The doorbell was ringing and there was tapping on the door, both at the same time! Billy rushed to the door. It must be some kind of emergency, for someone to ring the bell AND knock on the door.
When he got the door open, there was Nico, and Pam was climbing carefully down from the porch couch. Billy figured out who had been ringing the doorbell and who was tapping on the door.
“I have big news!” Nico exclaimed after the visitors had been let into the front hall.
“What’s up, Nico,” Billy asked.
“I was so excited,” he said, “I had to tell you right away!”
“He wouldn’t even tell me until we got here,” Pam said, “He said he wanted to tell us all at once.”
By then. Mariah and Pippa had shown up in the hallway. They could hear the excited voices and wanted to know what it was all about.
Veronika came in next and invited Nico and Pam to come and sit in the living room. “I’ll get us some tea,” she said.
From what she had heard from the kitchen, Veronika had a feeling Nico wasn’t going to be able to say what he wanted to say in a couple of words and then leave.
Nico can get up onto the couch by himself, but it takes him a long time, because his knees and elbows don't bend, so he let Billy help him climb up. By the time the dolls had settled in the living room with the others, Veronika had the tea ready; it doesn't take long to fix pretend tea.
“Well, it's about Frankie’s family,” Nico began when they were all settled and everyone had some pretend tea just the way they like it. (Frankie is the boy Nico lives with.) “You know how Frankie’s dad runs a landscaping business. The people who work for him cut the grass for people. They plant things and prune their bushes. In the winter, they come and remove the snow from the walks and driveway.”
The dolls remembered this.
“And you know,” Nico added, “that he has lots of customers and the employees who work for him depend on his business.”
The others agreed that they remembered this, too.
“And you know,” Nico went on, “that Frankie’s dad was afraid he going to have to leave his business, and we would have to leave our home because Frankie’s parents don’t have something called ‘papers.’ They were afraid they would have to pack up and move away.”
The other dolls nodded. Some of them imagined the family would have a lot of bags to pack, even more than Jolena has when she travels for skiing.
“It isn’t like the papers that go into the recycling,” he explained, because that was what he had thought at first. He had wondered why they couldn’t just keep these papers instead of throwing them out.
“These are special papers that say they are allowed to be here in town and live in our home,” he explained. “It has something to do with laws. I found out that laws are like rules everyone has to obey, not just the dolls in your class.”
“So this is where the big news comes in,” Nico went on. “One of the customers of Frankie’s dad,” he said, “is something called a lawyer (LAW-yer).” He said it carefully, because it was a new word for him.
Pam thought he was staring at something across the room. She looked to try to figure out what he was looking at that was so interesting, but she realized he was really just trying to concentrate, so he could remember how it was explained to him.
“A lawyer is a person whose job it is to know all about laws,” Nico explained when he had his thoughts collected. “If someone breaks a law and gets into trouble, or if they didn’t break the law, and the police think they did, they might need a lawyer to help them, or if they need to do something and want to be sure that what they do doesn’t break any laws, a lawyer can tell them if they can do it and how to do it without breaking any laws. You go to their office and sit in a chair. You answer their questions, and then they tell you if there is a way they can help.”
“So this lawyer is going to help?” Billy asked.
“Sort of,” Nico agreed. “I found out that there are lots of different kinds of lawyers, just like lots of different kinds of doctors. This customer is the kind of lawyer who works with people who have problems with their taxes (TAK-ses).”
“Taxes are money human people pay the government so the government can take care of things everyone needs,” Nico explained. Nico’s boy, Frankie, had explained all this to him, and Nico knew someone had explained it to Frankie. “Taxes aren't a problem for Frankie’s dad, though.”
“So how can this lawyer help Frankie’s dad?” Pippa wanted to know.
“Well,” Nico said again, “this lawyer knows another lawyer who is the kind that does immigration (im-uh-GRAY-shun) law. She helps people who want to come to this country or who are here and don’t have the right kind of papers to stay or who don’t have any papers at all.”
“It will cost some money,” Nico told them. “It isn’t just the lawyer, but the court costs something. (The court is the part of the government that takes care of making sure everyone obeys the law.) It could cost more money than Frankie’s family has, unless they sell their car.”
“The lawyer who is a customer,” Nico went on, “talked with the other customers he knows, and they are all going to donate some money to help pay the costs of the immigration lawyer.”“Then,” Nico continued, “I found out that the people who work for Frankie’s dad are going to have a car wash to raise money to help pay, too. People whose cars need washing can pay them to do it.”
“It sounds to me like Frankie’s dad has a lot of friends,” Veronika pointed out.
“Yes,” Nico agreed, “but it’s more than just being friends. The landscaping business looks after people’s trees, bushes and lawns in the spring and summer,” he said. “If Frankie's family has to go away, people might have to mow their own lawns. If they’re to busy or can’t do that kind of work, they have to pay someone to do it for them.”
“The company makes sure the sprinkler system is working in the spring, too,” Nico explained, “and in the fall, they come and blow all the water out, so it won’t freeze and bust the pipes. I don’t know how people can do that for themselves. You need special equipment, I think.”
“In the winter, they come to your house and plow the snow,” Nico continued, while everyone listened. “Sometimes the city pays them to plow the streets, too, if we get more snow than the city snowplows can handle.”
“The customers and the city would have to find someone else to do that, if Frankie’s family moves away, or do it themselves. That’s hard work, if you don't have your own snow blower machine,” Nico pointed out.
“You told us the employees need Frankie’s dad, too,” Billy pointed out. “They would have to get new jobs. Most of them have families to feed.”
“Yes,” Nico agreed, “and they really like working for Frankie’s dad.”
“When is the carwash?” came a voice from the kitchen. It was The Writer. She had been listening to the conversation going on in the living room.
“It’s next Saturday,” Nico called out. They’re doing it in the driveway in front of our house, where the office is.”
“My car needs washing,” said the voice. “I’ll be there!”
“Thank you!” Nico called out.
“I see why you’re so excited, Nico,” Veronika said. “It’s a big problem, and it looks like Frankie’s family might have some hope of a solution now.”
All of the dolls thought about that. It would be nice to know Nico would still be here for a while. They all liked Nico, but also it would be nice to know that Frankie’s family might not have to worry about having to leave.
It would be nice to know that the people who worked for the landscaping business wouldn’t need to look for new jobs.
It would be nice to know that the customers of the landscaping business wouldn’t have to cut their own grass in the summer or shovel their own snow in the winter.
It would be nice to know that sprinkler systems all over town wouldn't burst when winter comes again and everything freezes.
It was nice to know that lots of people were kind and liked to help.
Those people must have grown up with wonderful dolls who set good examples for all of them.
“Let’s tell all our neighbors about the car wash,” Mariah suggested then. “I’ll make some flyers for us to share. Those are sheets of paper with information on them,” she told the other dolls. “If we let lots of people know about it, the carwash will make lots of money! I’ll run them off on the printer, and Pippa and Pam can help me fold them.”
The two smaller dolls nodded and said that they would love to help.
Nico said he would see if Pauly would help him take the flyers to the houses he could walk to around his home (you have to bend your knees to ride a bike, and Pauly was too small for a bike), and Billy said that he and Emil could put the flyers into the baskets of their bicycles and deliver them to all the houses in the neighborhood that were farther away, on the other side of the woods. They could take their favorite shortcut through the woods.
It made all the dolls feel good to know that they could help Nico’s family!
Veronika: Götz Classic Kidz Vroni
Mariah: Götz Happy Kidz Mariah, "Chosen" from My Doll Best Friend
Billy: Götz Happy Kidz Lily at London
Emil: Götz Happy Kidz Emilia
Packed bags photo from Missy’s Weblog, cropped.
Newspapers photo from Recycling Works, cropped.
Immigration law office photo from Woog Law, cropped.
Money photo by Alexander Grey on Unsplash.
Carwash photo from Automobile Hive, cropped.
Man mowing lawn photo from Live Strong, cropped.
Sprinkler blow out photo from 4 Seasonal Services, cropped.
Truck plowing snow photo from 4 Seasonal Services, cropped.
Landscaping truck in front of house photo from 4 Seasonal Services, cropped.
"The Doll's Storybook" is not affiliated with Gotz Dolls USA Inc. or Götz Puppenmanufaktur International GmbH.
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