Emil and Billy were working on a puzzle, when they had the feeling someone was watching them, so they looked up from their work.
A head appeared from the empty chair.
"What's up, Pauly?" Emil asked.
"I was just wondering," Pauly replied, "if I could watch you for a while. I came over to do homework with Pippa. We're done now, but I don't have to be home for another hour, and Pippa wanted to help Veronika fold the laundry. It only takes two dolls. I thought maybe I could watch you."
"You can help, if you like," Billy suggested.
The boys still had a lot left to do on the puzzle. It would be fun to have Pauly help. It was hard for Pauly to reach the puzzle pieces, so he mostly just pointed, described a puzzle piece and suggested where it might go. He was a big help.
They worked quietly on the puzzle for a while, only talking when they needed to say something about how to put the puzzle together. Then Pauly said, "You know, I'm not sure I know what I'm supposed to do."
Emil and Billy both looked at him.
"What do you mean?" Billy asked. "You've been doing fine. You just look for a puzzle piece that fits in a space you see or match the colors and shapes in the picture."
"I don't mean this puzzle," Pauly said with a sigh. "I mean at home. It's a different kind of puzzle. I don't know how I fit in, and I can't exactly see the space where I'm supposed to go. It's so complicated!" he said. "It's so much harder than working on this puzzle," he added.
Emil looked at Billy, who looked back at Emil.
"You mean with your human child?" Emil asked. "What's his name? Jeffy?"
Pauly nodded. "When he goes to school each day," he said, "I go to doll school. I'm learning a lot, but after school sometimes he goes to soccer practice, and I can't come along."
"Jeffy sits me on his bed," Pauly continued. "He says he'll be back soon, but then he's gone for a long time."
"Are you bored?" Billy asked.
"What's bored?" Pauly wanted to know.
"It's when you are unhappy because nothing is happening," Emil explained.
"Because if you're bored," Billy said, "you can just get down off the bed and check out the house. Maybe you can find something to do. As long as you don't break anything and you put everything back where it was before the family gets back."
"Maybe," Emil suggested, "You can find a book to read."
"Or you can do something nice for them," Billy added, "like washing the dishes left in the sink."
Pauly thought about that. "That sounds like fun," he said, "but I don't think I'm bored. I talk with Jeffy's bear sometimes. He has a lot of interesting stories to tell, because he belonged to Jeffy's mother when she was a young child."
Then Pauly thought about that. "It's hard to think that she was ever a young child like Jeffy. She doesn't look like Jeffy or his friends, and she's much bigger."
"That's because human people start out very small and grow up," Emil pointed out.
"They grow up to be grownups," Billy agreed, "like Jeffy's parents and like The Writer and her husband."
"Yes," Pauly said, "and that's part of the puzzle. You see, I wonder what I'm supposed to do. How do I fit into my home? I don't see a space that's shaped like Pauly."
Emil looked at Billy, who looked back at Emil. They were beginning to see Pauly's puzzle.
"So," Billy began, "what you're saying is that you wonder what your job is, as a doll, I mean."
Pauly had to think about that. "I guess that's one way to put it," he said. "No one gave me any instructions when I came to live with Jeffy. I was just in a box, and then I was let out of it at Jeffy's house."
"I think," Emil suggested, "most dolls don't worry about what their job is. They just let it happen, so I think you don't have to worry about it, either."
"That's right," Billy agreed. "We're in stories. That's our job, but when The Writer's grandchildren come to visit, we get to be regular dolls."
"They dress us," Emil added, "and brush our hair or pretend to feed us. Sometimes they have us go on pretend adventures."
"Jeffy does that with me," Pauly said. "He changes my clothes for me. He fastens my shoes. We have good times. When he has to leave me home alone, he tells me he would love to take me along, but he's going to be out on the field, and he's afraid someone might take me. He doesn't want to lose me, so it's better if I stay home."
"I want to feel useful," Pauly exclaimed. "I don't mind sitting around at home, if there's a point to it."
"Veronika told me," Emil said, "that when a human child looks after a doll, it gets that child ready to look after their own real children some day."
"That's part of the growing up thing," Billy pointed out, "like how Jeffy's mother was once a young human child like Jeffy."
"Yes," Emil agreed. "Jeffy will probably have children of his own some day. You're helping him learn to look after them. When a child cares for a doll, it's good practice for caring for a real human child of their own."
"That's not all, though," Billy went on. "Human children enjoy pretending. That's where the adventures come in. They can pretend to do something they aren't yet ready to do for real."
"They exercise their imaginations that way," Emil interjected. "Then there's another thing dolls do for children," he added. "Dolls help children feel less afraid when something scary is happening."
"Scary?" Pauly asked. "Like what?"
"What if a family has to leave home suddenly," Billy suggested, "like if it's dangerous to stay in their house for some reason? Not like going on vacation, but something unpleasant, like a fire or a flood."
"Children get frightened when the things they are used to have changed," Billy continued, "especially if their parents seem worried, too. Taking some of their dolls along helps them feel normal. When they have their dolls to look after and protect, they don't feel so afraid for themselves, I think. The dolls help them feel safe."
"Wow!" Pauly exclaimed. "That's a big responsibility!"
"It is," Emil agreed, "but you don't have to worry about it. Just let Jeffy guide you. He will let you know what he wants you to do and what he wants to do for you."
"You have another job, too," Billy added.
Pauly looked at Billy expectantly.
"You can be in the stories with us, as well!" Bill exclaimed, patting Pauly's arm. "You've already been in several of them."
"Oh look!" Pauly exclaimed. "There's only one piece left of the puzzle!" He picked up the puzzle piece and showed it to the other boys.
"This puzzle piece fits right there!" Pauly exclaimed, pointing to the one empty space in the puzzle.
Pauly fits in, too. There was a Pauly-shaped hole in The Doll's Storybook.
Veronika: Götz Classic Kidz Vroni
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.
Watch for the next story each Friday afternoon at 1:00 PM Pacific Time.
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Copyright © 2022 by Peggy Stuart
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