Jacqueline Hopper Official Author Website

Installment #3 The Adventures of Ysonde and Her Doll (Arc)

"Grandmother," Ysonde called from the doorway, "May I take Arc outside?"
"Of course," Grandmother said, without glancing up from her knitting. "As long as you both are bundled up. This might be spring, but the air is nippy."
"We're both wearing our winter coats." Ysonde smiled down at Arc, held loosely in the crook of her elbow as she adjusted the lacy bonnet on the doll's blonde curls. "And hats as well."
"Don't be away too long," Grandmother said. "It will be dark in another hour. If you don't come back inside by then I will have to send Bernard out to find you. And you know what your cousin thinks when I interrupt him while he's watching his favourite hockey team on the television."
Ysonde averted her gaze to keep from making a face. She adored Cousin Bernie, but sometimes he had the patience of a gnat. Not that he'd hurt her. Oh no, he'd never so much as pull her hair. But he'd certainly burn her ears with a lecture about her being inconsiderate and how she knew that hockey aired only a few nights a month every season.
What he failed to mention was that he could read about the game and check the scores in the following day's newspaper.
"Okay," she said, then let the screen door slam shut behind her. The late afternoon air was fresh and crisp."We must always listen to Grandmother," Ysonde told Arc, strolling away from the old farm house. "She's very wise and loves me very much."
For the next ten minutes, Ysonde confided in the doll just how well her family took care of her. "It wasn't always like this," she said. "My mother, she didn't care if my hair was washed, or if I had enough to eat." She wrinkled her nose. "Cousin Bernie says I even had lice."
That topic of conversation quickly ended. The very idea of dirt gave her shivers, but vermin ...  Now that was a different story all together.
Until they stood on the edge of the deep, dark woods, Ysonde hadn't realized they'd made their way to that particular spot. She was about to turn back when she noticed, not twenty feet among the trees, what looked like a small, crumbling building.
"I wonder what that is," Ysonde said. "Shall we go see?" The doll's silence was all the encouragement she needed, and she stepped into the snow-encrusted shadows.
"Ysie!"
She turned at her cousin's voice, calling to her from the porch. He waved her to come back to the house. Was it time to go in already?
Disappointed she couldn't find out for herself exactly what the building was, she promised her doll, "I'll ask about it. Cousin Bernie knows almost as much as Grandfather does about everything on this property. One day, all this will be his." She brought the doll closer and whispered, "But the good china and silver, that is mine."

These blogged adventures are not found in any of Ysonde's stories. Yet. However, you can read about her in Orchids for Roses as well as the soon-to-be-released book, Bouquets and Motorbikes which is the prequel to her full-length novel, Laughter for Tears.