G is for Grace

Hello! I’m Grace, the main character in a Work in Progress called Wind Me Up, One More Time which our scribbler? creatrix? is revising for a potential home. I myself live in a town called Verity, which attracts lonely women from all other the world to its factory. Like Morisot, my mother and Nathalie’s. She wrote books with a partner, Cassat, until one day she ran off and adopted us. I don’t remember much about it. According to Nat, our mother brought us back to Verity and returned to the place we came from. Nat tries to keep from forgetting by telling stories about it. She’s very good at stories. Nat and Maia have been my family for so long, I don’t remember any other. I do remember Maia. She introduced herself as Iama the Terrible, a villain from one of Cassat’s books. Turns out she was Cassat’s daughter. She wasn’t very terrible. Nat and I dressed better and ate better once Maia became part of our family. We got another family member, at least I think of her as such. Nat brought home a bear one Christmas Eve called Theodora. She became my closest companion. We had all sorts of adventures afterwards even if no one believed in them other than us. You have to have a stuffed animal to understand. Heidi might understand. She’s a friend I go to school with along with Heather. They plan to get married and make toys together one day. They’ve asked me if I want to marry them, too. I’m still thinking about it. Heidi has a stuffed rabbit named Carrot Monster so she might understand. Or maybe she would have once. I haven’t seen much of Heidi or Heather lately. I’ve been so busy. You see Nat got a letter about our mother dying. She disappeared after that. Maia kind of changed. She started working really hard at the factory. I don’t see much of her lately or talk to her. It’s gotten lonely. I didn’t want to admit I was lonely. At first I only talked to Theodora about it. Maia has gotten so cold, so distant. It’s as if she’s really becoming Iama the Terrible. Only I don’t want to think about that. Maia says I’m too imaginative, that I don’t think enough about my future. Only I’m trying to. I’m leaving Theodora at home more. I’m spending less time with Heather and Heidi, more on my schoolwork. That’s what I should be doing right? Only I feel like I’m losing something else, something as precious as Maia or Nat. I’m not sure what it is, but it’s slipping away. I’m not sure how to stop it or if I should.