Talents

Mariah looked up from her writing. "How do you see and hear what dogs and cats are thinking?" she asked Emil.

Emil thought for a moment. "I don't really know," he replied. "I guess, when I noticed it with the dogs, I thought everyone could do that."

"What did you see with the dogs?" Mariah asked then.

"Nothing important," Emil said. "It was just things like finding a worm in the backyard, or chasing a squirrel, or it's time to go for a walk."

"I suppose," Mariah suggested, "the dogs are happy and have everything they need. What Marmalade needed to say was important."
Emil nodded. "Yes, Marmalade really wanted Mandy to know that he belonged to her now," he agreed.

Mariah was still puzzled. "I wonder why I can't see or hear the animals in my head," she said. "I wonder if Mandy can explain it.
"Maybe we should go ask," Emil said. "I would like to know, too.

The dolls found Mandy on the table in the workroom, selecting yarn for a project. She looked up when they climbed up onto the table.

"Mandy," Mariah began, "we have a question we think you might be able to answer."

Mandy put down the yarn she was holding. "What is it?" she asked.

"Well," Mariah began. "Emil can't see much without his glasses, and he can't hear at all without his hearing aids, but he can see and hear what dogs and cats are saying, just the way we see and hear in our heads what other dolls are saying without using our eyes or ears."

"Yes," Emil agreed. "I don't know how I can do that when other dolls can't. We thought you might know."
"You know," Mandy began, "I had been wondering about just that very thing ever since we found out that Emil has this special ability."

"I decided to do some research," Mandy went on.

"What did you find out?" Emil asked.
"Well," Mandy continued, "We are made to be like people, so we react like people in a lot of ways."

Mariah and Emil looked at each other and nodded. They knew this already.

"I have known for a long time," Mandy went on, "that people who are born blind or deaf often grow to have special abilities,"like being really good at music or hearing things most people can't hear, for a blind person, or a deaf person noticing things they see that hearing people don't." 

"I've read about that," Mariah said. "It's as if they have a superpower to make up for what's missing."

"I remember being in my box," Emil explained. "My box was lined up with with a lot of other dolls in their boxes. They were talking about what they could see, but all I could see was when it was light and when it was dark."

"Sometimes they talked about noises or sounds," Emil continued, "but I didn't understand what they meant. I didn't find out about hearing until I came out of my box and I got these special glasses with the built-in hearing aids."

"That's what I thought," Mandy agreed. "You are like a person who was born deaf and nearly blind, because you couldn't hear, and you couldn't see much of anything."

"I thought, of course," Mandy went on, "that people who are blind or deaf just learn their special abilities to make up for not being able to see or hear."
"That would make sense," Emil agreed, and Mariah nodded.

"However," Mandy went on, "I found out that some scientists (SY-en-tists), those are people who study things in the real world, have learned that there is a part of the human brain for hearing and a part of the brain for seeing. When these parts of the brain are not used because the person is deaf or blind, these parts of the brain do other things that the person needs or can use."

"So that's why I can talk to animals," Emil said.

"I think so," Mandy agreed.
"Some of the dolls had pets, usually dogs, with them in their boxes," Emil went on. "There were doll pets alone in boxes, too. I could hear the animals, and see what they were thinking."
"Yes," Mandy agreed. "Maybe you were able to use that part of your brain to listen to the animals, because you weren't hearing anything with your ears or seeing with your eyes. At least I think that's what happened."

"I wonder what part of my brain that is," Emil said thoughtfully.

"Actually," Mandy said, "if we took your head off, we would not be able to see a brain in there. We might see the inside of your eyes, but no brain."
The dolls all thought about what that might look like. Emil didn't offer to take his head off.

"Dolls only have a pretend brain," Mandy continued, "but they work for us the way human brains work, and yours is like the brain of someone who was born deaf and blind but had some other ability instead."

"Wow!" Mariah exclaimed. "I wish I could talk to animals." She looked at Emil. "You're really special, Emil!"

"You're special, too, Mariah," Mandy said. "You have a gift for writing, and if you keep working on it the way you do, you can make your writing even better. You are really good at putting words together."

"I'm special, too?" Mariah asked.

"Yes," agreed Mandy. "We are all special, but the way each one of us is special is different for each doll. Children need us to be different from each other, because each child is different and special."

Just then, Marmalade came into the workroom. He jumped up on the table and came over to the dolls. He looked at Emil.
"Meow!" Marmalade said.

"Marmalade says that cats are very special," Emil said.

"Of course they are!" Mandy exclaimed. "Marmalade is sweet and beautiful. I'm glad he found me!"

"Meow," said Marmalade.
"He says he loves you, too," Emil told Mandy.

"I always wondered what meow meant," Mariah said, "and now I know."

"Meow means cats are special," she said, "but it also means 'I love you.'"

Cast--
Mandy: Götz Happy Kidz Katie 2015
Mariah: Götz Happy Kidz Mariah, "Chosen" from My Doll Best Friend
Emil: Götz Happy Kidz Emilia
Marmalade: Purrrfect Cats from KTL

Note: No dolls were harmed during production of this blog. All dolls shown are Götz Happy Kidz or Classic Kidz. If you like these stories and are willing, please make a donation of any amount to a charity that supports pediatric cancer, such as CURE Childhood Cancer, St. Baldrick's Foundation or St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
"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 2:00 PM Pacific Time.

If you would like to read the article Mandy found about special abilities of blind and deaf people, you can find it in Scientific American here.

Image on Mariah's shirt used with permission with thanks, from Free To Be Kids, where human-size shirts with this image are available.

Photo of a doll's head by Patricia Renwick, used with permission and thanks.

Like our Facebook page: The Doll's Storybook

<a href="https://www.bloglovin.com/blog/19832501/?claim=j3fj3mbb8kt">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Copyright © 2019 by Peggy Stuart