Evelyn [2]

Evelyn gently wove her needle through the fabric of the unfinished dress, her glass eyes focused intently upon the project. The pinpoint of the needle pressed into her fingertips several times; she had never needed to develop the necessary dexterity to prevent such a thing, for obvious reasons explained by her porcelain body. Sitting in her stool, the hazy light of the dawning sun shining through the window, Evelyn worked, slowly but surely finishing what she counted to be the hundredth dress she had made. Thankfully, she had never noticed a lack of inventiveness with her designs: patterns and embroidery which came to her in her dreams and in her thoughtful moments staring out of her lonely bedroom window.

Evelyn cut the thread from her needle by biting it with her perfectly-formed teeth, the left sleeve finally completed. The dress upon her mannequin today was a vibrantly-blue gown of intricate design work almost fitting for a royal girl to wear to a fancy occasion. With a familiar sadness, Evelyn had to remind herself that the thing would likely see no such use. Pushing silvery hair sewn from silk away from her face, she shifted in her seat and inspected the sleeve of the gown one final time before lifting the stool to begin the last touches upon the back, which Evelyn had torn in frustration early on in the project. Her regretful outburst was still visible: a slight tear in the fabric was blatant to Evelyn as she began yet another venture to repair it. A quiet sigh escaped Evelyn, her slim white hands working tirelessly upon the stitching. The numerous rolls of blue thread at her feet had become frayed and disorderly, though such a concern was far from her mind as she continued her work.

The room itself was far from orderly; this was her workshop. She couldn’t remember anymore why she had made it, just as much as she couldn’t remember why she had begun making the dresses, and yet every day without fail she spent hours at a time at work upon the latest project to come to her mind. Silently grateful at least for the frequent flashes of inspiration, she had made dress after dress, some bold and vibrant, others subtle and dully-coloured. Each one, no matter what, however, was beautiful to her. A precious reminder of the most important thing of all to Evelyn: the spark of life in her frail being. Everything in the room, from the closets brimming with dresses to the baskets overflowing with half-forgotten crochet and knitting projects, was something dearly valuable to Evelyn. All of it, she always told herself, was proof of her existence.

A familiar knock upon the window didn’t even summon a glance of curiosity from Evelyn as she kept her eyes upon the dress whilst walking over to open it. As expected, the cawing of Oksana heralded their arrival, the great black raven descending like a shadow upon the floor of the workshop. Oksana knew to keep away from Evelyn’s dresses, as months prior the bird had perched upon one of Evelyn’s projects, resulting in the tearing of a sleeve from the shoulder and the commensurate mournful exasperation from Evelyn.

“Hello,” Evelyn croaked in her quiet voice, unused except to speak only a word or two with the large black bird that served as her only companion. Oksana cawed quietly, ruffling their feathers before flapping up and onto the head of a nearby chair, watching curiously as Evelyn sat back down to resume her work. It was a familiar scene: the raven quietly observing as Evelyn stitched her dresses. The porcelain woman studiously repaired the frayed fabric on the back of the dress, the rip caused by her frustrated outburst slowly disappearing. Evelyn had always had a knack for it, and yet couldn’t remember how she had become so skilled in such work. There was so much that she couldn’t remember anymore, in fact, that Evelyn began to grow dizzy at the very thought of it all, and so focused only upon her work, and the quiet voice of Oksana as the bird pruned casually.

Evelyn leaned back thoughtfully, and stood up before walking around to face the dress from the front. It was, as she had hoped, of an eye-catching style, with vibrant blues and faint whites combining to create an image which summoned thoughts of summer skies and foaming waves in the ocean. Evelyn smiled at the thought, grateful that her time near the ocean was something she always remembered.

Oksana made a polite crow as they flew up to rest upon Evelyn’s shoulder, the talons upon the bird’s feet bringing no pain to the woman’s porcelain skin, nevertheless creating a tiny tear in the shoulder of her dress which she wore only for work. Such a thing was easily repaired, and not intended to be any special project like her other dresses, and so Evelyn did not mind, though the ebony-black raven still somewhat nervously shuffled, as if apologetic.

“It’s pretty,” Evelyn managed to creakily speak with pride, as she did after finishing every dress she made. Oksana moved their head in a nodding motion, though Evelyn was, as always, unclear if the gesture bore any true meaning.

Drawn away by the voices on the street below, Evelyn walked over with Oksana upon her shoulder to gaze out the window. It seemed that the people of the town were starting their days. Parents and children walked down the street, a horse or two bore their riders along slowly, and the town crier began his daily routine of shouting about things which Evelyn had no interest in nor understanding of. Compared to her little home she had made on the third floor of the mostly-forgotten building in the heart of town, the street below looked like a wild river which would sweep Evelyn away at a moment’s notice. She would unfortunately have to brave it eventually, as she was running woefully low on thread, and had broken yet another needle upon her fingertips.

With a caw, Oksana hopped from Evelyn’s shoulder and onto the windowsill, looking at the porcelain woman with a curious tilt of the head. Evelyn pet Oksana gently, before nodding a farewell and letting the bird fly off to the skies above. Other ravens called out for Oksana in the distance, welcoming them back to the conspiracy which ruled the rooftops up above the town. Evelyn had never heard such a welcome for herself, before.

A small shudder took Evelyn’s body as she shut the window quickly to keep herself from having to remember.