"Why can't we go to the beach, Mandy?" Pippa whined. "You promised me we would go today!" She stamped her tiny vinyl foot on the windowsill, where the dolls had been looking out at the rain.
"It's pouring down!" Mandy said. "This isn't a good day to go to the beach."
"But we will get wet in the water anyway," Pippa pointed out. "Why does it matter that it's raining?"
Just then, both dolls heard a loud boom.
"Eek!" screamed Pippa dropping down to sit on the windowsill. "What was that? Was that the sky cracking?"
"No," Mandy said as she sat down beside the frightened doll. "It's OK," she said. "We're in the house, where it's safe."
Mandy could see that Pippa was no longer disappointed; now she was frightened.
"It's normal," she said, soothingly. "That bright flash of light was something called lightning (LYT-ning)," she explained. "The loud boom was thunder. They go together. Let's get down, and I'll explain it to you."
Pippa threw her towel down from the windowsill. Then she dropped down after Mandy.
If Mandy said they were safe, it must be so. Mandy had never, ever, lied to her. She thought about this as she stood up.
"Lightning and thunder are part of nature," Mandy explained, as the dolls walked down the hall. "They often go along with rain, especially this time of year, and they always happen together. Lightning is made out of electricity."
"You mean like what we use to turn on the lights and make the microwave oven go?" Pippa asked.
"Yes," Mandy agreed. "You know how we've taught you not to stick your fingers or anything else into the electrical outlets or into the toaster?"
Pippa nodded. She thought back to how Billy had dollsplained it to her. (She knew it was called dollsplaining when a doll explains something that's very important to know, even if you already know it.)
Mandy never dollsplains; Mandy teaches. It's different. Pippa also remembered that when the boys did a survey of the house to find places where a small child could get hurt, they decided to get stoppers for those electrical outlets.
Pippa stopped walking and turned to face Mandy. "Electricity is useful, but if you don't use it correctly it can melt your vinyl," she said, matter-of-factly.
Mandy nodded. "Well," she continued, "lightning is like that, only much bigger and more powerful. It won't hurt you unless you're in a place where it reaches down to the earth."
"Thunder is the voice of the lightning," Mandy went on. "It tells us how far away the lightning happened."
"All I heard was 'boom!'" Pippa exclaimed. "I didn't hear it say anything." (This was new information. She wondered if she should be taking notes, so she would remember it all.)
"It doesn't tell you in words," Mandy said. "It tells you by how long it takes from the time you see the lightning until you hear the thunder. The longer it takes, the further away the lightning happened."
"How is that?" Pippa wanted to know. "When someone presses the doorbell, we hear the sound right away. When one of the real dogs bark, we hear it right then."
"That's because those things happen very close to us," Mandy explained. "Lightning usually happens a long way away. We see the lightning first, because light moves very fast through the air. Sound moves more slowly, so we hear the thunder later."
While Pippa listened, Mandy explained that when you see lightning, you can start counting slowly, one number each second. "You stop counting when you hear the thunder. That's the number of seconds between the lightning and the thunder. Divide the number of seconds by 5, and it will tell you how many miles away the lightning happened," Mandy said.
As if on cue, there was another flash of lightning. Mandy began counting on her fingers, one, two, three, four, then "Boom!" said the thunder just as Mandy got to five.
"The lightning was one mile away," Pippa said. (She knew that when you divide a number by itself, the answer is always 1.) "What's a mile?" she asked then.
"That's how we measure long distances in this country," Mandy replied. "One mile is about like from here to the grocery store."
Pippa tried to make her eyes big and round, but that didn't happen. Instead, she just felt amazed inside. "That's not far away at all!" she exclaimed.
Then Pippa had an awful thought. "Are dolls getting melted," she asked in horror, "every time the lightning goes off?"
Mandy tried not to laugh, as she reassured the smaller doll. "No," she said. "Most of the time, it never reaches down to where we are, but sometimes it strikes the earth, or a tree or especially something metal sticking up. The danger is, by the time you see the lightning, it has already happened."
"You see," Mandy continued, "If the lightning hits the water, the electricity travels to the shore and into anything standing or sitting on it. If we were swimming, or standing on the beach, and lightning struck the water anywhere near us, it could melt our vinyl. If there is lightning happening anywhere where you can see it, you need to stay indoors. That's why we can't go to the beach today! Let's check the weather report for tomorrow," she added. "Maybe we can go to the beach then."
"I'm sad we can't go to the beach," Pippa said, "but I'm glad you know these things, Mandy. I don't want to get melted! I would rather wait another day to go to the beach than to get melted."
Mandy knew that Pippa was no longer frightened, but disappointed again. "I know what," she said, "Let's have a picnic right here in the workroom! We can pretend we're at the beach."
So they did. (Dolls are good at pretending; it's one of the things we can learn from them.) Mandy dug out some props to use. Pippa knew that props are things used by people who put on a play, like a book (if they're pretending to read), or a telephone (if they're pretending to talk on the phone). Props make it easier for them to pretend. Mandy found some seashells in the big bin that holds all the props for The Doll's Storybook.
Then she got out the markers and some paper for Pippa to draw a picture of the beach, while she went to make a picnic lunch. Pippa's picture showed the waves crashing on the shore. It showed seagulls in the sky. It showed the sun shining down on the beach. Best of all, there was no lightning; at least not at their beach.
With all the lights on, the fan running, a picnic lunch, towels and seashells, and Pippa's picture taped to the cabinet, it was easy for the dolls to pretend they were really at the beach.
Pippa pretended to dig in the pretend sand.
Mandy showed Pippa how you can even hear the waves crashing on the shore when you hold a seashell up to your ear.
"This is fun!" said Pippa. "Let's do this again next time there's lightning."
Mandy thought that was a great idea!
Mandy: Götz Happy Kidz Katie 2015
Marmalade: Purrrfect Cats from KTL
"The Doll's Storybook" is not affiliated with Gotz Dolls USA Inc. or Götz Puppenmanufaktur International GmbH.
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