It was a nice enough house, old and sturdy, out on the outskirts of town. The steep gabled roof held up under the snow well enough, and the faded yellow and pink window sills gave the blue face a rustic charm. But Bead didn't like it one bit. The doll hated how it could hear the trains passing from across the creek, it hated how the floorboards and stairs creaked at all times of day and night, and most of all it hated being so far from the city and the sea where all its doll friends lived. Sure, its girlthingfriend Feather was here with it, and both of the Misses, and the one-eyed dog familiar the two witches shared, but it wasn't the same.
Even worse, they’d moved right before the holidays, so that Miss Elladine could work at the dam after its last witch retired. Miss Tammy had reminded it that the city and its friends were just a short train ride away, but it just wasn’t the same. The little country town was quaint, but nothing compared to the glitz and glamour of the city at Yuletide, with all the lights in the streets and the people and witches and dolls dressed up so bright.
So it was that Bead lay curled up awake late at night, unable to sleep for the creaking and the groaning and the shrill winter wind outside. And then, it heard it: the soft sound of crying.
It thought for a moment on the sound, sure that its ears deceived it. They were fake ears, after all. But no, she heard the sobs again, faint under the gale.
Taking care not to rouse Feather, Bead slipped out of the bed the two dolls shared and crept slowly from the bedroom.
In the hall, the crying was just a bit easier to hear, but it stumped the doll where it was coming from. It almost sounded like it came from up above, but the bedrooms were on the second floor. Only after a moment did Bead remember the narrow stairs up to the attic, hidden behind a little door.
Up the whining attic stairs the doll crept, trying to make as little noise as it could. With each step, the sobs grew clearer, though never more than a soft whisper. Finally, it peaked its head up into the cold black void of the attic. At first, it couldn't see a thing, but slowly it could make out a shape in the gloam. Taking another step towards it, the doll’s hand groped out blindly out for a lightswitch.
A dim amber glow filled the attic and for just a second the doll could see the form of a young girl, oddly washed out like an overexposed photo. Then the girl turned and both screamed at once.
The next thing Bead knew, it was stumbling down the steps and through the little door and directly into a cranky-looking Miss Tammy.
“Bead, what the hell are you doing at this hour?”
The doll blubbered incomprehensibly and frantically pointed to the attic. Finally, Miss Tammy shushed it and held it until it was Still again. Then, she asked again.
“This one is sorry, Miss Tammy. It heard crying from the attic and when it went to look there was a girl up there.”
“A girl?” Miss Tammy said, frowning. “Well, we had best go check on it.”
But when they got to the attic, it was empty.
“See, Bead, there's nothing here. But if you hear it again, come and get me, alright.”
“Yes, Miss. Of course, Miss.”
“Now, get back to Feather, okay?”
The next morning, Miss Elladine went off to work and Miss Tammy sat down to work on her thesis, and the two dolls busied themselves with cleaning and unpacking, and in between washing the walls with pine-scented soap and getting all of The books up on the bookshelves it quite forgot about the night before. But after dinner, after giving Feather a goodnight kiss, it lay awake again and heard the distant sobs.
Once more, it slipped from bed, but this time it got Miss Tammy, who was rather annoyed at having to get out of her own warm bed and her own wife’s embrace. But when she waited to listen, she heard the crying too. So, the two climbed the stairs together and switched the light on.
Just like the night before, the little girl looked up and screamed, but this time Bead expected her and didn't run. Instead, doll and witch watched as the girl ran straight at the attic’s only window and passed right through it. And worse, they clearly saw the girl’s black fingers and pale, brittle skin and sunken eyes. And worst yet, they clearly saw the window behind her through her very body.
“A ghost, a ghost!” Bead screamed in fear, and below it heard the sound of running feet. As Miss Tammy led it back out from the attic, Feather ambushed it just through the door, wrapping it in a hug so tight it felt sure that its porcelain would crack.
“What is the matter, dear?” Miss Elladine said as she stepped into the hall, looking just as tired as her wife.
“We have a ghost, El,” Miss Tammy replied.”
“Well, we shall have to do something about that,” Miss Elladine said.
The next morning, Miss Elladine didn't have work, because it was the Eve of Yule. So instead, she took Bead out shopping for presents for Feather and Miss Tammy. But first, they stopped at the town’s only church. The sacred ground made Bead feel faintly ill, and Miss Elladine seemed similarly unwell, but she spoke with the pastor for almost an hour. He was an older man with kind eyes, who didn't object like some preachers might to the witch asking about the old house or the doll standing quietly behind her.
Eventually, the priest led Miss Elladine into a room full of cabinets and books, where they looked in an old book and spoke of a girl lost in a snowstorm after running away from home many years before.
The doll didn’t think much of it, but it was confused when Miss Elladine bought additional toys appropriate for a child. Still, it was nice to visit the little town’s Yule Market and see its lights and drink hot cocoa from across the sea with the little marshmallows floating in it.
That night, Bead and Feather and Miss Elladine and Miss Tammy all worked together to decorate the tree and make a big dinner and ready cinnamon rolls to cook in the morning. Miss Elladine made sure to place the Wayfarer’s Candle in the window, and then they sat down to eat a Yule feast. Sausages, potatoes with cheese, roast beef and horseradish mustard, flatbreads, honeyed carrots, and so many other tasty goodies. As magical beings, they could eat so much more than people could. Even so, Miss Tammy stored away enough food for tomorrow and then some.
Miss Elladine put on the radio as the dolls cleaned up, and Miss Tammy started a fire with a spell, and the two witches settled down on the couch to watch the flames. With the last of the plates in the dishwasher and the skillet set to dry on the drying rack, the two dolls finished their chores and brough mugs of peppermint tea for the witches and themselves, and they all sat together and basked in the joy of being together. And for just a bit, Bead forgot about hating the house so much.
But as the hour grew late, Bead thought it heard the sobs again from up above. Nervously, it turns to the witches and says, “This one hears it again, Misses, the sobbing…”
Miss Elladine smiled and Miss Tammy frowned and stood up and said, “Let’s go look, then. Feather, stay here with El.”
So the doll and its witch crept through the tiny door and up the narrow stairs again. It was so cold up there, that Miss Tammy’s breath fogged even indoors, far too cold to be natural. The sobbing sound was stronger. In the darkness, something moved.
Miss Tammy’s hand found the switch and the amber light flooded the attic, revealing once more the translucent girl, her skirts trailing off into formless shade where feet should be. With a terrible scream, she fled through the window once more. This time, Miss Tammy was after her. The witch opened the window in a snap and incanted a short phrase heavy with Magick. “Bead, jump.”
A doll is made to obey. Bead didn’t even think before launching itself from the open window, and only as it drifted down did it realize how light its body felt. It hit the snow with a soft thump, followed a few seconds later by Miss Tammy. The witch wove a flame-spell of warmth about her body, and said, “Bead, do you hear her?”
The doll closed its eyes, straining, but caught a distant cry on the wind.
Snow fell as the doll and the witch pursued the ghost into the darkness. In this biting wind, the forms of familiar places seemed strange and unrecognizable and soon Bead was totally lost. It could only hope that its Miss knew how to get home.
And then it lost the trail. In between two hillocks, the doll stumbled, and when its witch righted it the doll could no longer hear the little ghost.
“Miss, it can’t… It lost…”
But the witch wrapped it in a hug suffused with warmth and said, “You tried your best, my doll…”
They were about to go back when another sound caught them. From over the countryside, the strains of a song. Way, way out, back in the town, one building alone shown with light and streamed with visitors. The priest was beginning the Midnight Mass.
Though she followed a different faith, Miss Tammy stopped to listen, a soft strange smile on her face, a wistfulness. And Bead listened too, to the happy sound of singing from over the snows.
And then the doll spotted it, a light in the darkness, radiant and golden albeit small, battling against the darkness and snow.
Miss Tammy peered at it, frowned… then blinked in disbelief. “That is angel-light. But it is not over the God-botherers’ little shrine. It’s out over the moor.”
“Should we…” The doll began, feeling a pull within its core.
“Go, my doll. Lead the way.”
So Bead led Miss Tammy further and further into the night, over hills and through copse of trees. It nearly stumbled into a creek at one point, but the witch caught it and helped it find a footbridge. And the angel held steady, and the song continued.
They came to a lonely tree, and there in the snow lay the ghost of the girl, cold and still, her fingers turned black from frostbite. But Bead knew Stillness. It didn’t feel the cold, but laid down beside the ghost and asked, “Why did you run?”
“They never wanted me. Of all the children, I was always forgotten and ignored.”
“This one was forgotten once,” the doll admitted. “Nobody wanted it. But then it met the most wonderful witches.”
The doll giggled. “Sometimes, but this one is sure they will be kind to you, like they are to it. Would you like to see?”
For a moment, the girl said nothing, and Bead felt afraid that she would refuse, would lash out at it for even asking. But under the golden light of the halo-star above, the ghost gave a hesitant nod. “I would.”
So the doll and the witch and the little ghost retraced their steps over the hills and through the trees and over the footbridge and between the hillocks and across the fields full of falling snow, and the angel guided them until Bead could spot the Wayfarer’s Candle in the window. And at that very moment, the songs of the churchgoers came to an end, and the angel vanished.
“What does the candle mean?” the ghost asked.
Miss Tammy smiled at it. “It is a sign to those who travel on this night, that they could find food and shelter somewhere warm.”
The ghost smiled, and the witch continued, “Now, I have a question for you, child. What are you called?”
“Well, Leslie, I would like to welcome you to my home.”
They reached the door, and Feather opened it for them with a relieved smile on its face. Wordlessly, it sprung upon Bead and kissed the surprised doll with ferocity.
“This one was so worried for that one, it would have been sick if Miss Elladine hadn’t been here.”
“This one missed that one too.”
As the dolls reunited, Miss Tammy coaxed Leslie into the warm house. Inside, Miss Elladine had already set out the presents under the tree and was in the kitchen. Bead noticed that she was getting out some of the leftovers.
“Welcome home, dear. And you, little one, have a seat. We have some wonderful food for you.”
A look of disbelief crossed the ghost’s face, but it stumbled over to the table, where the witch set a plate heaping with goodies before it.
“Now eat up. I magic’d it for you.”
And sure enough, the ghost could eat the food, which it did in a wide-eyed rush. As it did, Miss Tammy and Bead slipped upstairs to change into warm pajamas. Then, the five gathered together for presents.
Bead loved everything that the others got for it. A puzzle from Miss Tammy, novels it wanted from Feather, and a new camera from Miss Elladine as the showstopper gift. And it knew Miss Elladine loved the atlas it bought for her, and Miss Tammy the bundles of incense and the earrings, and Feather the lovely bracelets.
But happiest of all was Leslie, as she opened the toys Miss Elladine picked out for her.
“Thank you all. I don’t deserve,”
“Deserving has nothing to do with it,” Miss Elladine said. “We’re happy to give.”
And the ghost cried again, but this time in joy, and Bead felt joy itself that it helped save this girl.
