"I'm puzzled about something," Billy said as the boys rode along the trail. "The teacher had us working in teams on a science assignment," he said.
Emil loved listening. He loved hearing the crunch of the bicycles' tires on the ground. He loved hearing the birds singing and the squirrels chattering to each other. The sound of the train whistle and the whirr of its wheels on the tracks made him happy.
Emil was happy to listen to Billy, too, even though he didn't need his special glasses to hear Billy talking to him. He could hear Billy's voice over the sounds the bicycles, the birds, the squirrels and the train were making. He could hear Billy in his head. Billy is Emil's friend. "Tell me about it," he told Billy.
The boys stopped at the old tree log, where they liked to sit and talk, and watch the birds and squirrels. They got off their bikes and took off their helmets.
"My teacher picked some of us to be team captains,"Billy began. "Then she let the captains pick one doll to be on the team and she assigned one of the dolls left over to be on the team," Billy explained, while the boys settled on the log.
"We did something like that in my class, too," Emil said. "It was interesting."
"Yes," Billy agreed. "I was one of the dolls who got to be captain," Billy went on. "I picked Marty to be on my team, because he's always saying how he's the best scientist ever. No one knows as much about science as he does, he says, so I thought he would be good on the team." Billy paused to think how to say the next part. "The teacher picked Adam to be on our team," he said. "We had to take him, but I didn't think he knew much, because he doesn't say much. I figured Marty and I would do all the work."
"Last week the Teacher started growing rock candy," Billy continued. "She made some water boil, then added sugar to it. When you couldn't see any more sugar, she added more."
Emil nodded. They had done the same thing in his class, but he let Billy talk. Billy explained things better if you didn't interrupt him too often. Talking helped him organize his ideas.
"She kept adding sugar," Billy went on, "until she couldn't get it to disappear anymore. Then she poured the sugar water into a jar. She put stick down into the sugar water. What do you suppose happened?" Billy asked then.
"What happened?" Emil asked. He knew what happened, because they had done it in his class, too, but it was better to let Billy explain it."
"We checked the jar each day," Billy told him. "Colorless crystals started to appear around the stick. Each day they were bigger."
Emil could hear a squirrel complaining that someone had found where he had his seeds and nuts hidden. He just nodded and encouraged Billy to go on. He knew that Billy's experience would be different from his, and it would probably be very interesting.
"In our team," Billy said, "we needed to come up with ideas about why it happened and think of a way to test our ideas. Marty said he knew all about how it happened, and it was magic, but Adam wondered why you had to wait until all the sugar had dissolved. I thought that was an interesting question. I was pretty sure it wasn't magic. The three of us talked it over, but I was disappointed that Marty was no help at all."
Billy paused and then continued. "Adam and I came up with an experiment to test our idea that there was too much sugar in the water, and so the sugar started to leave the water and attach to the stick. Adam called it saturation (satch-oo-RAY-shun). That's when you can't get the water to take up any more sugar, he said, so we were going to try it with less sugar, and see if it still made crystals. Marty just kept saying it was magic, and that we were wasting our time."
The boys got up and began to walk their bikes along the trail. "Let's climb on the rocks," Billy suggested. Emil thought that would be fun.
They parked their bikes under a tree. Billy took off his hat and put it into the basket on the bicycle he was using. Then the boys began to climb. While they climbed, Emil noticed the colors and textures the sunlight made on the rocks. He enjoyed seeing everything he couldn't see at home. He tried to make a memory he could revisit in his head. "What happened next?" he asked Billy.
Billy stopped walking and turned around so he could see Emil. "Well," he began, "when the class got back together to talk about what we came up with, it was my job to tell what we thought and to present our experiment."
"I explained what we thought and how to test our idea," Billy went on, stopping to lean against a rock. "I didn't mention Marty's idea that it was magic, and when the teacher called on Marty, he didn't mention magic, either. He just told her what Adam and I had come up with, but he made it sound like he had come up with it."
"I don't understand," Billy continued, as both boys continued to climb again, "if Marty is such a great scientist why did he insist it was magic and why, if he thought it was magic, would he give our answers to the teacher when she called on him."
They were at the top now, so they both sat down.
"What do you think, Emil?" Billy asked.
Emil thought for a moment. "Tell me again," he said, "why did you think Marty was good at science?"
"Because he said so," was Billy's reply.
"Do you think he's really good at science?" Emil asked.
"Well," Billy said thoughtfully, "he wasn't very helpful. When he kept saying it was magic, he wasn't looking at other possibilities. Adam and I ended up doing all the work."
"I wonder if maybe Marty made up all that about being good at science," Billy decided. "Adam is very quiet, so I didn't think he knew much, but he came up with good ideas and helped me come up with ideas, too. I think Adam is the one who is good at science, even if he doesn't say so."
"I wonder why that would be," Emil said, after the boys climbed back down and got on their bicycles to finish their ride. "I mean, why would Marty tell you he was good at science if he wasn't?"
"Let's ask Veronika when we get home," Billy suggested. "She knows a lot about why some dolls do things we don't expect."
When the boys got home, they put their bicycles away and went into the house, hoping to find Veronika.
Why would someone say they were good at something if they weren't? What do you think?
....to be continued.
Cast--
Billy: Götz Happy Kidz Lily at London
Emil: Götz Happy Kidz Emilia
Photo of rock candy by Tijana Drndarski on Unsplash
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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. We are not affiliated with St. Jude in any way other than these donations.
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Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook, Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook, Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook and Our Favorite Verses: Poems from The Doll's Storybook are available from BookBaby and other booksellers worldwide, such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Royalties (net proceeds) go to support pediatric cancer research and treatment. If you don't get free shipping elsewhere, buy from Book Baby. Half of the price goes to charity (specific information available upon request). Autographed copies of all three books are available from the author. (Multiple books to the same address have a discount on shipping.) To inquire, email thedollsstorybook@icloud.com.
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