to be a 'laid back' aspect to Jimmy's personality that I normally would have associated with carelessness. However it was obvious to me that Jimmy and Nokia were very close, and I didn't want to upset Nokia by slighting her friend. So I answered Nokia's question with a shake of my head.

Jimmy looked bemused and asked, "Is that 'no, I can't stay' or 'no, you don't mind'?"

"I don't mind if you stay," I said. I had to admit I was rather curious about Jimmy's and Nokia's relationship, in spite of myself. I wondered how long they had been together to build up the kind of rapport that they obviously had. I also wondered why they would attempt to befriend me when they knew absolutely nothing about me.

Nokia first asked if I had been there long. I explained that Treesa had had me stored in a box for quite a long time. Both Nokia and Jimmy were very sympathetic to my situation. They talked about their time confined in a storage crate, and how it had led to their close relationship. Despite some sappy moments, Nokia and Jimmy were mostly able to stick to the facts when sharing their story with me. They didn't constantly interrupt each other either. Nokia agreed to let Jimmy tell the story, and when he had finished he asked, "Did I miss anything?" Only then did Nokia add a few details that she felt were important.

It puzzled me at first that Nokia would agree to Jimmy's offer to tell their story, in a way deferring to him when earlier on it had seemed to me that Jimmy was the one deferring to Nokia's wishes. That's when I realized that Jimmy and Nokia shared something truly special, an equal balance of power in their relationship. Neither one felt the need to constantly be in charge, to 'wear the pants' in the relationship as they say. And both of them were willing to compromise in order to make each other happy.

I learned a lot that day. I learned about Jimmy and Nokia's past, but I also learned a valuable lesson about life in general. I learned that if I gave other dolls a chance, regardless of whether they were common or collectable, I might be pleasantly surprised. Since that day I've met many other dolls, from many different backgrounds, and I've done my best to be more inclusive, more accepting. I would like to say that I've been completely reformed, and that my previously snobbish behavior is now all in the past. Unfortunately, one and a half decades of ingrained beliefs are difficult to overcome all at once, and sometimes it's been a struggle not to give in to my old ways of thinking. (The words 'common playline doll' still pass through my mind more frequently than I'd like to admit.) But I've learned a saying that has helped me to hold my tongue when I feel the urge to criticize or 'instruct' others: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. I try to think of this phrase before I speak, and to ask myself how the doll I'm speaking to would react to my words. Would they be grateful for my input, or would they think I was being unkind? I've also apologized to a number of dolls for my previous behavior, including Dandelion, though I doubt a simple apology will ever be enough to change Dandelion's opinion of me.

I'd like to thank you for reading my contribution to Treesa's blogging project. I'd also like to apologize for the combined length of these posts. When I first sat down to write, I didn't realize I would have quite this much to say.

Quote The Raven

Jimmy's Story (Photo Student Ken)

In a collection as big as Treesa's some of us dolls can get...how do I put this nicely...left to our own devices for long stretches of time.  Some of the other dolls take it personally if they're ignored for too long, but I don't anymore.  I know Treesa's not trying to play favorites.  It's just that there's so many of us and she only has so much free time.  Besides, if I hadn't been left to my own devices, I might never have found the love of my life.  Here's how it happened.

I was bought in the early 2000s.  Treesa's collecting style at the time was pretty much 'buy what you like'.  If something caught her eye and was a good price she'd pick it up.  The doll who became my girlfriend was bought around the same time I was.  She didn't have a name then.  Treesa called me Jimmy from the beginning because I was a photographer like Jimmy Olsen, a character from the Superman franchise.  But I've heard from some of the older dolls that when Treesa was a kid only a few of them had permanent names.  Treesa didn't really start trying to come up with original names for everybody until recently.

But anyway, when I first met my girlfriend she was just Picture Pockets Kira.  It wasn't love at first sight, but we didn't hate each other or anything like that.  It's just that it was a big collection even then, and with so many other dolls to meet it was impossible for me to get to know everybody.  We would say hi when we saw each other but we weren't really even friends yet.  That changed not long after Treesa did a photo shoot with me and Florida Midge.

At least, she was Florida Midge at the time.  She's Jean Grayson now.  Treesa named her that as sort of a comic book joke.

But anyway, before the pictures were even printed me and Jean got put away in one of the plastic storage crates that Treesa used for her dolls.  Treesa didn't have enough shelf space to display all of us.  She still doesn't.  Now the problem with being in the crates was that they were stackable.  If you were in the bottom crate you weren't going anywhere.  The best way to stay sane in this situation is to talk to the other dolls you're in storage with.  Depending on how long you're in storage for you might even go into hibernation.  Dolls sometimes do that, especially if they're alone or in an enclosed space or both.  Our minds can't cope with the isolation and the claustrophobia forever, so we kind of shut down for a while until we're found and loved again.

But anyway, Picture Pockets Kira was in the same crate as me, and she was really curious what it'd been like to be part of a photo shoot.  So one day she asked me about it.  It'd been an indoor photo shoot and nothing really exciting had happened, so there really wasn't much to talk about.  At least that's what I thought.  But Picture Pockets Kira listened to every word like it was the most interesting story she'd ever heard.  She didn't interrupt, but she asked a bunch of questions after I'd stopped talking.  After I'd gone over every detail of the photo shoot, Picture Pockets Kira said something about her own interest in photography.

From there the conversation just took off.  Time seemed to fly by, instead of crawling at a snail's pace.  That one shared interest helped us open up to each other, and as the days passed we talked about a lot more than just photography.  We became friends, then best friends, and as more time passed we realized we were in love.

Now the one thing we were really worried about was Treesa.  Like most doll collectors, Treesa's a bit of a matchmaker at heart.  When she was a little kid, she did what little kids do and paired off her dolls however she wanted.  Her current technique is still less than subtle.  She has a bad habit of introducing two dolls to each other, and then leaving them somewhere they'll be forced to spend time together.

But anyway, we weren't sure if Treesa already had plans for one or both of us.  I even wondered if she'd planned to pair me up with Jean after the photo shoot.

Well, eventually the day came when Treesa decided to sort through the crate we were in.  She started unpacking the crate, lining us dolls up on the bed.  Picture Pockets Kira was next to me on the bed and I glanced over at her out of the corner of my eye.  I thought how much easier it would be if we could just tell Treesa how we felt.  But that was impossible.  As far as we knew, Treesa still wasn't in on the secret that dolls were alive.  So we just lay there with our hands touching and waited to see what would happen next.

Now Treesa isn't always the most observant person, so I have no idea how she figured it out.  Maybe she noticed our hands touching or how close we were to each other.  Or maybe she sensed it somehow, woman's intuition or something like that.  Or it could've just been dumb luck.  Treesa had, without realizing it, dressed us in outfits with very similar color schemes.  However it happened, something tipped her off.

She had just finished unpacking the crate and was looking over all the dolls lined up on the bed when her eyes focused on me and my girlfriend.  For a little while Treesa just stared at us with a sort of blank look on her face.  Then she smiled.  "You make a cute couple," she said.  She picked us both up and asked, "bonded over your shared interest in photography?"  That's when I knew things would be ok.  We didn't have to worry about being split up.  Somehow, Treesa understood how we felt.

Treesa turned to Picture Pockets Kira and said, "I guess you'll need a name now".  I couldn't have been happier.  Picture Pockets Kira is a bit of a mouthful, and there are so many Kira dolls in the world.  My Kira was special, and she deserved a special name.

Treesa was partial to 'Nikon' for a while, until she realized she didn't know how to pronounce it.  Is the 'i' supposed to be pronounced as 'ih', 'eye', or 'ee'?  Treesa settled on Nokia, a brand of camera phone, to fit the photography/picture theme.  My guess is Treesa doesn't know the names of any famous photographers.  Nokia herself isn't bothered by her new name, so even though it's a little more special than I had in mind I can live with it.

I think what I love most about Nokia is how she can turn the most boring, everyday things into something special and exciting.  Every day with Nokia is an adventure, even if we decide to spend the day doing nothing at all.  She told me the secret of life once.  At least, she told me what I think is the secret of life.  She said that life is the journey, not the destination.  And I can't think of another doll I'd rather share this journey with than Nokia.

 Jimmy and Nokia

Well, as they say in the movie business, that's a wrap.

Stay Focused, Jimmy