Raggedy Ann
Years ago I posted this creepy little story on the original "It Happened to Me." Last week, I ran across the gem saved to a dusty old floppy disc, packed in a box in the back of my closet. Here it is again, edited a bit, and back from the dead...
In the fall of 1995, my wife and I, along with our 5 year old son and our new baby, shared a one bedroom apartment near the beach in San Francisco. The bedroom had an arched entrance with no door, which opened directly into the livingroom. The place was set up like a long hallway and you had to walk past the bedroom to get to the rest of the house.
One night I returned home from work, and walked through the living room towards the kitchen. My wife was cooking dinner, our eldest son was playing in the backyard, and the baby was asleep in his crib. As I passed the bedroom, I glanced through the open arch, where I noticed a new addition to my wife's collection of stuffed animals. An oversized Raggedy Ann doll sat on the bed, facing directly toward the passage that lead to the rest of the house. This doll was huge - at least three feet from head to toe.
Other than the size, there was nothing about the doll that would seem initially frightening. It didn't move, it didn't carry a pointy weapon, and it didn't laugh maniacally. It just sat there, watching. I walked to the kitchen, said hello to my wife, and made some small talk. After a moment or two, I asked where she had gotten the new Raggedy Ann doll.
My wife looked at me blankly. She clearly had no idea what I was talking about. I said firmly "Come on, that big Raggedy Ann doll? The one on our bed?" She gave me a look as if there were large lobsters crawling out my ears! I repeated myself, but she still didn't understand, so I dragged her to the bedroom to show her the doll.
But there was no doll. The hair on the back of my neck stood at attention. Less than 5 minutes ago, a rather huge Raggedy Ann doll had been here, and no one could have moved it, as they would have had to walk past me to get to the bedroom.
The more I thought about what had happened, the more freaky the whole scenario seemed. The doll had been looking right at me, with those big, black, empty Raggedy Ann button eyes. The doll had been watching me, smiling in the way for which that type of doll is famous. Just watching, and waiting...and smiling.
I have no explanation for this occurance. If I were to have hallucinated a stuffed animal, what on earth would have made me see that doll? Why not a teddy bear, or a tigger cat, or any number of play animals? With their ghostly, clown faces, dead eyes, and ginger hair, Raggedy Ann dolls have a very distinctive look, and are not easily mistaken for any other doll.
What exactly did I see that day, and more pointedly, as the thing sat there watching, did it see me as well?
I have since heard stories about haunted dolls, or apparitions taking the form of a child's toy. Most of those stories don't bug me, but I have never been able to look at Raggedy Ann (or Andy) quite the same since then. These dolls now seriously creep me out, and probably always will!
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