Pippa was looking for Emil. She found him in the kitchen, playing ball with Freckles.
"Emil," Pippa said, "could I ask you a personal question?"
Emil looked down at the smaller doll. "Sure, Pippa," he replied. "If it's too personal, I'll just tell you so."
"Well," Pippa began, "I've noticed that Mandy only wears her glasses when she's looking at something real close, like her knitting or a book. She takes them off if she's talking to someone."
Emil nodded. He knew this about Mandy.
"But I've also noticed," Pippa continued, "that you wear your glasses all the time. Why is that, if it isn't too personal?"
"No, it isn't too personal," Emil assured her. "I can explain it to you, but it's a long story." He threw the ball for Freckles.
The dolls began to walk down the hallway, so they could sit on the stairs and talk.
"You see," Emil said when they reached the stairs, "Mandy can see just fine, but she wears glasses because she was told when she was still in her box that she should wear them for close up work, and maybe she wouldn't have to wear glasses all the time."
"Mandy had the glasses right in her box," he added. "They were fastened to the box, right behind her head."
Pippa thought about that. She remembered that Mandy was always reading or knitting or doing homework when she wore her glasses.
She knew that Mandy had two pairs of glasses, so she could always find a pair to use if she needed them.
She knew that if Mandy was wearing her glasses and you asked her a question that needed a lot of explaining, she would take her glasses off. Then she usually put them on her head.
"So why don't you take your glasses off?" Pippa asked then.
"Well," Emil began, "I do take them off at night, but my problem is very different from Mandy's. I'm almost blind without them. I can only see if it's light or dark."
Pippa thought this was interesting. "How long have you been this way?" she asked.
"Always," came the reply. "When I was in my box I could reach out and feel the inside of the box, but I couldn't see it."
"I could hear the other dolls talking about things they saw through the window in the front of their boxes, but I didn't understand," Emil went on. "They also talked about sounds they heard. They heard things I couldn't hear, like the phone ringing."
"But you heard them talking," Pippa pointed out.
"Yes," Emil agreed. "Dolls can hear each other talking, because we talk to each other in our heads. Our mouths don't move, so we can't talk out loud."
Pippa thought about that. It seemed that human people needed to move their mouths to talk. She had noticed that when The Writer and her husband were talking. She had wondered why they did that.
"So when I was in my box," Emil continued with his story, "I could hear the other dolls talking, and I could talk to them, but I didn't hear the people talking. It was very confusing, trying to understand what the other dolls were talking about."
"Then one day," Emil explained, "someone took me out of my box and put these glasses on me. For the first time, I could see and hear."
"It was nice of them to do that for you," Pippa said.
"Yes," Emil agreed, "but then I had a new problem. No one seemed to want a doll who was defective (dee-FECK-tiv). That's like buying a toy that's already broken."
Pippa thought that was sad. She felt sorry for Emil. "How did you get here, then?" she asked.
"Well," Emil explained, "I found out that The Doll's Storybook needed another boy. I thought maybe they wouldn't mind that I needed my special glasses to see and hear. I wrote them a letter. I told them I would like to come here, but they should know about my problem."
"Weren't you afraid they wouldn't want you?" Pippa asked.
Emil agreed that he was afraid. "I had to tell them about my problem, because they would find out when I got here. I didn't want them to think I would lie to them."
Pippa knew lying was wrong, so she understood.
"I sent them a letter and explained my problem," Emil said. "Veronika read it to everyone, and they voted on it."
"They were happy to have me," Emil said. "They told me that some real human children need hearing aids to hear or glasses to see, so it's nice for them to read about a doll who is like them. That made me feel very welcome!"
"I don't wear my special glasses all the time, though," Emil said. "Come, and I'll show you where I plug them in at night, so they can charge."
They went up the stairs to the bedroom Emil shared with Billy. Emil showed Pippa the charger he used for his special glasses at night.
He explained that he had a special alarm clock that shook the bed instead of making a sound. He showed Pippa where the thing that made his bed shake was.
He explained that it was Billy's job to wake him if something happened during the night, like the time the smoke alarm went off by accident.
He explained how the ear pieces of his glasses made the sound go right through his head into his doll brain, because there's no hole in his ears for a hearing aid to go.
Pippa had a lot to think about. The dolls left the boys' bedroom and sat down at the top of the stairs.
"Am I defective, too?" Pippa asked. "I mean, I'm different from everyone else, because I'm so small."
"No," Emil reassured her. "You're small because you were made that way on purpose. There are lots of dolls like you, but it's good you're smaller than the rest of us, because some real human children never grow to be big, so they can enjoy reading about a doll who is like them."
Pippa was quiet for a long time. "That's a big responsibility," she said then.
"I'm glad I'm just small," Pippa said, "but I'm sorry you have to wear your special glasses to be able to see and hear."
"I'm very lucky, though," Emil told her. "Some real children can hear better with hearing aids, and some can see better with glasses, but there are some who can't hear at all, and there are some who can't see."
"I'm lucky for another reason, too," Emil said. "Some human people develop a special ability. Human people who can't see sometimes hear things others can't. I have a special ability. I can hear what animals say. None of the other dolls can do that...and Freckles says it's time for Billy to feed her!"
Pippa was impressed! Freckles was not impressed. It was what she expected.
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
"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.
<a href="https://www.bloglovin.com/blog/19832501/?claim=j3fj3mbb8kt">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>
Copyright © 2021, 2024 by Peggy Stuart
Hi, great pictures and story as usual. I like this one on "difference". Thank you!
ReplyDelete