It’s 1884 in the town of Tombstone, in Arizona Territory. This Wild West town is a popular place for adventurous Americans to strike it rich. The promise of wealth in the silver mines has made Tombstone home to people from all over the world, including many Chinese-American workers, and occasionally their families.
Ten-year-old Pauline Leung is one of many of Tombstone’s children growing up in a multi-ethnic family. Her Chinese father was determined to find his fortune in the mines. Pauline and her French-Canadian mother do domestic work in the home of a wealthy mine owner.
On a bright January afternoon, Pauline is on her way home from the post office, having gone to pick up the mail for the household. There were no letters to pick up, and she has been ordered to come straight home. But she does have a big imagination, and sometimes forgets to stay focused on a task when her daydreams begin to run wild.
At the post office, Pauline overheard two people talking about a house that was destroyed by a fire a few years, and was now rumored to be haunted. Pauline couldn’t help listening. She loves ghost stories, and how exciting to think of having a ghost encounter of her own! She decides to take the long way home from the post office, and walk by the ruined house.
It isn’t quite as exciting as she had imagined. Only the roof collapsed, but most of the rest of it is still standing. Strangely, though, the house doesn’t seem to have any windows or doors, so Pauline can’t go inside like she had hoped to.
But she spots a pile of brightly-colored things against one of the exterior walls.
She takes a closer look, and finds a very special piece of treasure. It’s a brand-new porcelain doll!
Pauline has never had a real doll before. When she was much younger she had a doll made out of a stocking stuffed with cattail fluff, but it wasn’t nearly as beautiful as the doll she was holding in her hands. This doll has golden curls, blue eyes, and a white nightgown.
Certainly there’s no harm done if she takes the doll with her, right? Nobody lives at that house anyway, and whoever lived there previously clearly didn’t want the doll, or else they would not have left it there. Pauline hopes the doll is at least a little bit haunted, so that she may have the chance to befriend a little ghost. She tucks the doll safely into her dress pocket and hurries back to the house.