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.
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
"The Doll's Storybook" is not affiliated with Gotz Dolls USA Inc. or Götz Puppenmanufaktur International GmbH.
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Copyright © 2021 by Peggy Stuart
The dolls are so expressive. There was mention of Pippa's time in her box, do the dolls ever discuss what that was like as they awaited their new family? Might they wonder or imagine what their family life will be like? Every story has given much pleasure to our family.
ReplyDeleteI could not write these stories without these dolls. I'm so grateful that Götz produced them and that they have given me permission to use them in the blog and books. Smartphone technology came along just at the right time. Some of the stories mention the dolls' time in their boxes. Maybe a future story will be about that. Great idea!
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