• Promises. They fade in time because so often its just too easy to forget them. Thats why I began to write everything down so I wouldn't forget but the pages blur and the ink smudges so some things are left at the mercy of time. It was a long time ago that I played with little Ruache but she still remains in my memory. Until very recently I had forgotten everything about her and just her in that forgotten room beneath the house where no one went. I was a fool to forget, for that day when we moved far away I accidently left her there. Sitting beneath a white sheet, longing for the day I would come back and play with her again. Now everyone knows the stories, once a doll has been loved for one hundred years it can come to life. Even though Ruache had that power she choose to sit and wait. She would rather gather cobwebs than be treated like a monster by anyone who dared take over my house.

    That little room was a small sanctuary for me back then, a place not even my parents knew of. I locked it before I left and put a sign upon the door reading 'Remember'. I didn't want to put anything else up incase someone did find that room and decided to venture inside. Ruache was never any good with adults, they all said she was useless because her legs didn't work. The other children didn't favour her either. Always teasing her, saying how old she was and how much nicer all the new dolls looked. I do not know were Ruache came from, I found her there when we first moved into that house. I suppose she was Grandma Kimiko's. Grandma was always collecting odd things and storing them were others could not see. The only reason I knew of the tunnels beneath the house was because of her leaving me a note.

    That small note was written in Japanese. Even though my whole family is English my Grandmother and her mother loved the country Japan. They learnt the language and the customs as if it were destiny. As I would find out I had the same love of Japan but at that time I took the note to my young Japanese friend Hinata. Who decifered it as this:
    Dear child,
    What time I have left on this Earth is numbered but the secrets in this house come by the thousands. I leave non of it to your parents but solely to you. Keep my secrets safe and never let them wake you from this dream for your parents are so rooted into reality that they are limited by it. Beneath this house are tunnels leading to my every discovery and my every secret. My dieing wish is that you keep my house and my memory alive.
    Love
    Grandma Kimiko x

    I never understood what she meant until later on in my life but I assure you my life was devoted to her dieing wish. Back to Ruache and her time in solitude, it only leads us further into the past of my Grandmothers house. Whether to call the house evil or not sometimes escapes me but all I can say of it is that it taught me all I know today. Memories are like pictures, their so fragile and precious but they fade so easily after so many years. I've promised myself now that I will never forget again about anything that happened at that house. Everything I've seen and done will be here and hopefully one day someone will come and find this and know I wasn't just a crazy old woman. It all began a very long time ago...