Charlotte and Billy were walking their dogs, Pierre and Freckles, on the trail near their home.
As the only dog owners in the doll family, they often walked their dogs together. As they walked, they had a chance to talk about what was going on in their lives.
"Well," Charlotte was saying, "I stopped in at the grocery store on my way home from school yesterday to get some note paper, because I had run out, and I knew the store was having a sale on some school supplies."
"I knew right where they have the paper, scissors, pens and pencils," Charlotte explained.
"As I was walking toward the aisle that had paper and other things for school," Charlotte continued, "something on the floor caught my eye. It was a twenty-dollar bill on the floor!"
"Wow!" Billy exclaimed. "That's a lot of money!"
"Yes! Of course, I picked it up," Charlotte continued.
Charlotte went on to explain how she thought it would be nice to have $20 to spend. There were some things she needed. She had been trying to fix her hair so it was a little more tidy. A pretty decoration would be nice for that.
Although hair was important to Billy, because it was one of the things that showed he was a boy, he didn't get the whole thing about girls and their hair.
"Well," Charlotte went on, "then I thought a book of stickers would be fun to work on when I was done with my homework."
Stickers did sound like fun to Billy.
"Then I walked down the candy aisle," Charlotte said. "Maybe some candy from the candy aisle would be fun to pretend to eat."
Billy agreed that candy was fun to pretend to eat, and dolls don't really need to worry about candy damaging their teeth, because most dolls don't have any teeth, or if they do, it's usually just two teeth in front.
"Those were just the things I could get at the grocery store," Charlotte explained, "but there are some other things to spend money on, too."
"For one thing," Charlotte continued, "I would love to have some new sheet music to learn to play on my violin. The music store is just down the street."
Billy didn't play a musical instrument, but he had thought it might be fun. Charlotte seemed to enjoy it.
"Then there's the bookstore right next door to the music store," Charlotte went on. "That new book from the science fiction series I've been reading just came out."
"It would be nice to own the book," Billy agreed, "but you can get it from the library for free."
"But you usually have to get on a waiting list if it's a new book," Charlotte pointed out. "I'm excited to find out what happens next!"
Billy thought Charlotte had a point.
"Or wouldn't it be nice to have a new dress?" Charlotte asked.
Billy had no interest in having a new dress. The only dress he had owned, he had given to his sisters when he arrived. No, he only wanted boy's clothes, because he is a boy! He knew the girls like pretty dresses, though, so he was sure it would be nice to be able to go and buy one if that's what you like.
"Then," Charlotte said, "I thought about how much fun it would be to hold a party for my friends. I could do a nice, simple party with $20."
Billy remembered his birthday party.
Billy was pretty sure Charlotte would invite him if she had a party. He really liked that idea!
"Then something occurred to me," Charlotte said. "I suddenly wondered who lost the money. Was it someone who just didn't care enough to take care of their money, or was it someone who really needed it."
Billy hadn't thought about how the money got on the floor of the store until Charlotte mentioned it. That was important.
"That's when I realized," Charlotte told Billy, "the money wasn't really mine to spend. It made me wonder what I should do with it."
"So what did you do?" Billy asked.
"I wished Veronika were there," Charlotte replied. "Veronika would know what to do."
Billy nodded. If you had a question about what's right to do and couldn't figure it out, you could ask Veronika.
The two dolls stopped at the bench that overlooks the trail to give themselves and their dogs a rest. They climbed up to sit for a few minutes, while Billy waited for the next part of the story.
Then Charlotte turned to Billy. "Since Veronika wasn't there, I tried to think what she would do," she said. "After I thought about it for a few minutes, I decided to take the $20 to the store manager."
Billy wondered why he hadn't thought of that. "That sounds like a good idea," he said.
"I found the manager at the customer service desk," Charlotte said. "She asked for our phone number and said if the person who lost the money isn't found in a week, she will call and I can come and get the money and keep it. She said she would call right away if the person was found."
"So did she call?" Billy wanted to know.
"Yes," Charlotte said. "Later in the afternoon. The manager said that she had been called over by the cashier, because a customer, an old lady about The Writer's age, was checking out and couldn't find her money to pay for her groceries. The old lady thought she had a twenty-dollar bill to pay for her groceries, but it was not in her purse."
"The money you found must have been hers!" Billy exclaimed.
"That was what the manager said," Charlotte agreed as the dolls climbed down to continue their walk. "She said that she told the woman that I had found it on the floor and turned it in, so it must have been her money. The manager told me that the old woman cried when she got her money back. That $20 was all she had to buy food!"
Billy and Charlotte thought about that. Dolls don't really need food. The dogs thought about that, too. Real dogs need to eat, but Pierre and Freckles are not real dogs. It's fun to pretend to eat, but after they pretend to eat something, it's still there for a human person or a real dog to eat.
"I wonder what it's like to be hungry," Billy said then. "I wonder what it is to feel hunger and not have something to eat."
"I know it's unpleasant," Charlotte replied. "It makes human people very unhappy if they have nothing to eat when they need it."
Real people and real dogs need food, unlike dolls and doll dogs.
"Charlotte," Billy said, "you did the right thing. You should tell Veronika," he added. "It will make her happy."
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
"The Doll's Storybook" is not affiliated with Gotz Dolls USA Inc. or Götz Puppenmanufaktur International GmbH.
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Copyright © 2021 by Peggy Stuart
Very well told. My girls were so proud that the dolls figured out the right thing to do.
ReplyDeleteThank you! Sometimes they know more than I do...or things I've forgotten I knew how to do.
ReplyDeleteThose vinyl kids really know how to cheer me up after a day of chaos in my classroom. One student was throwing banana peels over his shoulder onto the floor. So the lawyer in me came out about slip and falls.
ReplyDelete