"What's up?" Mandy asked, looking up from her knitting.
"Well," Billy began, "we were having an argument."
"A disagreement," Emil said.
"We were looking at things differently," Mariah corrected.
Mandy looked at the three dolls. "About what?" she asked.
"About water," Emil said. "About where it comes from. We know it doesn't just come out of the faucets by magic."
"I said the water comes from inside the earth," Emil explained.
"I said it comes from the sky," Billy said.
Mariah said, "I said that it comes from the oceans."
"I think it comes from the earth," Emil said, "because the pipes that bring water into the house come out of the ground. I know, because I've seen where the controls for the sprinklers are, and they are underground."
"But when it rains," Billy pointed out, "we get water everywhere, and it comes from the sky. You can see it coming from the sky if you're outdoors when it rains."
"The oceans are full of water," Mariah said. "There's so much of it there, I'm sure that must be where water comes from."
"Well, you're all right," Mandy said, "but there's more to it than that."
The other dolls were puzzled.
"You see," Mandy began, "All the water we have on earth is connected."
"When it rains," Mandy continued, "some of the rain runs down into the earth, where it is stored underground. People can dig down to get water. They make a well, which is a place where you can get water from under the ground. You need a pump, or a bucket on a rope to get the water from a well."
"Some of the rain runs off," Mandy continued. "That water ends up in lakes and rivers."
"The water in the lakes, rivers and the oceans evaporates (ee-VAP-er-ates)," she explained. "That means the air takes up the water, so it disappears. When it's warm, the tiny drops of water rise to where it's cooler higher up in the atmosphere. Then they cool off. When the water gets cool enough, it turns back into liquid and comes back down as rain."
"We save the rain water and water from streams and rivers in a place called a reservoir (REH-sih-vor)." Mandy explained. "That's like a lake designed to hold water for when people need it. We don't have a well, so people in our town buy water from a water company that gets water from underground and cleans it, so it's safe to drink or bathe in."
"We're a long way from the ocean," Mandy went on, "but the water in the ocean is salty, so people can't drink it without taking out the salt."
"I remember that!" Billy exclaimed. "Before you came, Emil," he said, "we used the sun to change salt water into fresh water. We made the water salty first, so it would be like the ocean. It was a fun ex...experiment (ex-PER-a-mint)."
"Yes," Mandy agreed. "We used the sun to make the salt water evaporate," she explained.
"It left the salt behind," Billy remembered.
"That's right, Billy," Mandy agreed. "When the water in the ocean evaporates, it leaves the salt behind, so the rainwater isn't salty."
"So we know how to make drinking water from the ocean," Billy pointed out, "but the rain gives us the water from the ocean already drinkable. Interesting."
"Yes," Mandy agreed, "but they clean the water first, before it comes into our home. Now," she went on, "people have developed a special windmill that takes the water out of the air and another machine that does the same thing but that runs on fuel, so people can have water where there isn't any. But that's the same water. All the water we've been using has been on the earth for about four billion years."
"How much is a billion?" Emil asked.
"It's a lot, especially in doll years." Mariah said. "It's like almost how old the earth is."
"People hadn't invented vinyl yet," Billy pointed out. "It was even before dinosaurs. Real ones, even, not just vinyl ones," he added.
"Where was the water before that?" Mariah wanted to know.
"Scientists are still figuring that out, Mariah," Mandy replied. "They think that some of it came from comets that struck the earth. A comet is a big chunk of ice and dust that comes from space, far outside our atmosphere. A comet looks like a streak of light in the night sky."
"Some of our water also came from the sun," Mandy continued. "The earth keeps reusing the same water over and over. Maybe someday people will figure out how to make water from its elements (EL-uh-mints), that's what we call the little bits that make up everything. Water is made from a gas called hydrogen (HY-druh-jun) and another gas called oxygen, (OX-uh-jun), but right now its dangerous and complicated to make water from them. We can only use what we have for now."
"We have to keep our water clean," Mandy told them. "That means we shouldn't throw trash on the ground or dump medicine or chemicals onto the ground or any place it can end up in the water."
"We should put trash in the trash can or waste basket," Emil agreed.
"We should ask a grownup where to put medicine or chemicals," Mariah pointed out. "We shouldn't put those in the trash if we don't need them anymore."
"And even if the water is clean," Billy said, "we need to keep it out of our eyes. We don't want to get silver eye!"
The dolls all agreed that it was true. There was no difference of opinion, but they all wondered if a doll with silver eye could still see, with or without special glasses.
Cast--
Mandy: Götz Happy Kidz Katie 2015
Mariah: Götz Happy Kidz Mariah, "Chosen" from My Doll Best Friend
Billy: Götz Happy Kidz Lily at London
Emil: Götz Happy Kidz Emilia
You can learn more about how to have clean water here.
You can learn more about silver eye in dolls here. (You will have to scroll down to find silver eye.)
Note: No dolls were harmed during production of this blog. All dolls shown are Götz Happy Kidz or Classic Kidz. If you like these stories and are willing, please make a donation of any amount to a charity that supports pediatric cancer, such as CURE Childhood Cancer, St. Baldrick's Foundation or St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
"The Doll's Storybook" is not affiliated with Gotz Dolls USA Inc. or Götz Puppenmanufaktur International GmbH.
Watch for the next story each Friday afternoon at 2:00 PM Pacific Time.
Image on Mariah's shirt used with permission with thanks, from Free To Be Kids, where human-size shirts with this image are available.
Ocean photo by Sean O.
Pump photo by Fikri Rasyid
River photo by Jon Flobrant
Comet photo by Casey Horner
All of the above available on Unsplash.
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Copyright © 2020 by Peggy Stuart
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