Miles must've misjudged how long it would take to ship from Germany—because the basket on Maya's doorstep contains a note calling it a Valentine's gift. The contents are mostly practical, trinkets from market-stalls and artisan teas he'd thought she'd like. But in the middle is a toy soldier, wooden and chipped, painted with both a scowl and an ornate Prussian uniform. "From my youth," the note explains. "I found it in my attic. He is terribly grumpy. Perhaps he'll remind you of his last owner."
What lay in the box was what most would think to give a woman like Maya Fey. At the top layer was a couple bags of teas, both their color and their smell an assault on her senses. Beneath it was an odd pile of mismatched objects, some that moved and others that made noise, and all of it as strange as the girl who had received them.
She pulled each of them out with the mounting excitement of a child opening presents for Christmas.
Then at the very bottom of the stack of oddities was yet another, and it was odd in just how pedestrian a gift it was. An old doll, dressed in fancy and expensive looking clothing, though judging from it’s expression, it didn’t seem to appreciate them very much. The smile on her face slowly dropped.
Gingerly she pulled it out and read the note that accompanied it. The smile returned, though much softer and much fonder. She stood up and quickly fetched a pen, a tiny square of paper along with a doll that she had stored in the attic from her own childhood days. Unlike Miles’ it wasn’t quite as pristine, the effects of age and wear had certainly taken it’s toll on it’s once pale and rosy cheeks and the spirit medium uniform it wore to match it’s owner, but she still smiled as brightly as the day Mia had given it to her.
Maya pressed the piece of paper over the little soldier’s frown and drew a smile over it, then set it next to Mayas own doll and snapped a photo of them on her phone.
“He reminds me exactly of you!” she texted him along with the picture. “He can be grumpy when you first see him but when he’s with his spirit medium friend he turns into a big softie!”
