Coraline is (C) Focus Features and all the other hoo-haw.
Author's Note:
Okay, here it is. Today I got my Coraline doll and key, and I just randomly decided to write a fan fiction about it. Almost nothing here is relating to anything. I just want to say that I have never said "Caroline" when I meant "Coraline." =) That's pretty much it. I'll let you guys chew on this for a while and go clean up some kitten barf and then watch Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End. REVIEW and tell me if I should continue it, or just save it for my fantasies. =) Reviewers get cookies.
"IT'S HERE!" a little girl shouted, dashing down a long hallway. An older girl followed more slowly. The second the little girl reached the front door of the house, she tugged on the handle, but the door would not budge. She tried again, but only managed to fall down. The older one chuckled and unlocked the door. Still eager, the little girl opened the screen door with success and snatched up a pair of brown postal boxes from the porch.
"Slow down there, Carli," the older girl stopped the glee-filled kid from running off by placing a hand on her head.
"I told you to stop calling me that. It's Caroline. Not Carli, Caroline! Would you like it if I started calling you E instead of Eve? I didn't think so."
"Well that's just fine and dandy, sis, but I believe one of those boxes is mine," Eve smiled at Caroline's indignation.
"Fine, fine. We'll open them together," Caroline trudged exaggeratedly over to the floor of the near-by living room and plopped down, staring at each box.
"Here you go," she said as Eve sat down with her and handed tossed the box in her sisters general direction. Eve dived to catch the precious cargo.
"On the count of three? One, two…" Eve never got to three, for Caroline had already torn her box open and was grappling with the packing peanuts. Eve got a shiny pair of blue scissors and began to slowly open the box. Inside was a bundle of newspaper, wrapping paper and gray paper, all rolled into a fat burrito. She delicately unwrapped it, hoping for a ceramic animal.
"I think this one's yours," her sister said shakily, holding out a little doll with button eyes.
"Nope, isn't that what you asked grandma for?"
"Well, it's got the buttons…" Caroline looked back down at the floppy doll she held in her hands.
"It looks a lot like you, actually. Huh," Eve ran her fingers over the doll's brown yarn hair.
"But I asked her for a Coraline doll, not a Caroline doll! I sent her the link…" out of the corner of her blue-gray eyes, Caroline noticed a little slip of paper left over in the box. It was a letter.
"Oh, look, a note," she stared to read it aloud.
"Dear Eve,
I hope you like your present. It's not exactly what you asked for, but it comes close. You know that voodoo shop down by my house run by that old hag woman? Well, I went by there on my daily walk, and she waved me inside and showed me this doll. She said "Doesn't it look a lot like your granddaughter, Caroline? I thought she might like it for a Christmas present, you know? The kids are into these sorts of things." So I said to her, "That actually looks kind of like what I was going to get her anyways." So I bought it, wrapped it, and sent it. I hope you're not mad.
Love,
Grandma"
"Huh. Well, I guess this will do. And look! It has the key!" Caroline exclaimed, digging around in the wrapping paper.
"Well aright then," Eve smiled at the porcelain jackalope she held. Caroline got some black thread from the crafts bin and tied the key around her neck.
"That key's pretty cool, can I see it?" Eve asked, already holding the key. It was like any other, except the handle was a black button, like the eyes on the doll.
"What do we do now?" Caroline asked, snatching the key back and dropping it down her shirt.
"Well, first of all, clean up this mess. Then we can do whatever you want. It's your turn today," Eve began to stuff the wrappings into her box and her little sister did the same. Once they had dropped the remnants in the recycle bin, Caroline hugged her doll and thought about what she wanted to do.
"We could watch Coraline?" she suggested.
"Again?" Eve groaned. "You just watched it yesterday."
"And you still haven't seen the whole thing!" she argued, and then realized what else she wanted to do.
"Help me find a door," she instructed. Eve pointed to the front door.
"There. Are we done?"
"No, I mean a little door, in the wallpaper. You start in here, and I'll start in the bed room. Search every wall. GO!" and the nine-year-old tore off to the back of the house, new doll waving behind her. Eve could have sworn she saw it turn its head to look at her.