The Doll Bride

The old woman smirked as she caressed her daughter-in-law’s soft, pale cheek with one of her wrinkled hands. The 20-year old woman lowered her eyes and said nothing, which made the hag’s sneer. 1

“Good girl.” she whispered, her voice coarse and deceiving. “So perfect. Good girl.”2

She stood up, flattening a barely visible fold of her gray kimono with one hand as she knelt again in front of a low table. The young woman behind her remained still on the soft tatami carpets, waiting with her arms placed in her lap. She was a true Japanese beauty, perfect, as her mother-in-law had described her. She was small, like most Japanese women, and although the complicated indigo kimono hid her body, one could easily follow the delicate curves merely by looking at her. Her jet-black hair was also put up into a traditional hairdo and adorned with simple, but elegant jewels to go with her outstanding outfit.3

“Beautiful…” another whisper came from the hag. 4

She wasn’t talking about the girl this time, but about a little porcelain doll she was holding in her left hand as she took a small brush and started to paint two tiny eyebrows above the eyes. On the wall in front of the hag there were shelves full of such small, flawless dolls she had created over the years ever since childhood. The old woman was a doll-maker. 5

---6

He sat at the table, cold as always, waiting for dinner. His mother sat calmly at the other end of the table, meditating with her eyes closed. 7

“Where is my woman?” he asked harshly, making his mother start. 8

“I’m sure she’s-”9

The door opened and the young woman entered the dinning room carrying a tray of food she had made for her husband with her own hands. The hag frowned and rose, stopping the young wife before she could set the tray in front of her husband. 10

“I told you that you mustn’t do anything, child. Making dinner is the servants’ job.” she said in a harsh tone. 11

The old woman clapped her hands and a maid appeared quickly, taking the tray from the young wife. 12

“Throw it away. As for you, child, sit down.” she ordered. 13

As the maid disappeared with the food she had been busying herself with for two hours, the girl sat as her mother-in-law had told her, keeping her head down. It had always been like that, ever since her parents married her to that man. Her life had turned into the perfect nightmare. She was not allowed to cook for her husband, change her clothes alone or comb her hair and not even read a book or write in her diary. A maid always had to do those things for her. She was under the bitter surveillance of the hag herself and Heaven forbid that she ignored the rules. The young wife knew that tonight, her mother-in-law would punish her for even thinking of using her hands to do something. Her husband was indifferent to how his mother treated his wife, and even if he would have cared, he couldn’t do anything against the hag, because he was under her control. 14

---15

“How many times do I have to tell you the rules?” the old woman hissed, slapping her daughter-in-law over the face. “You are not to do anything, do you hear me? Not a single thing. You’ll destroy those flawless hands of yours if you keep cooking to show your ‘love’! Is that what you want? If you love my son, then you have to stay perfect for him, understand? Only peasants work!”16

The young wife slowly moved on her knees, one hand on her red cheek, the other curled in a fist as she supported herself so as not to fall back down. 17

“You don’t care what I want.” she spat through gritted teeth, glaring at the hag. “And he won’t love me no matter what I do. So why do I even bother?”18

The crone grabbed a handful of her jet-black hair and tugged hard, making her cry out in pain. Their faces were inches apart. 19

“Is that so?” she hummed. 20

The girl sneered and pulled a small knife from her obi, the hag’s horrified face reflecting in it for a moment. However, instead of stabbing her, the young wife used it to cut her hair free from the witch’s grasp and they both fell on the floor. 21

“What have you done?!” the hag shrieked, holding the lifeless tuft of hair in a trembling fist. “You stupid woman!!” 22

She threw it away and went to hit the girl, but she easily dodged the blow and pushed her. The crone staggered backwards and fell over the table, knocking down all the shelves, as well as a burning lamp. 23

The sneer on the young wife’s face widened as she saw the fire extending quickly along the wooden floor to the paper walls of the traditional Japanese house. The old woman screamed in horror as the flames engulfed her and she felt them devouring her skin while the girl moved quickly to get out of the house, knowing that it was too late to save anything. 24

She easily knocked down a paper wall and ran through the house to the exit. Tears were running down her face, destroying her elaborate make-up and making her beautiful face look almost grotesque. As she threw herself over another wall to land on a patch of grass in the garden surrounding the house, she heard her husband scream. He had probably awakened with all the bustle of the servants as they ran for their lives. They knew it was too late. 25

The young wife turned around only when she was at a safe distance form the house, on a small hill from where she could see it clearly. 26

“Are you happy now, mother?!?” she yelled, crying in both happiness and anger. “Anyone else would have been happy to have a walking and talking doll but no, not you! You would have even cut my tongue sooner or later to prevent me from talking!! And my name is Chidori! Not ‘woman’, not ‘child’! CHIDORI!”27

She collapsed on the ground, her small frame shuddering with each sob. The pressure of being perfect had brought her down to her knees, but that same pressure had given her the power to release herself from her puppet strings. 28

“I have the strength and freedom of one thousand birds…” she whispered. “Even in death, this freedom will be mine. So come and get me. Kill me for what I’ve done. Anything is better than living in a nightmare. I am free… free at last!”29