"Careful, Pauly," Pippa cried! "Don't touch that!"
Pauly jumped back from the electrical outlet he had been investigating.
"Why not?" he asked. Pippa had sounded so anxious!
"You can get a very bad shock," Pippa replied. "I'm not sure, but I think maybe it could even melt your fingers! Then you would have to go to the doll hospital and get that part of your arm replaced. That might take a long time, if they don't have lots of right-hand-and-arm parts in stock in our size!"
Pauly looked at his hand and his arm. He thought about all the things he needed it for.
"How do you know?" Pauly wanted to know. "I mean, how did you find out the electrical outlet is dangerous."
"Well," Pippa began, "I made a lot of mistakes when I first got here, and the other dolls helped me to learn these things, like when I investigated the medicine cabinet. Mariah found me doing it and said I shouldn't."
"What's wrong with checking out the medicine cabinet?" Pauly asked.
Pippa wanted to roll her eyes, but her eyes don't roll. She really wanted to roll them, though, so she rolled her whole head around instead.
Then she realized that she had been lucky to come into a home with other dolls who knew stuff. Pauly only had Jeffy's bear, and maybe bears didn't need to know all the things dolls need to know. "Mariah told me," she explained, "that stuff like some medicines and mouthwash and cough medicine may smell good, but they can make real children sick if they swallow them. If we pretend to swallow one of them, our readers might think it's OK. It's very important to set a good example. I can see why a real human child might think that mouthwash was good to drink, but it isn't. You're supposed to spit it out. Mariah explained that."
"Then," Pippa went on, "when the Emil and Billy were checking the house for dangerous things because The Writer was going to look after her neighbor's child so her neighbor could go to work, they talked about needing to put stoppers in all the electrical outlets all over the house."
"Come with me," Pippa told Pauly then. "I'll show you all of the things I know are dangerous for children. Some things are dangerous for us, too, like that electrical outlet."
Pippa led Pauly into the kitchen. She opened the oven door, so the two dolls could look inside. "This," Pippa said, "is a stove. It can get very, very hot inside when it's being used. Never open it and touch anything inside when it's on. It can melt your vinyl! Human people and dolls who cook use something called potholders to take things out, but just stay away from it until someone teaches you."
"It can get hot up on top, too," Pippa explained, "because they cook stuff on top sometimes. They have things up there called burners, and I know why they call them that! If you burn your hand, it can melt!"
Pauly thought about that. So many things can melt your vinyl.
Pippa opened the dishwasher and showed Pauly the inside. "Never climb into the dishwasher," she said. "Someone could come along and close it. They could turn it on. It washes everything inside with lots of water. I can't imagine what you would look like after you came out," she added.
Pippa led Pauly to the refrigerator. She looked around until she found what she was looking for.
She pulled out a container, opened the lid and showed Pauly what was inside. It was grey and fuzzy. "Never," Pippa said, "ever pretend to eat something that looks like this. It's spoiled and could make you pretend to be sick."
It looked like greenish gray velvet, sort of pretty, but it didn't smell pretty.
The dolls put the container back into the refrigerator, because Pippa knew it was part of an experiment Mandy was working on, so she shouldn't throw it out.
"So," Pauly said, "if it could make me pretend to be sick, it could make a real child like Jeffy sick for real!"
"You catch on fast!" Pippa exclaimed. She was beginning to realize that Pauly was actually pretty smart. He just didn't know much yet, but he would learn.
Pippa led Pauly over to one of the cabinets. She opened the bottom drawer and pulled out a plastic bag and showed it to him. "This is a plastic bag," she said. "Never, ever, put one of these over your head. You won't be able to pretend to breathe."
Then she thought for a moment. "Well, we dolls don't really have to breathe. The Writer used a bag one time when it was raining and she was taking Mandy out with her. She did it to keep her from getting wet, but she told our readers that real children should not put a plastic bag over their heads. Real human children need to breathe air, and air doesn't go through plastic. (Mandy just pretended to hold her breath. It's easy for a doll.)"
"We don't want to set a bad example for real human children," Pauly said thoughtfully, and Pippa agreed.
"Let's go on to the next thing," Pippa said as Pauly followed her into the bathroom, where she opened the cabinet under the sink. "These are cleaning supplies," she said. "You can use them if you're pretending to clean the house, but you have to be very, very careful with them. You need to wait until someone shows you how."
"What can they do to a real human child?" Pauly asked.
"They can damage their eyes," Pippa replied, "or make them very sick if they try to drink some of them."
"Come with me," Pippa said then. They walked down the hall to the front door, and Pippa opened it. "Let's go outside," she said.
When they were outside, they climbed up onto the wicker seat on the front porch. Pippa pointed up to the rail. "You can get a good view from up on that rail," she said, "but don't go up there."
Pauly looked at Pippa. He knew she would explain.
"You could fall down to the ground, and maybe your head would come off and roll away," Pippa explained. "Maybe they wouldn't be able to find it in the bushes. Then where would you be?"
"How do you know?" Pauly inquired.
"Don't ask!" was all Pippa would say. "Let's go to the street."
"Streets are very dangerous," Pippa said, "especially for dolls and other small creatures. We're hard to see, so if someone is driving a car, they don't know to stop. You have to be very careful and look both ways before you start to cross the street. Look left, then right, then left again."
"What if your ball goes out into the street, though?" Pauly asked.
"Let the ball go!" Pippa replied emphatically. "Always look both ways before you go to get it, and if a car is coming, wait! It's better if the ball gets squished than that you do!"
The dolls went back into the house. "That's a lot of dangerous things to remember," Pauly mused, as they closed the front door.
"I'll have to be thinking all day long about so many things to stay safe and to set a good example for Jeffy," Pauly added.
"It isn't so bad," Pippa assured him. Soon you'll get where you know what's dangerous and what isn't. You won't have to think about it so much. I'll tell you what," Pippa told him, "Go sit on the couch, and I'll get us some cookies."
That sounded good to Pauly. He went into the living room and climbed up onto the couch.
In just a few minutes, Pippa climbed up beside Pauly with a plate of cookies. "Help yourself," Pippa said, offering him the cookies.
"What kind of cookies are they?" Pauly asked, as he took one. (He knew there were lots of different kinds of cookies.)
"I don't know," Pippa replied. "They must be really good, though. The Writer and her husband buy a lot of them," she said. "They keep them in a dish on the floor, so they're easy for dolls to get to."
"The dogs love them," Pippa added. "They eat them all the time."
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.
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Copyright © 2022 by Peggy Stuart
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