“What’s that thing on your arm?” Pippa asked Pam. The dolls had been sitting on the big bench at the side of the trail and chatting, when Pippa noticed something new.
Pam and Pauly both looked where Pippa was pointing.
“This is my patch,” Pam replied proudly. “Maryanne made it for me, so I would have one like hers.”
The three smaller dolls had offered to walk Pierre and Freckles, because Charlotte and Billy had orchestra practice after school. Now the dogs were getting bored with the smells in that one spot and were impatient to move to a new location, so the dolls climbed down from the bench and continued their walk.
Pam noticed that both of her friends seemed puzzled by what she had said, so she continued her explanation of the patch. “You remember how I told you Maryanne was going to start wearing a patch for her diabetes?” she asked.
Pauly and Pippa nodded. They thought back to when Pam first came into their lives a few months ago. Pam had been worried because the child she came to live with, Maryanne, was unhappy. Nico had brought Pam, his neighbor, to visit the dolls who lived with The Writer and her husband. He thought she should talk with Veronika.
Maryanne had just learned that she had diabetes (DY-uh-BEE-tees). She was afraid she had done something wrong and was being punished for it, or that she had made herself become diabetic by what she ate and did. Mandy had helped Pam find out that children who have diabetes aren’t being punished for something they did, and that human children can’t make themselves diabetic by what they do. It’s something they are born with. Mandy knows which websites have good information about health, so she knew where to look. She chose a trustworthy website, for a place called the Mayo Clinic. (She knows that not everything you read online is true; sometimes human people are helpful and sometimes they make things up.)
Veronika had helped Pam understand a doll’s job and how to help Maryanne.
When Maryanne had learned to hear Pam talking to her, Pam told Maryanne it wasn’t her fault that she had diabetes, and that she hadn’t made herself be this way.
“I think she felt a lot better after that,” Pam said.
“So why did she give you the patch, that thing on your arm?” Pippa asked, as they stopped on the trail so the dogs could sniff around, doing what dogs do.
“Remember when we got together to play that game?” Pam asked. “What was it called…” she tried to remember. “Slides and Stairways or something like that?”
“Chutes and Ladders,” Pauly reminded her. “It’s a fun game.”
“Yes!” Pippa exclaimed. “I remember now! When you came to play Chutes and Ladders, you told us Maryanne got some kind of thing to go on her arm to give her the medicine she needs.”
“Insulin, (IN-suh-len)” Pam said. “That’s the medicine. It’s a patch that gives her insulin when she needs it. It’s called an insulin pump. She wears it all the time. She can even wear it in the shower and in the swimming pool.”
“So is that thing on your arm is pretending to be an insulin pump?” Pauly asked.
“Yes,” Pam replied. “Maryanne made it for me, so we could pretend I have diabetes, too. Maryanne’s mother helped her cut up one of those plastic things that holds the bread shut.” Pam said.
“Maryanne decorated it with a pen and then used some of that tape that’s sticky on both sides and put it on my arm,” Pam added. “But she doesn’t keep it in one place all the time. She has to move it to a different place on her body every few days, so she moves mine at the same time.”
Pam went on talking as the dolls continued their walk. “Maryanne tells me all the things she has to do: watch her diet and exercise, and test her blood and stuff.”
“I think it helps her remember everything when she tells me,” Pam explained. “She’s teaching me and looking after me, so it makes it easier for her to remember what she has to do for herself.”
“Veronika told me the same thing,” Pam told them. “Maryanne knows a lot now.We went out to eat the other day. We were eating lunch at the coffee shop down the street.”
“I think I know the one you mean,” Pauly said. “Jeffy took me there once when his family ate out.”
“Well,” Pam went on, “you’ll never guess what happened,” she told them, as they all sat on some rocks to pretend to rest.
Pippa and Pauly wondered how they could guess, since they weren’t there. They looked at Pam. Maybe it was one of those things dolls say just to introduce what they are going to say next or to make sure you’re paying attention.
“We were sitting at the table in the coffee shop,” Pam said, “just the three of us. Maryanne and her mother were looking at the menu and talking about things Maryanne might like to eat that would work with her diet. They’re still getting used to it, you know.”
“Suddenly,” Pam continued, “this tall lady came over and started shaking her finger at Maryanne’s mother. She said she had heard us talking. (Well, she heard Maryanne and her mother talking. I don’t think she’s the type of human person who can hear us dolls when we talk. I don’t think she listens that well.)”
“This lady was scolding Maryanne’s mother,” Pam explained. “Scolding, yes, that’s what it was. She said it was all the fault of Maryanne’s mother that her daughter has diabetes. She should never have allowed Maryanne to have candy, and that was why she was diabetic.”
“Well, you’ll never guess what happened next,” Pam went on. “Maryanne stood up and looked up at this tall lady. She told her that it wasn’t true that eating candy caused her to have diabetes, and besides, she hardly ever had candy, because she had to brush her teeth afterwards, and it wasn’t always convenient. I just watched her. I couldn't believe she was teaching a grownup person something that lady didn’t know.”
“Then,” Pam said, “Maryanne said that she couldn’t help having diabetes any more than she could help having blue eyes. It just was, so the lady should just please mind her own business. Then she sat down and looked at her menu. She asked her mother if a hamburger would be OK, and her mother said it would, if she had it with salad instead of fries. The nosy lady just stood there for a bit and then turned around and walked off.”
The dolls got down from the rocks and continued on their walk. “We had a nice lunch,” Pam said. “Maryanne let me pretend to eat part of her hamburger. It was fun. I think the hamburger was tasty, at least I pretended it was.”
“You’ve come a long way,” Pippa pointed out, “since you first came to our house and didn’t know what to do.”
The three dolls and two dogs walked on in silence.
“I’m lucky to have such good friends,” Pam replied as they reached The Writer’s house. “All of you have been a great help.”
Pippa invited her friends in when they reached the door, but Pam explained that Maryanne and her parents were going to the movie tonight. “I have to go home to have Maryanne change my clothes,” she explained. “She’s taking me along!”
After Pippa and Pauly had brought the dogs inside and Pippa had closed the door behind them, the two dolls turned and watched Pam make her way back down the stairs and walk to the sidewalk that led to her home.
Pauly turned and looked at Pippa. “Maryanne brushes her teeth after she eats candy,” he said. “That reminded me that Nico says Frankie’s sister wears jewelry on her teeth now. It looks like a little bracelet on each tooth.”
“I wonder what it’s like to have teeth,” Pippa said.
“I wonder what it’s like to have blood and have to test it all the time,” Pauly added. “What’s blood, anyway?”
Veronika: Götz Classic Kidz Vroni
Mandy: Götz Happy Kidz Katie 2015
"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 © 2024 by Peggy Stuart
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