Jolena found Pippa in the bathroom, looking at herself in the mirror. She didn't seem to be fixing her hair or even admiring herself. She was just looking intently at her reflection.
"What are you doing, Pippa?" Jolena asked.
"I thought," said Pippa, "if I looked at myself long enough I would start to look like the rest of you."
"What do you mean?" Jolena asked.
"All of the rest of you are alike," Pippa said sadly. "I just look like Pippa."
"But you're just like us, only smaller," Jolena insisted. "There's nothing wrong with being smaller," she added.
Pippa would have rolled her eyes, if she could just get her eyes to move. She tried really hard, but they wouldn't move.
"I know," she countered when she had given up trying to roll her eyes. "I have two arms and two legs. My arms and legs have joints. I have elbow joints," she continued, pointing to her elbow.
"I have knee joints," Pippa went on, pointing to her knee.
"My body is hard vinyl, not soft stuff covered with cloth. I have hair. I have two eyes, two ears, a nose and a mouth," she continued, "and they are all on my head, just like the rest of you."
"But I don't look like the rest of you. I just look like Pippa," she insisted.
Jolena thought for a moment. "Pippa, look at me," she said.
Pippa did.
"Who am I?" Jolena asked.
Pippa looked at Jolena. "That's a silly question," she responded hotly. "I know who you are! You're Jolena!"
"How do you know?" Jolena asked Pippa. "How do you know I'm not Billy?"
Again, Pippa tried really hard to roll her eyes. She still couldn't, so she threw up her hands instead. "Billy is a boy!" she exclaimed in exasperation.
"So I don't look like Billy," Jolena agreed. "Maybe I could be Mariah."
"Jolena," Pippa said patiently. "Mariah's vinyl looks like milk chocolate. No one would mistake you for Mariah. She even has a different face."
"OK," Jolena agreed, "then how do you know I'm not Veronika? We have the same face."
"Because Veronika has brown hair and brown eyes, and she always wears all of her hair in braids, except for a little curl on each side," Pippa said, even more exasperated.
"See?" Jolena told her. "We're all different, too. Even the dolls who were made just like me at the factory and look just like me are different inside, where you can't see."
"I like to cook," Jolena said. "Some dolls who look just like me don't like to cook. Some don't even know how to boil water, let alone cook pasta."
"I like to fly through the air on my skis," she said. "Some dolls who look exactly like me only like to ski downhill. Some might even be afraid to stand on the bottom of the slide and look down!"
Pippa looked back at her reflection in the mirror. "I know there are other dolls who look just like me," she said. "I just wish I looked more like the rest of you. I wonder sometimes if I really belong."
"Of course you belong!" Jolena exclaimed. "Puzzle pieces are all different, and so are we. Without you, we would be like a puzzle all put together with one piece missing! I hate it when you get done, and all the pieces are used up, but there is still one piece missing!"
Pippa hated that, too. It was frustrating not to be able to finish the puzzle. That's why the dolls were always very careful to put all the puzzle pieces back in the box when they were done.
While Pippa was still thinking about that, Mandy came in and climbed up on the counter to see what the two sisters were up to. "What are you two doing?" she asked them when she had made it to the top of the counter.
Pippa and Jolena explained to Mandy how Pippa was worried that she didn't belong in the cast of The Doll's Storybook because she was so different from all of them.
"It's good that you're different," Mandy said. "We all have to be different, because real children are different, unless they're identical (eye-DEN-tih-kul) twins, and even identical twins aren't exactly alike."
Then Mandy noticed that Jolena was staring at them, first one and then the other. "What?" she asked Jolena.
"I had forgotten," Jolena replied, "that when Pippa first came to live with us, Veronika noticed that you two have the same face, just like she and I have the same face."
"Look in the mirror," Jolena said, "and you'll see that I'm right."
Pippa and Mandy looked at their themselves and each other in the mirror. "That's right!" Mandy cried. "Our faces are exactly alike, except for our hair and eyes, and I have freckles."
"We do look alike!" Pippa agreed joyfully, "except that I'm much smaller than you are," she added. "You look like my big sister!"
"I am your big sister," Mandy pointed out.
Emil came in just in time to hear the girls talking about how Pippa and Mandy look alike. He listened to them talking as he climbed up to the counter. He had something important to say. "I know someone else who looks like Pippa," he stated, once he had reached the girls. "In fact, she looks almost exactly like Pippa, except that she's my size."
The girls all looked expectantly at Emil. He knew they wanted to know who looked like Pippa. He had known they would be interested. "My friend Holly," he said. "She looks just like you, except she would be taller if she got out of her wheelchair and stood up. I never saw her do that though, because she needs the wheelchair to get around, but I noticed that she's my size. Other than that, she looks just like you. She wears her hair differently, but it's parted in the middle, just like yours, and it's the same color, and her eyes are light blue, like yours."
"Goodie!" Pippa exclaimed, clapping her hands. "Next time you write Holly, please tell her her look-alike said hi!"
Emil said that he would. He thought that would please Holly, too.
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.
Watch for the next story each Friday afternoon at 1:00 PM Pacific Time.
Copyright © 2021, 2024 by Peggy Stuart
