A Council of Dolls

Content Warning: This section of the guide contains discussion of death, graphic violence, child death, pregnancy loss, child abuse, racism, physical abuse, and emotional abuse.

Sissy chose the name “Jesse” for herself when she was 14. Sharing the name Lillian with her mother, who was always the dominant force in the house, made her feel like a shadow, so in high school, she opted to change her name to Jesse Holy Thunder. She liked that the name could belong to a woman or man, as she thought it would help ensure she’d be taken seriously as a writer in the future. 

Now in her fifties, Jesse is a fiction author living in St. Paul, Minnesota. She’s searching for a rare novel on eBay when she sees a book about dolls. The cover photo of a Tiny Thumbelina doll, mass-produced in the 1960s, reminds her of Ethel, her own Tiny Thumbelina doll. When she first left Chicago to attend Harvard, she packed Ethel in a trunk that she hasn’t reopened until now. The inside of the trunk smells inexplicably of Chanel No. 5, her mother’s signature scent. Jesse remembers Ethel used to talk to her when she was a child but went quiet when she was about 11 and earned a scholarship to a private school. Now she believes Ethel’s talking was just her imagination. When she opens the trunk, Jesse’s pet cockatoo, Prince, grabs the doll and carries it to the bed. Jesse thinks she hears Ethel’s voice complaining about her hair being pulled.

The trunk contains other memorabilia, including Lillian’s pottery bird figurine, which Jesse broke as a girl. As Jesse looks at it, a voice in her head says, “[Y]ou killed her” (206). She remembers that after Lillian’s death, Ethel wouldn’t talk about what had happened. That night, Jesse has a vision of the same injured ancestor who appeared to Cora. Her initial fear and unbearable sorrow turn to concern and protectiveness toward the woman. When the vision ends, Jesse is overwhelmed with grief but feels called to come out of her self-imposed isolation, a metaphorical hibernation, and live again.

Next Jesse opens a bin labeled “Mom stuff.” In it, she finds the Shirley Temple doll that Big Ethel bought for Lillian to replace Mae, the doll she’d given to a dying girl in childhood. Lillian didn’t like the gift, though, because she said Mae hadn’t saved Blanche from dying at the hands of Sister Frances. Since Lillian said the doll wasn’t really Mae anyway, Jesse now calls her Shirley. Also in the bin is a replica of Cora’s doll, Winona. When Cora graduated from school, her mother gave it to her to replace the one the school had burned. Cora gave the doll to Lillian and Sissy the last time they visited her. To Jesse, this Winona doll seems like a relative as well as a family heirloom.

Not wanting Ethel to feel “alone in a world of white dolls” (219), Jesse buys another Black Tiny Thumbelina doll from eBay to keep Ethel company. On impulse, she also buys a Mary Poppins doll like the one her childhood neighbor had that she’d admired so much. Jesse sits the five dolls together on the bed in the guest room. One day, Prince brings Winona to Jesse, who senses there’s a purpose behind it. The doll begins speaking to her, and Jesse types the story Winona tells, titling it “Bitter Doll.”

The original Winona, the doll says, was made to comfort a Dakhóta woman who was inconsolable after her baby died at birth. The woman sewed a stone into the doll, one that she’d grasped while giving birth to her child, as the doll’s heart. She named the doll Winona, which means first daughter. Winona was passed down from generation to generation. She saw her family slaughtered during the Whitestone Hill Massacre, after which a dog carried her to an elder woman who lost three generations of her descendants in the attack. The woman eventually passed the doll down to Cora. Winona describes the train ride on which Cora met Jack from her own perspective, including her fear about how Jack would be harmful to Cora. Winona’s body was burned that day, but her spirit survives.

Later, the Shirley Temple doll, who shares a consciousness with the original Mae, tells her story to Jesse, titled “Wicked Taps.” It begins with the doll’s memories of coming to life in a factory and suspecting she might be the only doll that’s actually alive. She was first purchased as a birthday gift for seven-year-old Florence (“Florrie”) Thomson, a spoiled girl who wouldn’t share with her friends. Florence’s parents were kind and lived modestly, apart from spoiling Florrie. When the girl didn’t take care of her toys and dolls, her mother collected them to be donated to the reservation. That’s when she was given to Lillian (or “Lily,” as she calls her). The doll chose the name Mae because she shared memories with the real Shirley Temple, who admired Mae West.

Spending weeks in a coffin with Ada was traumatic, but Mae’s magic grew during that time, so she was able to escape and make her way to Lillian, trapped in her school’s punishment box. One day Mae started tap dancing on Sister Anne’s desk. Her dancing expressed all her feelings toward Lillian, Ada, and Sister Frances, and she yelled, “Look at my wicked taps!” (245). Mae saw how hateful Sister Frances was and made it her mission to change the nun. Praising Lillian and Blanche to Frances didn’t work, so Mae switched to telling the nun how awful and hateful she was. Mae saw these efforts taking a toll on the nun until eventually she was so emotionally fragile she fell down some stairs and died. However, Mae realized Sister Frances hadn’t really died and that Mae was only dreaming this ability to impact anyone besides Lillian. She couldn’t save Blanche either. All she could do was “distract Lily’s mind so it float[ed] to safety” (248).

Ethel resumes talking to Jesse as well. She recounts her memory of being purchased for Sissy by Sissy’s father. She talks about Lillian’s fluctuating moods, comparing her to a roller coaster, and explains that Lillian tried to love Sissy and Cornelius but had no love for herself. She didn’t want to be mean or violent, but her emotions overwhelmed her. On the day Lillian died, Ethel says neither she nor Sissy pushed her. Ethel just used her magic to show Lillian the poison in her own heart. It scared Lillian so much that she backed away and fell over the railing.

Jesse’s best friend is Dr. Isabel Parker, or Izzy. When she calls, Izzy senses something is wrong and immediately comes for a visit. Jesse shares what Ethel told her about Lillian’s death. Izzy says she’s been seeing Lillian’s spirit hovering around for about a year and has wondered when Jesse would sense her. She also senses something special about Ethel and Winona and detects a heartbeat-like rhythm when she touches Winona. Jesse doesn’t feel ready to answer Izzy’s questions about her father’s response to Lillian’s abuse and death. Instead, she tells Izzy about recent dreams that suggest she’s about to meet a man who will be “the one.” Her dreams, they agree, often have predictive qualities.

The next morning, Jesse admits she finds it difficult to hold her father accountable for any of what happened because he was the safe parent. He avoided conflict and tried to keep the peace. After Lillian died, his spark seemed to go out, and he died shortly after Jesse graduated college.

Jesse tells Izzy about a time she saw a spirit, about a year after her mother died. She declined an invitation to sleep over at her best friend, Sara’s, house. That night she saw Sara’s spirit at the foot of her bed, telling her she wanted to say goodbye. The next day she learned someone had broken into Sara’s house and abducted her. Sara was never found.

After Izzy’s visit ends, Ethel tells her story to Jesse, who titles it “Mighty Ethel.” Dolls are given life, she says, by those who love and need them. Sissy’s need brought Ethel to life. Now, Ethel can hear Lillian’s spirit, and Lillian is saying Jesse wasn’t the weak one in the family like Lillian always thought. Through Ethel, Lillian tells Jesse that if she ever gets lost, she can return to her Dakhóta name, which translates to Woman Whose Good Works Bring Flowers. Ethel also reveals what Jesse’s godmother, Big Ethel, whispered to her when she was born: “Dear heart, you have powerful business here. You can make your story whatever you want” (279).

Her time with Izzy and with her council of dolls leads Jesse to epiphanies about healing and the importance of language and ancestors. She has an incredibly cathartic episode under the moonlight in which she feels unburdened and weightless. Her mother’s spirit solidifies out of a part of her own body and stands by her side. Then her grandmother’s spirit does the same, followed by her mutilated ancestor, made whole. The ancestor reveals her name, which translates to Trusted Woman. The moon tells them: “Pick up your power again and move forward in a good way” (284). The other three women quietly move on. The dolls end the story in their own collective words, summarizing the wisdom they’ve gained about love, power, time, and healing.