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A World Apart

ALLEN JONES

ITMEANT so much to her-that doll. When the others were weak she
was strong because she had something to cling to. She could
endure anything as long as she had her doll. They all were suffering;
some greatly, others less, but there was no doubt of the suffering.

No one knew to whom she belonged or from where she had come;
but by some miracle she was stilI alive. Life was precious, especially
among the children; few still lived. She was very young; too young
to have felt and seen such pain and torture.

The routine went on the same as usual day after day. Some came
and some left, most died. Crushed in spirit, defeated completely, they
just gave up. What was the use of fighting? They were waiting at
every turn to shatter their dreams.

The child went along with the routine, shoved farther back into
a dark damp corner. She existed on practically nothing, clutching
her doll, her link with a dream world. The camp was fast becoming
overcrowded as more and more people fell before the unconquerable
iron hand of the mighty army. Survival from day to day became a
more pressing problem. The weak perished, the strong were perse·
cuted; more came, and still the child lived on.

She seemed to sink farther into her small corner. Little light ever
reached her retreat or the face of her soiled and ragged doll. It was
everything to her. The smile on her face symbolized a happier time
which she was able to reach again through this doll.

Life held one meaning for her, the small doll which brought
her happiness. Slowly she was losing that. Each day she slipped a
little farther away from the unconcerned ones about her. Her only
regret was not being able to take the doll with her-to the supreme
joy she was going to have.

Dying was the climax of all the suffering and pain which touched
her short life. Days passed, and someone noticed a doll lying beside
a. frail still body.

It was handed to a barefooted girl who seemed to have lost every-
thing birth and family had given her. She took the gift gratefully,
and it filled the great emptiness of her life. It meant so much to her.
that doll.

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