Ginny

Dee's candy kept coming up missing. Especially the Hi-Chew fruit chews. She just could not understand where it was going. She would change her hiding spot daily, only to go back later and all the candy would be gone. She did not know who in the house would (or could) be taking her candy. It was getting very upsetting.

She'd tried to ask her Mother who might be taking her candy, but her Mother always seemed to be doing something when the candy came up missing. The first time, Mother was busy baking the family's weekly bread. The second time, Mother said she was taking a bath. On the third time, the candy came up missing, Dee did not even bother to ask Mother, for she knew she would not see who had taken it.

When she asked her Father, she received the same answers as her Mother. Father was not home when most of the candy came up missing, so really he would not have known who took the candy. Father worked as the foreman at the local printing factory, supervising the printing of the graphic t-shirts.

Dee asked her Gran, but that really was useless. Gran had Alzheimer's and sometimes did not know what year she was in at any given time. Whenever Dee would ask Gran, she would start chattering away about Ginny and how she used to take Ginny everywhere with her. Ginny had been Gran's own doll when she was a little girl. Now Ginny sat in Dee's room, atop the shelf. Mother had told Dee that Ginny was too old of a doll for her to play with.

Dee then assumed her older brother, Phil, was stealing her candy. She had gone so far as to make several accusations against her only sibling, only to find out he had been at football practice or out with his friends. So she did not accuse her brother again. She really did not think he would steal her candy, anyways. He had never done so before.

Dee was at her wit's end. She was so tired of her candy turning up missing. She just did not know what to do. She had asked the whole household if they had seen her Hi-Chew candy, but no one had. She even asked her babysitter who was only there an hour a day and sometimes four on the weekends when her parents went out.

Then one morning, Dee saw a clipping on her Frosted Flakes box. It was a coupon for a free spy camera. All she had to do was save up three box tops, fill out the form, and mail it in along with $3.95 shipping and handling. So Dee got her Mother's permission and sent the clipping to the cereal company.

She only had to wait three weeks for the camera to come in. It was a lot smaller than she expected, but it actually worked when she set it up. So she put the camera up in her room. Aimed at her dresser. Where it was sure to pick up the fresh bag of candy she had just placed there. Then she waited.

She did not have long to wait. That evening, after dinner, when Dee went upstairs to do the rest of her homework, her Hi-Chews were gone. Completely, bag and all, gone. She stood and stared at the empty spot where the bag had sat. No trash anywhere, just like all the times before.

So she grabbed the camera and hooked it up to her laptop to watch. What she saw really surprised her. Dee could not believe her eyes. There was just no way. No way at all.

Ginny, her Gran's childhood doll, climbed off her stand, down the shelving as if it was a ladder. The doll walked with a purpose straight to her desk. It picked up the candy and sat down. That doll at the whole package of candy. Just ate it right up. Opened the packaging and all.

Suddenly, Dee could hear her Gran, all the way down the hall in her own room, cackling and babbling nonsense: When the tea parties stop, that's when the magic happens. She does not like to be forgotten. She will take what you love and make it part of her own.