"What's that you have, Pauly?" Emil asked as he let his young friend in through the front door. Pauly was holding something in his right hand.
"I don't know," Pauly replied. "It's just something I found."
The two boys walked into the living room, where Mariah and Billy were teaching Pippa how to play a card game.
Pauly quickly put the thing he brought with him into his pocket.
All the dolls were quiet for a moment. Mariah looked at Billy.
Billy looked back at Mariah.
Pippa looked at Mariah.
Then she looked at Billy and then at Emil.
She could tell, they all thought something wasn't right. She didn't know why. "What is it?" she asked Pauly. "I want to see."
Pauly slowly brought the thing back out of his pocket and held it out so she could see it.
Then he quickly put it back into his pocket and closed the pocket flap.
Pippa thought the thing Pauly had showed them looked like a candle, only it wasn't one. It seemed to be made of metal, and it didn't have a wick, only a bump on one end and writing on the side.
"It's a battery." Billy declared. "Some cameras use them; that's how I know. It's how they get their power. My camera has a battery, too," he added, "only it's built in. You can't take it out and hold it in your hand. I just plug in my camera to the electrical outlet when it gets low, so it can recharge. I have a special cord I use for that."
When the other dolls just looked at him, Billy grabbed his camera. The card players put their cards down and came down to where Billy had his camera.
"Recharging," Billy told them, "is when the camera's battery takes in electricity from the outlet and fills up with power, so it can be used again."
"I think batteries are used in flashlights, too," Mariah put in.
When the other dolls looked at her with curiosity, Mariah explained, "Charlotte and I were looking for Pierre outside in the dark one time, and The Writer got out a flashlight for us to use."
"I think she said she had just put a new battery in, so it should work," Mariah added, thinking back.
"Where did you find the battery, Pauly?" Emil asked. He had been wondering why Pauly had been so secretive about this battery.
Pauly looked away.
Pippa knows Pauly very well now. She thought he looked... uncomfortable. It must have something to do with the battery.
"Pauly!" she exclaimed, "tell me where you found the battery!" she demanded.
Pauly looked at Pippa, then at the others.
Then Pauly looked down. "I found it in a drawer at our house," he said finally.
"You mean you took it from a drawer at your house," Pippa corrected. "I think you're saying you took it without asking permission."
"Well," Pauly said, "I didn't think they would let me take it if I asked."
"That's not a good reason not to ask," Mariah said.
"Another thing," Billy pointed out, "you don't need a battery, do you? It's just been sitting in your pocket. You don't have a flashlight or a camera or a toy that needs a battery with you, do you?"
Pippa agreed. "If you had needed one of these things...a battery," she said, remembering what the thing was and what the bigger dolls had said it was for, "you could have asked Jeffy to give you one. He could have asked one of his parents for a...battery...if he wasn't allowed to get them himself."
"I didn't know what it was," Pauly explained. "I just thought it looked interesting."
Then Pauly was quiet for a moment. The other dolls were quiet, too. They knew he was thinking.
"Did I do a bad thing?" Pauly asked finally.
The other dolls looked at one another.
"Well," Mariah began, "if you knew you were supposed to ask before taking things, and you took it anyway, it was wrong to do. We all need to remember not to just do whatever we're tempted to do if it isn't right." She was beginning to feel sorry for Pauly, who was now upset.
"However," Mariah went on, "it's easy to fix with no harm done."
Pauly looked up. "How?" he asked.
"You can just put it back," she replied.
"That would be the sensible thing to do," Billy agreed.
"What if they've already discovered that it's missing?" Pauly asked, "or if they see me put it back?"
"Just tell Jeffy what you did," Pippa suggested, knowing Jeffy's parents probably wouldn't hear Pauly or see him put the battery back. Most grownup human people don't notice when dolls do things on their own. Most grownup human people don't hear dolls when they talk. They have forgotten how. "Tell him that you took it without asking, and that you're sorry. Say that you realize that it was wrong to take it, and that you won't do it again."
"You'll be helping teach Jeffy, too," Mariah pointed out. "Our job as dolls is to help real human children grow up to know what's right to do to live with other real human people and be happy."
"That's an important job, too," Emil pointed out.
"Besides," added Billy, "I found out that batteries can be dangerous to real human children if they swallow them!"
"I should go do that now," Pauly said. "I should go and put it back in the drawer," he added, but he didn't move.
Billy proposed that they all go with Pauly, to give him some moral support. "I can take some photos," he said.
"It will be an adventure!" Pippa exclaimed.
"We might even be able to get The Writer to turn this into a story for The Doll's Storybook," said Mariah.
If our readers happen to see a group of dolls walking down the street in our neighborhood, they will know that it's only Pauly and his fellow adventurers, off to help Pauly do what's right!
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.
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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