Vicky fell to her knees and began tugging at the wall just below the roof, the wall that covered the attic. It seemed to be nailed tightly in place and would not move. Dandaroo must be keeping them away from the dollhouse; if not, they would have taken her out instantly. “Keep fighting, Dandaroo, keep them away!” she shouted, pulling at the wood, shaking the whole house. The dishes rattled and the living room lamp tipped over, but the wall stayed in place.
Should she run down and get her father’s hammer and pry it off? But that would take too long; they’d have her before she even got back. “Keep fighting, Dandaroo,” she moaned, her voice choked with fear; and then her hand brushed accidentally against a little knob at the side of the house, and the attic wall sprang open.
It had only been just in time. Ganglia, the father,
and the aunt all had their arms wrapped around Dandaroo, standing just to the side of the tiny house. In front of it stood the mother, reaching toward it. Her hand shaking, Vicky pushed the mother away; the doll fell stiffly, helplessly to the floor. Carefully, very carefully, she picked up the dolls’ dollhouse. She was going to have to find a safe place for it, a very safe place, she decided as she lifted it out. But the moment it was out of the dollhouse the little building simply faded away.
For a moment Vicky stared, amazed, at her empty hand. But of course, she realized, it would have to happen that way. Just as she and the doll had become one in the dollhouse, so now, in the real world, the dolls’ dollhouse would become one with her house, and the dolls’ little dolls would merge with her and her parents.
But she still had something very important to do. Carefully she pulled the dolls’ arms away from Dandaroo, leaving them lying carelessly on the dusty floor, and very gently she lifted him out. “A safe place,” she said softly. “I’ll find you a good safe place, and they’ll never hurt you again.”
She left him at last on her pillow, and then went to clean herself before going down to breakfast. It was then she noticed that she was not wearing shoes. She hurried back to the dollhouse, and there they
were, smaller than her little finger, beside the living room couch. She wondered how she would explain their loss to her mother and father. She did not know quite what to expect from her parents or what their attitude would be toward her absence.
To her relief, they did not seem to have noticed that she had been gone at all. And much more important, they had gone back to being their old selves: The influence of the dolls must have vanished along with their dollhouse. It would have seemed that nothing could make Vicky happier than she already was, until her mother, studying her face, said, “You look tired, dear. You’ve been so droopy recently.” She turned to her father, “You know, I think it’s that dollhouse.”
“Yes,” her father agreed, laying down his knife and fork. “She’s been spending altogether too much time with that thing. She should be outdoors more. Would you mind terribly, Vicky, if we got rid of it?”
“Get rid of it?” Vicky said, hardly able to believe what he was saying. “Get rid of it? No, no, I wouldn’t mind at all.”
It was not long after that that she came home from school to find her room cleansed of its presence. Dandaroo had not gone with it; she had hidden him in a cotton-padded box in her drawer.
“Where did you throw the dollhouse away?” she said to her mother.
“Throw it away?” her mother said. “A valuable thing like that? Don’t be ridiculous, darling. We sold it to the Larners. They told me that Judy was longing for a dollhouse. I’m sure it will be a treasure to her.”
“But,” Vicky started to warn her. “But you shouldn’t have—” Then she stopped. Perhaps, if another girl played differently with the dolls, then they would change. There was no way of knowing. But it did seem that it was beyond her control; whatever would happen with the dollhouse now was not for her to decide. But she kept Dandaroo to herself for the rest of her life.