The Doll's Storybook

Stories about dolls who live in our world. Although these stories are suitable for children, they should check with their parents before reading and always be careful online. Readers are invited to donate to a charity supporting pediatric cancer treatment and research. Images shown are taken by the author or from a free image website with attribution and appreciation. The author has no connection with Götz Puppenmanufaktur, but gives them credit for the amazing dolls they produce.

Friday, May 28, 2021

Wheels on the Court

Jolena heard the dog door flap fall into place with a thwap! She looked up to see Emil, just getting on his feet by the door.

"Hey, Jolena!" Emil said. "Guess what my friend Holly is doing!"

Jolena thought she remembered what Emil had said about his friend. "Isn't your friend Holly the doll who uses a wheelchair?" she asked.

"That's right," Emil agreed, waving a couple of sheets of paper. "I just got a letter from her. Guess what she's doing!"

Jolena thought about it while Emil was climbing up onto the bench.

"Well," she said when Emil was comfortably seated, "I guess she's doing all the normal doll things," she said, "all the things we do, only using a wheelchair when she needs to get around. Is there something unusual she's doing?" Jolena thought Emil wouldn't be waving Holly's letter at her if it was something ordinary.

"She's going to be an athlete (ATH-leet)!" he exclaimed as he settled down on the bench.

"A doll in a wheelchair becoming an athlete is an accomplishment!" Jolena agreed. She knew that athletes are dolls who do sports. Jolena is an athlete. She performs fancy tricks on skis. She uses her legs a lot.

"That's what I thought, too," Emil said, "but it sounds fun, and not too hard for her. She explains it in her letter!"

Jolena put down her book. "Why don't you read it to me?" she suggested. She knew he wanted to.

Emil nodded and began to read.

Dear Emil,

I've had some excitement come into my life lately. You know how I said that Samantha, the human girl I live with, uses a wheelchair, too? Hers is much bigger than mine, of course, but it works the same way. Well, last week, she went to a wheelchair basketball class in the city where we live. I waited patiently at home for her to return.

It was a special class to teach basketball to children who need to use a wheelchair.

Sam told me all about the class when she got home. She said they will put her on a team, once she learns. She was so excited! Yesterday she let me use her dog's ball to play basketball the way she does. We used a plastic container for the basket and put it on a shelf, so it would be up high. We had a lot of fun. I made two baskets! (Do we have to call it a "plastic container" when we score? If so, I made two plastic containers! I won't tell you how many times I missed!)

I had so much fun playing basketball that I decided to see if there is a dolls' team. It would be fun to play basketball (plastic container ball?) with other dolls. Sam's mother let me use her phone to look it up.

I was very happy to learn that dolls do have a program for wheelchair basketball! I signed up, and soon I will begin practicing with other dolls in wheelchairs. If I get to be good enough, I might be chosen for a team! Sam tells me what she learns. When I practice with Sam, I pay attention to everything she says.

I learned that there are other sports for dolls who use wheelchairs, but I think I will stick with wheelchair basketball, because that's what Sam does, and we can practice it together. I study the rules while Sam is away.

I read your stories every week. I think you're lucky to get to be in them, but I think I'm lucky, too. Sam has other dolls, but I'm the only one who uses a wheelchair. I think that's why she plays with me more than the others. The other dolls are good company when Sam is at school, though, and we have great pretend adventures together. They never make me feel as if something is wrong with me. Using a wheelchair is just part of who I am.

Say hello to your sisters and your brother for me. I feel like I know them from your letter!

Your friend,

Holly

"It's a nice letter," Jolena told him. "It's interesting. "I had never heard of wheelchair basketball before. I guess it's because I mostly just know about winter sports, like skiing."

Jolena thought for a moment. "You see, there are some winter sports for dolls who can't use their legs, too," she said. "I've seen them practice. They have a special sled they can sit in to use for skiing. I don't think they can do flips in the air, but they can ski downhill very fast, and I've even watched human people do it."

"That sounds like fun," Emil said. "I would like to watch."

"Maybe you can," Jolena said. "Sometimes they show it on the Doll TV Network. There are other sports, too. Dolls who can't use their legs, like Holly, can play ice hockey. Maybe that was one of the other sports she found out about. They use a special kind of sled for that, too."

Emil knew that ice hockey was sort of like basketball, except you use a stick to make a thing called a puck slide around on the ice. They had a big frame with a net for the goal right on the ice instead of a net basket up high. Dolls and human people who can use their legs wear skates.

He tried to imagine sitting in a kind of sled to get around on the ice. He thought about that for a bit. This is what he was trying to imagine.

"You know," Emil said, "I felt sorry for Holly when they couldn't fix her legs. I know it's great she can use a wheelchair, and she has a great family, but I can't imagine what it would be like not to be able to run around."

Jolena agreed. She had trouble thinking what it would be like, too.

"I'm lucky," Emil continued. "I have my special glasses. They let me see and hear almost like other dolls, so I can do just about anything everyone else does. Holly can do everything we can do, but she can't run and jump."

"I felt bad for Holly," Emil went on, "but now I'm happy for her. She can do most of the fun things the rest of us can do. She just does them differently, and she can share it with Sam. She sounds excited about it, and happy."

"Holly can change her own clothes," Emil pointed out. "She can fix her own hair. In that way, she's just like us. Can you imagine if we couldn't dress ourselves or fix our own hair? What if someone else had to do it for you?"

Emil and Jolena thought about what that must be like.

If you couldn't dress yourself, maybe you wouldn't even get to pick out your own clothes! It was hard for a doll to imagine. Jolena tried to imagine standing on a shelf wearing a dress!

Cast--
Jolena: Götz Happy Kidz Lena in Aspen
Emil: Götz Happy Kidz Emilia

Holly: Götz Little Kidz Lotta

Photo credits, with thanks:

Girl playing wheelchair basketball photo by Danny Nee on Unsplash

Ice hockey by Gerhard Crous on Unsplash

Hockey sledge by Randykwapis

Ski sledge image courtesy of Craig Douce

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.

"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 is available from Amazon worldwide. Also available from Barnes & Noble, BookBaby and other booksellers. Royalties go to support pediatric cancer research and treatment.

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Copyright © 2021 by Peggy Stuart

Friday, May 21, 2021

When Dolls Sleep

Billy woke with a start! He could hear crying.

"Help!" came a cry he heard in his head.

"It's Pippa!" he thought.

Billy jumped out of bed. He grabbed a knitting needle from the workroom and ran to Pippa's bed.

There was a full moon, and even in the dark, Billy could see Pippa sitting up in bed. She had taken off her sleep mask and was holding the covers up.

"What is it?" he asked.

"A monster is trying to get me!" she cried, putting her hands over her eyes.

Billy looked around. "I don't see a monster," he said. It was dark, but he was sure if the monster had frightened Pippa, it could be seen.

"Maybe the monster is under the bed!" Pippa said.

Billy held the knitting needle ready, like a sword, and looked under the bed. He looked under one side, then the end and then the other side.

"Your bed goes all the way down to the floor, Pippa," Billy pointed out. "There can't be a monster under your bed. Not even dust bunnies would fit there."

"Maybe it's in the closet!" Pippa suggested.

Billy opened the closet and looked in, holding the knitting needle ready. "There's no monster in the closet," he said, lowering his sword.

Just then, the rest of the dolls showed up.

Emil was last, still adjusting his special glasses.

"What's up?" Mandy asked, looking around.

"I guess the whole family is up, now," Billy replied.

Pippa started to cry again. "It's a monster!" she cried. "It was trying to get me!"

The other dolls looked around the room.

Charlotte tried to look under the bed. There was no monster. Nothing would fit.

The dolls looked behind other things in the room. Mariah looked behind the table. Billy was ready with his sword, just in case. It was dark behind the table, but there was no monster.

Emil looked in the closet. Again. There was not even a monster suit, hanging on a coat hanger.

Jolena looked behind the pillow. She carefully put her hand in there, ready to pull it out again if something tried to bite. There was not even a tiny monster there.

The dolls did not find a monster anywhere.

While the other dolls were still looking, Veronika got up on Pippa's bed and put her arm around the smaller doll. "Why don't you tell me what happened," she suggested.

"The monster was chasing me!" Pippa exclaimed. "It was big and hairy."

Then Pippa thought for a moment. "No," she said then, "it was more like covered with petals, like a flower. It was big and yellow, and it yelled at me."

"Where were you?" Veronika asked.

Pippa had to think. "I think I was outdoors," she said, "but I don't remember going outdoors, and it was daytime, I think, but it's dark outside now."

"I know what happened," Veronika said. "You had a bad dream."

"What's a dream?" Pippa asked.

"It's something your doll brain does to help it rest," Veronika explained. "We don't always remember our dreams, but we all have them."

The other dolls all nodded their heads, or murmured their agreement.

"We dream when we're in our boxes," Veronika continued, "before someone unties all the fasteners that keep us from rolling around in our boxes and getting damaged. Dreaming gets our doll brains ready to start learning new things."

"I think I remember that," Pippa said, thinking back to when she was in her box.

"We dream every night," Veronika went on. "Dreaming helps our doll brains deal with new things we've learned during the day, or worries that we have. Sometimes the dreams might be scary, especially if we're worried about something."

"I had a bad dream once," Jolena remembered, coming to sit on the bed. "I dreamed I did a flip on my skis, but I messed up the landing and landed on my head instead of my skis. My head came off and rolled away, still in my helmet. Lots of dolls were watching. I was so embarrassed!"

"I had a bad dream, too," Billy added. "I dreamed that someone was washing my hair and got water in my eyes. I was afraid I was going to get silver eye. A sword doesn't help with silver eye."

"The thing to remember," Veronika said, "is that what happens in your dreams isn't real. If you dream about a monster, it can't hurt you."

Pippa had been thinking. "I think the monster was really a big, angry flower," she decided.

"I cut one of the yellow flowers in the yard yesterday," Pippa confessed. "I brought it inside. Then I worried that I had hurt the plant."

"You can't hurt the plant by picking flowers," Mandy said. "Flowers like to come indoors and be with us. They like to have us enjoy them. It doesn't hurt the plant as long as we don't take them all."

"We need to leave some outdoors to feed the bees and hummingbirds," Mandy explained, "and the plants need to keep some of their flowers, but they don't need them all, and they don't get angry if you pick a few."

"I feel better now," Pippa said.

"Would you like me to sleep with you tonight?" Veronika asked.

Pippa nodded.

"Scoot over. I'll climb in next to you," Veronika said as she got under the covers.

Pippa put her sleep mask back on and settled down on the pillow. Veronika put the covers over them both.

Mandy handed Veronika her own sleep mask, because Veronika had left hers on her bed, and then she left with the other dolls to go back to bed. In just a few minutes, Veronika could tell that Pippa was asleep. She smiled. Well, she felt a smile in her doll brain. She was glad little Pippa was calm again.

"Tomorrow," she told herself, "I'll have to ask Jolena how she got her head and her body back together in her dream. I think there's a story there." Veronika loves stories.

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

Pippa: Götz Little Kidz Lotta