Beliefs and Facts

Note: This story originally came out in April, 2020, during the Muslim celebration of Ramadan.

"I'm worried about Mariah," Emil said, sitting down next to Jolena on the front steps.

"Why?" Jolena asked. "What's wrong with her?"

"She isn't pretending to eat," Emil said. "She didn't have any breakfast, and she didn't come to lunch. I wonder if she's pretending to be sick."

Jolena laughed. "No, she isn't pretending to be sick," she said. "She's fasting. Ramadan (RAH-mah-dahn) has started, and she doesn't pretend to eat or drink anything during the daytime. She will do that for a month. She will pretend to eat after it gets dark, though, and she got up early this morning to have something to eat before sunrise."

"Why is that?" Emil asked. "What's Ramadan?"

"Muslim people and dolls fast during Ramadan," Jolena replied. "Ramadan is their name for the month of fasting."
Emil thought about this. Then he asked, "Why do they do that?"

Jolena had to think back to when Mariah explained it to her. 

She remembered they were on a bike ride, and Mariah didn't take water with her. Yes, that was how the subject came up! She wouldn't even take any when Jolena offered her bottle.

"Mariah told me that she and other Muslim people and dolls fast all day each day during Ramadan. That means that they don't eat or drink, pretend or for real," Jolena explained. Then she thought some more.

"She said it made them feel closer to God, only she used a different name for God. I think she called God Allah (AH-lah). She said fasting also made her feel grateful for what she had, because it showed her what it was like to do without," she added.

Emil thought about that. "I wonder why we don't all believe the same things," he said. "I mean, why is Mariah Muslim, but Charlotte and I are Jewish, and you and the others are Christian?"

"I've been wondering that, too," Jolena agreed. "Let's find Mandy or Veronika and ask. I'm not sure who would know more about it."

Veronika and Mandy were sitting together on the workroom table. Mandy was knitting, of course, and Veronika was reading to her.
"We have a question," Jolena began, as the two older dolls looked up.

"Yes," Emil said. "We're wondering why the dolls in our family believe different things. I mean, why we have different religions. Why is that?"

Mandy and Veronika looked at each other.

Then, as if by an unspoken agreement, Mandy began. "We exist...we are here ...to help children learn how to grow up to be kind, responsible adults. That's a doll's job," she explained.

"Yes," Veronika agreed. "Real children come from families that practice different religions or none at all, and some families, like ours, have more than one religion."

Jolena looked thoughtful. "But how do you know which religion is right?"

"Remember the experiment we did with the salt water?" Mandy asked, looking at Jolena. 

Jolena nodded. "Yes, I remember," she said. "It was before you came, Emil," she added, looking at her brother. "We put salt water in a dish, covered it with plastic, and the sun turned it into fresh water. The sun warmed the salt water and turned it into a gas. The gas rose to the plastic wrap that covered the dish and then dripped down into a smaller dish where the plastic wrap was weighted down with stones. That water wasn't salty."

"You're remembering that experiment well," Mandy told her. "We do experiments," she explained, "so we can test an idea we have. We call the idea a hypothesis (hy-PAW-thuh-sis). If the experiment proves the idea is right, we can call it a fact."

"With the salt-water experiment," Mandy continued, "our hypothesis was that we could make fresh water out of salt water using the energy from the sun. It worked, so we can say that it's a fact that we can make fresh water that way. Every time we try it the same way, it comes out the same."

Jolena and Emil looked at each other. They weren't sure they knew where Mandy was going with this talk about experiments.

Mandy knew what they were thinking, though. "You're wondering what experiments and facts have to do with your question," she said. "I want you to understand the difference between facts and beliefs," she explained. "Facts are things that can be proven, or if proven wrong, then they are not facts, but incorrect guesses."

"Religion is made up of beliefs," Mandy continued. "Beliefs are things we think are true but can't prove or disprove."

"Yes," Veronika agreed. "We may know in our hearts that our belief is true, but we can't prove it, and no one can disprove it, either. It doesn't mean it isn't true."

"So, when it comes to religion, we don't know who's right?" Emil asked.

"Maybe we're all right," Mandy replied. "Maybe the different things we believe are just different ways of seeing the same thing. We have no way of finding out, so you can't make other dolls believe something you believe if they don't."

"At the same time," Mandy continued, "We have to allow other dolls to believe what they believe. We don't have to all believe the same things."
"That takes us back to your first question," Veronika said. "Why don't we all believe the same thing? I think it's because real human people don't all believe the same thing. Real children need to learn to respect each other's beliefs so they will treat each other kindly when they grow up."

"All of our religions," Mandy pointed out, "teach that God or Allah or whatever we call the Supreme Being wants dolls to be kind to each other. Even dolls who don't have a religion think that's a good idea."

Suddenly the dolls in the workroom notice a pleasant aroma reaching their noses.

Charlotte is helping Mariah in the kitchen. They're cooking for Ramadan. Mariah won't eat until the sun goes down, but she is looking forward to it, because she is pretending to be very hungry.

All the other dolls decide to wait until the sun goes down to eat, so they can share the feast with Mariah. It will be fun!


Cast--
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

You can follow The Doll's Storybook here.

Do you have questions or comments for us? Would you like to order an autographed copy of one of our books? You can email us at thedollsstorybook@icloud.com.

Note: No dolls were harmed during production of this blog. All dolls shown are Götz Happy Kidz, Classic Kidz or Little Kidz. If you like these stories and are willing, please make a donation of any amount to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital or any organization that supports pediatric cancer research and treatment. We are not affiliated with St. Jude in any way other than these donations.

"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.

Do you like our stories? Some of them are available in print:

The stories in More Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Welcoming a Stranger, The Rescue, Unmasked, Fuzzy Town––A Play and Sky Blue.

Our Favorite Verses: Poems from The Doll's Storybook. Poems included are Valentine's Day, Keeping Pets, Back to School, Victor the Vulture, The Week Before Christmas, Insomnia and Veronika's Vocabulary Verses.

The stories in Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Little Green Greatcoat, The Boy Doll Who Cried Wolf and Lost in the Woods.

The stories in Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Best Buds, Getting What You Want, and The Boys Cook Dinner.

The stories in Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Being Little, Besties, and Distraction.

Coming soon: Billy: Stories from The Doll's Storybook.

If you don't get free shipping from Amazon or B&N, buy from the BookBabyBookshop, because 50% of the price goes to St. Jude. Other booksellers pay much less, because the vendor gets a cut. My author's page at Book Baby is here. Scroll down and click on any of the books that interest you. Find my books at Barbara's Bookstore as well.

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals or dolls were harmed during the production of this blog post.

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Copyright © 2020, 2025 by Peggy Stuart

Storytime in Bend

Once upon a time there were seven dolls. Their names were Charlotte, Mandy, Veronika, Billy, Mariah, Emil and Jolena. 

They all lived together in a big house with a little old man and a little old woman. The little old woman wrote stories about what she imagined the dolls were doing. The dolls enjoyed being written about.

They liked having their clothes changed and their hair brushed and arranged for photos that would go with the stories.

They liked pretending to go on adventures and to have fun together doing things. The dolls were happy that they had fun toys to play with. They were happy that they had books to read and pets to care for.

They liked pretending to sleep or eat. They liked pretending to be real human children.

The dolls listened to the little old man and little old woman talking to each other. The dolls heard them talking about how they were going to go on a trip and would be gone for a week. They talked about having the post office hold their mail until they got back. They talked about what clothes and other things they might need while they were gone.

One day the little old man and the little old woman put some things into the back of the car.

 
"The car is pulling out of the garage," Jolena said from the windowsill as the other dolls looked up at her. They listened as the garage door closed.

"The little old lady is getting in on the passenger side," Jolena said.

"That's it! They've gone," Jolena said. "The car just drove away."

"What should we do while they're gone?" Billy asked. "We have the house to ourselves."

"Let's clean the house again!" Veronika exclaimed. "That was so much fun the last time!"

"Let us, I mean Emil and me, do the vacuuming," Billy said. "We've done it before, and we're good at it."
"You can do the vacuuming, Billy," Mandy said, "but don't forget, you will need to do the dusting first. Otherwise, the dust will fall on the clean floor. You want the vacuum to pick it up."

The dolls all agreed that cleaning the house again would be fun.
The boys got to work getting the dusting done, so they could get on to the fun part.

Mariah and Jolena changed the sheets on the beds. They had to work together, because it's hard to do when you're so small. They carried the dirty sheets down the hall to the laundry room. Then they got out some clean sheets from the linen closet. They worked together to get the clean sheets on the bed and the pillows into the pillow cases.

Veronika did the laundry. She washed all the white things together and then put them into the dryer. Then she washed the colored things. She would put them into the dryer when it was done. She knew the colors sometimes like to leave one thing and move into something that's supposed to be white.

Mandy and Charlotte cleaned the bathrooms.

When they were done, they got dressed and went looking for the others. They found the other girls in the workroom. The boys were not there. 

"Where are the boys?" Charlotte asked when she and Mandy were dressed.

"I think I hear the vacuum downstairs," Mariah told them. "They must still be working."

The girls went downstairs to look for the boys. They found them in the dining room, still vacuuming the floor. They were using the new robot vacuum cleaner. They were having too much fun to stop. All they had to do was push a button, and the vacuum would move around on the floor, sucking up all the dirt and dust. The boys had been letting Billy's teddy bear ride it and pretend to be driving. Billy and Emil knew they were not supposed to climb onto the vacuum, but Teddy is very small and light.

The dolls spent the next few days reading, playing games and pretending to eat and sleep.
Every day, the boys would run the robot vacuum for a while. They knew it wasn't a toy, but they still thought it was fun. They named it "Beatrice (BEE-ah-triss) the Cleaning Lady." They took turns using the remote control to change the way Beatrice cleaned. They laughed when Beatrice bumped into something and just turned away to vacuum in another direction. They knew it didn't hurt Beatrice to bump into things. When Beatrice was tired, she would go back to her charging station.

On the last day, Jolena got some frozen tomatoes out of the freezer and started them cooking on the stove to make jam.

While the jam was cooking, Jolena started a loaf of bread in the bread machine.

When the jam had cooked long enough, Jolena washed some jars. Then she spooned the jam into the clean jars.

She left the jars of jam on the big cutting board on the stove.

When the bread was baked, she took it out of the oven. 

While it was cooling, she went and found a clean cloth napkin. She wrapped it in a cloth napkin and left it on the counter.

The little old woman and the little old man returned in the evening.

"I'm tired," the little old woman said, as she put down her suitcase. "I'm not looking forward to cleaning the house," 
"I'll do the dusting," said the little old man. "Then we can run the vacuum. Just let me get a good night's sleep first."

Then the two real human people stopped and looked around. Something was different, and they had the feeling they were being watched.

"The house looks clean," said the little old woman.
"It smells clean, too," said the little old man, "and I think I smell fresh bread! We must have elves!" he added with a laugh. He looked around. (Elves! What a silly thought!)

The "elves" stifled their giggles.

The old couple walked into the kitchen, following the smells.

There they found the jars of homemade tomato jam, still warm.

On the counter was the bread, wrapped in a cloth napkin, also still warm.

The little old lady and the little old man thought they knew who had been busy in their house. "We should do something to thank them," the little old man suggested.
"I know what!" the little old lady exclaimed. "I'll write them a story about how dolls cleaned the house!"
"No one will believe it," the little old man pointed out.
"I'll just start it the way you start fairy tales," she replied, "'Once upon a time...'"
"Does that mean we get to live happily ever after?" he asked with a smile.
The old lady nodded. "It has worked so far," she pointed out.


Cast--
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
Beatrice: Eufy 35C RoboVac
The little old lady and the little old man: themselves

You can follow The Doll's Storybook here.

Do you have questions or comments for us? Would you like to order an autographed copy of one of our books? You can email us at thedollsstorybook@icloud.com.

Note: No dolls were harmed during production of this blog. All dolls shown are Götz Happy Kidz, Classic Kidz or Little Kidz. If you like these stories and are willing, please make a donation of any amount to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital or any organization that supports pediatric cancer research and treatment. We are not affiliated with St. Jude in any way other than these donations.

"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.

Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook, Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook, Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook and Our Favorite Verses: Poems from The Doll's Storybook are available from BookBaby and other booksellers worldwide, such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble. 

Author's page on Amazon. 

Royalties (net proceeds) go to support pediatric cancer research and treatment. If you don't get free shipping elsewhere, buy from Book Baby. Half of the price goes to charity (specific information available upon request). Autographed copies of all three books are available from the author. (Multiple books to the same address have a discount on shipping.) To inquire, email thedollsstorybook@icloud.com.

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Copyright © 2020, 2024 by Peggy Stuart