"What's the smile in the sky?" Pauly asked Pippa as the two dolls lay in the grass, watching the clouds.
"What smile?" Pippa asked. She could see a cloud that looked like a cat chasing a mouse, but she didn't see a smile.
"I don't see it now," Pauly responded. "I can see it at night sometimes from Jeffy's room.
"Jeffy changes his clothes each night when it's getting dark," Pauly explained. "He changes my clothes, too. Then I stand in the bathroom while he puts this long-handled little brush into his mouth and moves it around for a while. I watch."
"Brushing his teeth," Pippa said.
"Teeth?" Pauly asked.
"Human children have them," Pippa explained. "Some dolls do, too, but just for looks. Teeth are to help real children eat. They have to eat for real, not pretend."
Pauly thought he might like to learn more about this "eating" business, but he felt his story slipping away from him. "Then he gets in bed," he continued, "and puts me on the pillow next to him. He closes is eyes and is quiet for a long time, so I look out the window."
"Sometimes I can see the smile up there in the sky for a long time," Pauly said. "It isn't always in the same place, and sometimes it goes away. When it gets light again, Jeffy opens his eyes. He gets out of bed and changes our clothes."
"Wait a minute," Pippa cried. "Are you telling me you just lie awake all night long? Don't you sleep?"
"What's sleep?" Pauly wanted to know.
"Sleep," Pippa explained, "is where you lie in bed with your sleep mask on, and your mind goes on an adventure. Sometimes the adventure is scary, but it isn't real, so that's OK. It's called a dream, and it's normal."
"Sleep mask?" Pauly asked.
Pippa could see that Pauly really didn't know much yet, and maybe his human child didn't, either. "You're telling me you don't have a sleep mask?" she exclaimed. "Come in the house," she said, "and we'll find one for you to try."
The two dolls picked up the towel they had been using on the grass and went through the dog door.
They climbed the stairs, which is always a lot of work.
When they looked through the door to the workroom, they saw Mandy there, on the daybed, looking at some yarn.
"Mandy," Pippa said, "Pauly doesn't have a sleep mask. Can we let him try one of ours?"
"Sure," said Mandy, putting down the ball of yarn she was holding. "I'll get one from the boys' clothes basket."
All the sleep masks the girls used had lace trim, and Mandy already knew Pauly well enough to know that he would prefer one without the lace. She had to dig through the boys' clothes until she found what she was looking for. The boys wouldn't mind. They are always happy to share what they have with other dolls.
"We need sleep masks," Mandy explained, "because our eyes don't close when we lie down the way some dolls' eyes do. It's impossible for us to sleep without a sleep mask. Here's one!" she cried, pulling out a sleep mask from the big basket of clothes.
Mandy put the mask on Pauly.
"Now lie down," Mandy said, "and see how it is."
"I can't see anything," Pauly pointed out.
"That's the point," Mandy said, as she guided him to where there was a soft pillow, and helped him lie down.
"I remember when I first came," Pippa said as Pauly was getting settled. "Veronika gave me a sleep mask to wear. Then she tucked me in, and stayed in bed with me until I was asleep. I slept until morning."
"How did you find out that Pauly didn't have a sleep mask," Mandy asked.
"We were lying on the ground outside," the younger doll explained. "We were trying to decide what the kind of creatures the clouds looked like, and then Pauly told me he sees a smile in the sky at night when Jeffy is very quiet with his eyes closed for a long time.
"A smile?" Mandy asked. She tried to think what was around Pauly's house, which was in their neighborhood. She couldn't think of anything you would see in the sky that looked like a smile, and if there were, how would you see it at night? It would need light."
"I can't imagine," Mandy said slowly, "what that could be."
"In Alice in Wonderland," Pippa said, "I remember reading that the Cheshire Cat faded away, so all you could see was his smile, but I don't know why the Cheshire Cat would be in the sky in our neighborhood! The Cheshire Cat isn't real. He's just a character (KA-rik-ter) in a story."
Mandy tried to imagine a smile in the sky. Then, suddenly, something occurred to her. (Can you guess?) "I bet I know what it was Pauly saw!" Mandy exclaimed.
"What?" Pippa wanted to know.
"I think he saw the moon!" Mandy told her. "The moon is a crescent right now. I think it looks like a smile in the sky at night."
Pippa knew about the moon. She knew it was sort of a big ball that floated in the sky. Sometimes it seemed to change shape, and she had wondered out that. She thought about the moon. Yes, sometimes it did look like a big smile in the sky! Just like Alice's Cheshire Cat!
"Pauly!" Pippa exclaimed. "That smile you saw––it's the moon!"
Pauly didn't reply. The two girls looked at Pauly. He was not moving. He was quite still. He didn't seem to have heard Pippa.
Mandy moved over and looked at Pauly. Quietly, she whispered to Pippa, "Pauly's asleep!"
Mandy: Götz Happy Kidz Katie 2015
"The Doll's Storybook" is not affiliated with Gotz Dolls USA Inc. or Götz Puppenmanufaktur International GmbH.
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Copyright © 2022 by Peggy Stuart
😊 a sweet little story.
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