Pippa and Pauly were putting together a Christmas puzzle in the workroom. Mariah sat nearby with a book she had been reading. Every once in a while, she looked up to watch the two smaller dolls.
Pippa picked up a puzzle piece and looked at it. She tried to imagine the piece turned upside down. This was a trick Mandy used to help find where a piece fits. Of course, you can turn it with your hands, but Mandy said this is faster, once you’ve learned to do it, so Pippa was practicing. She tried to imagine what that part of the picture would look like if she turned the piece.
“All the pieces look alike,” Pauly said, observing the pile of pieces on the table. “All the pieces are flat with bits of color on right side and plain on the back.”
“You’re right,” Pippa agreed, putting the puzzle piece down on the table and picking up another one. “They’re all flat. The puzzle will be flat when it’s all put together. The pieces all belong to this puzzle, so they won’t fit another one. Each piece has at least one of these innies or outies, or both.”
“Innies and outies?” Pauly asked...um...puzzled.
“That’s what I call them,” Pippa replied. “Here, where it looks like some creature with a strange mouth took a bite out of it, that’s what I call innies.” Pippa pointed to the part of the puzzle piece she was talking about.
“I get it!” Pauly exclaimed. “The outies are the parts that stick out like little feet.”
Pippa nodded. “That’s what makes them fit together,” she said.
“None of them makes any sense,” Pauly pointed out, picking up another puzzle piece and trying to imagine it turned the other way, “until you put it together with the other pieces in the right way.”
“The innies and the outies aren’t all the same size or in the same place on every piece, though,” Pippa said, “so you can’t put them just anywhere, and the colors printed on them have to match up with the other pieces, or they don’t belong.”
“So the puzzle pieces are all alike in some ways,” Pauly observed, “but different in other ways.”
Pippa picked up another puzzle piece. It had one straight edge. “Like this piece, for instance,” she said. “It’s like the other pieces. It’s flat. It has colors printed on one side. It has two innies and an outie, but it’s also different in a way that makes it special.”
“You mean because it has one straight edge, and most of the others don’t,” Pauly suggested.
“Yes,” Pippa agreed. “I always look for these pieces first, because we know they all go around the outside. Each puzzle piece with a flat side fits with another piece with a flat side. We just have to figure out their order. Once you have all the outside edges, it’s easier to fill in the others.”
The two dolls began to look through the pile of puzzle pieces to find the pieces with a straight edge on one side.
“It would be harder to put the puzzle together if there weren’t some with straight edges,” Pauly said when he had found one. “They’re important because they’re different.”
“Just like human people,” Mariah said, looking up from her book. “Those pieces with the straight edges are our guides. They help lead us to where the other pieces belong. They couldn’t do that if they weren’t different. There are human people who guide other people, too, mostly grownups, but sometimes children help other children find where they belong.”
“All of the pieces are important, though,” Pippa said. “If one piece is missing, we can’t finish the puzzle.”
“That’s right,” Mariah agreed. “Human people are all different from each other, too. Some are good at being guides, but all of them are important and can work together.”
Pippa and Pauly looked at each other. Mariah had a point, they thought. “Just like dolls, too!” they both exclaimed at once.
Dolls, of course, are meant to be like people, so some dolls help guide some other dolls, and some help guide real human children. “We’re alike in a lot of ways,” Pippa said, “but we’re all different, too.”
“Yes!” Pauly exclaimed. “Jeffy told me that there are Paul dolls just like me all over the world. Some, like me, live with real children. Others live with collectors,” he added, wondering what that might be like. “All of us look like real human boys,” Pauly said. “We’re alike because of that, but we’re different, because we all went to different places. We’re learning and doing different things.”
“There are dolls like me, too,” Pippa pointed out, “only we were all called Lotta dolls until we came out of our boxes. Then lots of us got new names. I’m the only one who gets to live with The Writer and be in these stories, though.”
Both dolls thought about that as they continued to work on the puzzle, which was beginning to have some of the outer edges in place.
“Those of us who came to live with The Writer,” Mariah said, “or Pauly, who came to live nearby and visits us, all have a lot in common, because we experience the same things. We might look the same as some other dolls on the outside, but we’re different on the inside because of what we learn and experience in our lives here.”
“I really like living with Jeffy,” Pauly confided, “but I’m glad I get to be in the stories, too.”
“Jeffy sometimes takes me places,” Pauly continued, “and that’s fun. He’s careful not to put me down anywhere, though, because someone else might pick me up and take me home. If he needs his hands when we’re out, he gives me to his mother. She puts me into her purse, or into another bag, where it’s safe.”
“I like to help Jeffy with his homework, too,” Pauly continued. “I can’t do it for him, of course,” he explained. “Jeffy knows more than I do about almost everything, but sometimes he needs someone to read the questions to him, so he can practice the answers, like if he’s going to be taking a test. I ask him the question, he answers, and then I tell him if he got it right or not.”
“You’ve learned something important,” interjected Mariah, who was enjoying hearing the thoughts of the two smaller dolls. “You’ve learned that dolls need to feel like they have a purpose. We want to feel like we belong somewhere. We all end up where we’re needed, though, and I’ll bet you learn a lot when you’re helping Jeffy study,” she added. “That helps make you different from all the other Paul dolls.”
“Yes!” Pauly exclaimed. “At school, we’ve just started learning the names of the planets in the solar system. We have to know them in order, from Mercury, which is the closest to the sun, all the way out to Pluto, the farthest out. I know them already, because I helped Jeffy with the same thing, and I remember!”
“What we have learned is one way we’re different from each other,” Mariah said. “Other Paul dolls might speak a different language now and might be learning about something different.”
“Jolena can do flips in the air on her skis,” Pippa pointed out. “How many dolls can do that? She travels to other parts of the world to practice and compete, so she knows all about the things that make different places special. She shares her photos and what she learns with us, so we learn some of it, too.”
Mariah nodded. “So we’re all like puzzle pieces,” she continued, “because we’re all different, and we all have a place we fit, but we’re different from puzzle pieces, too. Puzzle pieces can’t change their shape. They can’t change what they are or where they belong. They can’t learn to do anything other than what they were made for. Dolls can learn and grow to become what we’re needed to be when we get to our homes.”
“Someone picked us out in a store or online,” Mariah explained. “A human person chose each of us. Someone took us out of our boxes. They had to unfasten all the ties that held us in place in the box so we wouldn’t get damaged while traveling. Someone showed us what they wanted us to be: a playmate for a child, an important part of a collection or a character in a story. We learn how we fit in and what we’re supposed to be. Puzzle pieces can’t do that. I still remember when I first met The Writer. She told me she needed me for the stories, because I was special. I knew I was where I belonged. It made me happy.”
“I belong in two places!” Pauly realized suddenly. “I belong with Jeffy and I belong here with all of you. I really feel needed!”
“I really like that Jeffy doesn’t mind when I come here to visit,” Pauly reflected. “He knows that if I’m not at home, I’m here.”
“We’re glad, too, Pauly,” Mariah said.
Pippa nodded. Pauly had made her life more interesting.
“Jeffy likes to read the stories,” Pauly added. “He finds them online, and he likes to see photos of his doll in the stories. He says he likes to imagine other kids reading about his doll.”
Just then, the dolls heard the doorbell ring downstairs.
“That’s Jeffy!” Pauly exclaimed. “It must be time for me to go.”
As Pauly climbed down from his seat at the table, Pippa said, “I’ll save the puzzle, Pauly. We can finish it tomorrow!”
Pauly paused at the door and waved goodbye. “Jeffy needs me!” he exclaimed. “We’re going out into the woods to find a Christmas tree! A real one!” Then he was gone.
“I’m glad Pauly’s my friend,” Pippa told Mariah. “I’m glad Jeffy needs Pauly, and I’m glad Jeffy doesn’t mind sharing Pauly with us. I need Pauly, too!” Pippa pulled out Veronika's big square plastic ruler to cover the puzzle. Veronika had told her she could use it. It would keep all the puzzle pieces from getting knocked off the table. Pippa and Pauly could finish the puzzle tomorrow, and Pippa would get to hear all about going out into the woods to pick out a Christmas tree.
“We all need Pauly,” Mariah agreed, “but you need Pauly the way I need Charlotte. That’s special. It’s great to have a 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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