"So, what do you do at a slumber party?" Pippa asked when the dolls had settled around the fire.
"I think," Jolena told her, "we're supposed to stay up past our bedtime and talk about hair and clothes and boys. Is that right, Veronika?" she asked, looking at the older doll.
"Bo-ring!" declared Billy and Emil in unison. The only way they cared about clothes and hair was that those things made them look like real boys, and boys were to play with, not talk about.
"Most slumber parties don't include actual boys," Mariah explained, "unless it's boys having a sleepover."
"We could talk about other things, " Jolena suggested. She wanted Billy and Emil to feel included.
"I have an idea," Veronika put in. "Let's each tell about something nice that happened this week."
"I have something," Charlotte exclaimed. "Something my teacher told me today made me feel very good."
"Tell us what it was," Mariah urged. Charlotte usually tells her everything, but she hadn't mentioned anything special that happened today.
"I took the book back," Charlotte said, "and then I forgot all about it. Today, my teacher took me aside and told me how that one thing caused a lot of other things to happen."
"I know Susan's brother, Jackson," Billy said. "He's in my class. He got all his spelling words right on the test we had yesterday!"
"That's right," Charlotte agreed. "My teacher told me about it. She said he was so happy and proud that he stayed after school and cleaned off the white boards for his teacher. Then he helped tidy up the classroom, and when his teacher was ready to leave, he carried some boxes to her car for her."
"The next thing that happened," Charlotte went on, "was that because Jackson had helped her after school, his teacher was able to leave the school fifteen minutes earlier than usual."
"When she got home," Charlotte continued, "Jackson's teacher discovered that her neighbor was having trouble getting her car to start. The battery was dead. The neighbor was ready to take the bus, because she was going to be late for work. The teacher had some kind of gizmo that could use the teacher's car to start the neighbor's."
"Jumper cables," Emil put in. "It's a set of wires with metal clips on the ends. You put two of the clips on one battery and two on the other, and then you can use the good battery to start the car."
"Yes," Charlotte agreed. "I had forgotten. The teacher had jumper cables. They were able to get the neighbor's car started. The neighbor wouldn't have taken her car if Jackson's teacher hadn't been home in time to help start it! She would have taken the bus, and her car would have been at home."
"Well," Charlotte continued the story, "the neighbor works at the doll hospital. When she got to work, she found out that a doll had just arrived who needed help. This doll had fallen into the street. A human boy on a bicycle had accidentally ridden over her arm, and her arm was not only squashed, but pulled off entirely."
"The people who work in the doll hospital," Charlotte went on, "were going to have to order a new arm for the doll, because they didn't have the right kind in stock, and the arm could not be repaired. It was going to take two weeks."
The dolls all thought about having to sit around with only one arm for two weeks! What can you do with only one arm? But what did this have to do with the story. The dolls waited.
"Fortunately," Charlotte explained, "Jackson's teacher's neighbor who works in the doll hospital, had a box of doll parts (don't ask) in her car."
"She ran out to the car and got it," Charlotte continued. "They went through the doll parts and found an arm that was just the right kind and size. Now who do you think the doll who needed repair was?" Charlotte asked.
No one had any idea. It seemed as if it was someone Charlotte knew, but they all knew lots of dolls.
"It was Milly!" Charlotte exclaimed. "Milly, who plays the cello (CHEH-loh) in the school orchestra."
"Jello?" asked Pippa. She was trying to think of what that might sound like.
"No," Charlotte said. "You can't make music with Jello. It's a cello. It looks just like my violin, only bigger, and it stands on the floor instead of being tucked under your chin. It has a deeper voice than a violin."
Pippa had to think about that. She didn't know a thing could have a voice. The wondered if cellos could talk to each other in their heads the way dolls do.
"Well," Charlotte went on, "as you know, we were having our big concert today. Even if the teacher's neighbor had brought her car to the doll hospital today, Milly would have had to wait to get her new arm. Milly is the only doll who plays the cello, so we could not have played some of the pieces without her! "
"It's impossible to play the cello with one arm!" Mandy exclaimed.
Charlotte nodded. "You can't play a violin with just one arm, either," she pointed out.
"We would have had to postpone the concert," Charlotte explained, "and Harry's family is moving away this weekend. He would have missed out."
"My teacher," Charlotte said finally, "wanted me to know that Milly was able to play in the concert all because I took the book back to the library for Susan."
The dolls all had to think about how one thing led to another. It took a lot of doll-brain activity to imagine it. They followed each step in their heads, backwards from the concert to the library.
"It was nice your teacher found all this out," Veronika pointed out. "Usually when we do something good for someone we only see what happens right then, while we're watching. Maybe it makes the person smile, or they say thank you, but every good thing we do is like when you touch water. Ripples leave that spot and move away. Finally they disappear. You never find out what happens to them."
"That one thing we do often leads to another," Veronika said, "and that leads to another. We may never see it, but every time we do something good for someone, it goes out into the world. Sometimes it keeps doing good forever."
All the dolls thought about Charlotte's story. When it was their turn, they wanted to have something good to tell everyone. Charlotte's story would be hard to beat, but maybe that was OK. It was nice to think about.
"The concert was lovely to listen to," said Emil, who knew what it was like not to be able to hear music. "Everyone did a good job. I'm glad Milly got to play!"
Veronika: Götz Classic Kidz Vroni
Mandy: Götz Happy Kidz Katie 2015
Jolena: Götz Happy Kidz Lena in Aspen
Charlotte: Götz Happy Kidz Anna in Paris
Mariah: Götz Happy Kidz Mariah, "Chosen" from My Doll Best Friend
Billy: Götz Happy Kidz Lily at London
Emil: Götz Happy Kidz Emilia
Marmalade: Purrrfect Cats from KTL
Doll parts photo by Random Institute on Unsplash
Jumper cables photo by Daniel @ bestjumpstarterreview.com on Unsplash
"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 1:00 PM Pacific Time.
Copyright © 2021, 2024 by Peggy Stuart
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