This was written by me many years ago on the day I learned that VC Andrews had died. She had been dead for almost a year when I found out, so I wrote this in my writing journal for my creative writing class.
The characters are all hers, I just borrowed them for the poem. This poem is only meant as a memorial for one of the best writers I have read. The world is a poorer place without her.
The Dollengangers
There were four of them when they started out,
On the train
To the unknown grandparents' house.
Their mother told them, "Be quiet as mice
And someday you will come down from the attic.
Rich."
And so the children stayed quiet, and suffered
The grandmother's cold ways
And whips.
And they made the attic
Into a garden
Where they could play without worry.
But soon they began
To feel
Deceived.
They rarely saw their mother
Anymore.
She was always out with friends.
And the children got
Sicker
And sicker.
And still they were there
Using the attic as a playground
And being whipped and starved by the grandmother.
Finally, they decided to leave
But by then
It was too late.
One of the children
Became too sick
And their mother took him away.
When she came back, she said he was dead.
Gone.
To be with his father in Heaven.
The children soon escaped
By taking their mother's money
And crawling out the attic window.
But they then discovered they could have come down.
The grandfather was dead, and their mother had tried to kill them.
Then there were three
~In memoriam~
Virginia Cleo Andrews,
Died December 19, 1986
Written November 11, 1987
Edited March 19, 2000