The Doll's Storybook

Stories about dolls who live in our world. Although these stories are suitable for children, they should check with their parents before reading and always be careful online. Readers are invited to donate to a charity supporting pediatric cancer treatment and research. Images shown are taken by the author or from a free image website with attribution and appreciation. The author has no connection with Götz Puppenmanufaktur, but gives them credit for the amazing dolls they produce.

Showing posts with label pretending. Show all posts

Friday, January 5, 2024

Billy's Boredom

Billy was bored. The snow was gone for now, so he couldn't use his sled. He had put his LEGO set together several times and didn't want to do it again right away.

He had read the books on the bookshelf. He had taken Freckles for a walk. He was tired of playing games on the iPad. He was tired of watching TV. He wondered what the girls did when they were bored.
He found Mandy, sitting with her knitting. "What are you up to, Billy?," Mandy asked.

"Nothing," Billy replied. "That's the problem. I'm bored, and I can't think of anything interesting to do."
"I get bored sometimes, too," Mandy said. "When I'm bored, I try to find a new knitting project I can plan for. I think about what colors I want to use. By then, I usually am looking forward to the new project, so I want to finish the one I'm working on, and that makes it more fun."

"But I don't knit," Billy said.

"Sometimes it's good just to sit and think, or imagine things in your head, or work out a problem," Mandy suggested.
"Thanks, Mandy," Billy said. "Sitting still is hard for me, but I'll try to think about how to keep from being bored."
"We all have to learn to deal with boredom in our own way, Billy. You're a smart doll. You'll find a way," Mandy assured him.

Billy found Jolena busy adjusting the bindings on her skis. "Jolena, do you ever get bored?" he asked.

"Sure I do," she replied. "Everyone gets bored sometimes."
"What do you do to stop being bored?" Billy asked.
"Well," Jolena began, "sometimes I try to think up a new trick I can do on my skis. Sometimes I daydream, or I pretend I can do something impossible, like fly over the housetops and look down at everything on the ground. Or I pretend I'm dancing onstage in front of a lot of people and not afraid I'll make a mistake."

Are you bored?" Jolena asked Billy.
"Yes," Billy replied. "I can't think of anything fun to do. Daydreaming or pretending sounds like fun, but I don't like to sit still for long."

"You don't have to sit still to pretend," Jolena said. "You can act out what you're pretending." Billy thanked Jolena for the suggestions. He had a lot to think about.
Charlotte was practicing her violin when Billy found her. She was playing scales.

She stopped playing when Billy came in, because she knew he had something to say. "Charlotte, do you ever get bored?" Billy asked.

"Everyone gets bored," Charlotte said.
"What do you do to stop being bored?" Billy asked.
"I like to make up little tunes in my head," Charlotte replied. "Sometimes I like to pretend I'm performing in an orchestra with lots of people listening, or alone on a stage. I imagine I'm really good, and that people love to listen to me."

"I don't know what to pretend," Billy said, "and I'm not sure I would think that being on a stage in front of a lot of people is fun."
"You'll think of something," Charlotte said. "We all have to find our own ways to deal with boredom."
"I'll keep working on it, Charlotte," Billy said. "Thanks."
Billy decided to ask Mariah about his problem. He found her in the dining room window. She was writing in her journal. She looked up.

"Mariah," Billy began, "I'm trying to learn how to deal with boredom. Do you get bored?"
"Everyone gets bored," Mariah said. "When I get bored, I try to make up a story in my head. Then I write it down."

"Sometimes I like to pretend I'm a famous writer," Mariah went on. "I imagine myself signing books in a book store or receiving an award for one of my books."

"I wouldn't know what to write about," Billy said, "and signing books doesn't sound like fun to me."
"Just write what you did during the day, Billy," Mariah suggested. "That's what I do with my journal. I write what I did and what I am thinking about. Then I can go back and read it when I get bored."
"I'll try to think how I can make that work for me. Thanks, Mariah," Billy said.

"You'll find something you like to do, Billy," Mariah told him.
Billy decided he would start by taking Freckles for another walk. While he was getting his jacket, he found Veronika reading a book. He told her he was bored and asked if she had any suggestions for what to do.

"Boredom is good for us," Veronika said. "It gives us a chance to learn how to entertain ourselves."

I have lots of things I like to do to stop being bored, but they may not work for you. You will find something. Don't worry about it."
Billy looked down at the floor. "I guess I'll take Freckles for another walk," he said. "She never minds going out."

About twenty minutes later, Veronika was sitting on the bottom step of the staircase, watching the squirrels play in the front yard, when Billy and Freckles came back into the house. Billy was very excited. "You'll never guess what happened!" he cried.

Veronika waited, because she was sure he was going to tell her.
"When I took Freckles out, I saw the lady across the street, looking up into the tree," he said. "She was upset. She has a new little kitten, and it had run out the door when she opened it. It climbed up into the tree and wouldn't come down."

"Cats do that sometimes," Veronika said. "So then what happened?"
"I gave her Freckles' leash, and then I climbed up the tree," Billy replied.

"I talked to the kitten," Billy continued. "I told him I would help him, and he should just hold onto my neck. Then I climbed down and gave the kitten to the lady. She thanked me and handed Freckles' leash back to me."

"That was a nice thing to do, Billy," Veronika said, "and very brave. The kitten must have been almost as big as you. Weren't you afraid he would scratch you?"

"My vinyl is tough," Billy replied. "I wasn't worried. The kitten was just frightened once he was outside," Billy replied. "The lady looked at me for a long time before she took the kitten back into the house. I don't think she has seen any dolls before," Billy said.
"At least not dolls that climb trees and rescue kittens!" Veronika laughed.
"You know, I'm not bored anymore," Billy said. "I think I'll borrow some paper from Mariah and write down everything that happened, so I don't forget it. It was an adventure!"

"Next time I'm bored, I'll read it and remember how exciting it was to rescue a kitten and how good I feel because I helped someone," Billy decided. "I think I'm a superhero in training!"

Now Billy knows what to do the next time he feels bored. What do you like to do when you're bored?

Cast--
Jolena: Götz Happy Kidz Lena in Aspen
Veronika: Götz Classic Kidz Vroni
Mandy: Götz Happy Kidz Katie 2015
Charlotte: Götz Happy Kidz Anna in Paris
Mariah: Götz Happy Kidz Mariah, "Chosen" from My Doll Best Friend
Billy: Götz Happy Kidz Lily of London

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Do you have questions or comments for us? Would you like to order an autographed copy of one of our books? You can email us at thedollsstorybook@icloud.com.

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.

"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.

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.

Author's page on Amazon.

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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Copyright © 2019, 2023 by Peggy Stuart

Friday, March 10, 2023

On the Road Part One

March 10, 2023

Dear Holly,

I really enjoyed your last letter. I’m so glad they were able to get Sam's wheelchair out of the snow and Sam is on the move again. It was nice of the neighbor to help.

We’ve been having a similar adventure. You remember I told you we (Billy and I) were getting to go with The Writer and her husband on their vacation trip with the trailer?

Well, Billy and I waited what seemed like forever by the front door with our suitcase and a bag of sports equipment—mostly different kinds of balls—we planned to use when we got to Arizona. We were looking forward to pretending to be real boys!

Finally The Writer let us go into the trailer, where we would ride when they drove. We put our things away. Then we waited a very long time. We knew we weren’t moving, because we could see out the window, and nothing was moving. Also we can feel when we’re being moved, even if we can’t see out.

After what seemed like hours, The Writer came into the trailer. She told us the lights on the back of the trailer weren’t working right, and her husband was fixing them.

You see, when you pull a trailer, the lights on your car or pickup (whatever you use to pull the trailer with) can’t be seen by other drivers, because the trailer is in the way. The lights are important, because that’s how the driver lets others know when they’re slowing down or getting ready to turn.

The trailer has its own lights, but they have to be turned on by the driver. To do that, the lights for the trailer have to be hooked up to the car or truck that’s pulling it. You have to check to make sure they work before you drive.

Well, they didn’t, so he had to fix them. I think there was something wrong in the place where the wires for the trailer lights connect with the lights for the pickup truck that pulls the trailer. We couldn't see much from the window, but we could see when they climbed back into the pickup.

Finally, we were on the road. It was fun to sit on the bed in the trailer and look out the window. We could see trees and the tops of houses, and then just clouds in the sky. We knew then that we were out of town.

After a long time, we felt the motion of the trailer change. Billy said he thought we were slowing down. We looked out the window and saw some things we decided were gas pumps. We were getting gas in the pickup. (The trailer doesn’t need gas, because it doesn’t move on its own. It get pulled, like pulling a wagon.)

The Writer came into the trailer and told us we were going to stop for the night, because it was already late afternoon. The place where we stopped had something called "full hookups." That meant you can connect to power (electricity), water and sewer (SOO-wer), whatever that is. I think they need it for the bathroom and used water. The power worked right away, but no water came out of the faucet in the kitchen. The Writer said that there must be some ice in the pipes. They decided just to bring in some water from the campground faucet to use for washing and stuff. We would just be there overnight.

This was the view from the window as The Writer was fixing supper.

The next day, they unplugged the power, and we rode off. All was going well until early afternoon. Suddenly, we heard a loud noise. It didn’t stop as we rode on. It was making my ears hurt. Billy had to cover his ears. I just took off my special glasses, and the sound was gone, but then I couldn’t see.

After a little while, I could tell we had stopped. I put my special glasses again. Billy and I sat on the edge of the bed and looked out.

We were in the middle of nowhere. We decided that stopping where there was no gas station and no campground had something to do with that loud noise.

We talked about it and decided that the trip was not going well so far.

After a little while, The Writer came and told us that we had a problem with the pickup truck. We couldn’t drive any farther until it was fixed. Someone was coming with a special kind of truck to take us to the next town, but they were coming from the town where we had spent the night. It was a long way, so we would have to wait. Our human people kept talking about how cold it was and how strong the wind was.

We decided to call home and tell the girls all about it. Mandy answered the phone. Jolena was there, too. We had a long chat. That helped pass the time.

It was dark when we said goodbye. As soon as we hung up from talking to the girls, we saw a flashing red light outside. It was a human person come to help. After the helper talked with our humans, The Writer came and told us the man was going to put our pickup truck up on the bed of his truck, then attach our trailer to the back of his truck. He told them he would haul the pickup and tow the trailer. That's how he could take them both. Using her phone, she found a picture online of the kind of truck he had.

We tried to imagine our pickup on the bed of the big truck and our trailer following along behind. Then The Writer put us into a bag and took us to the helper’s truck. She put us onto the back seat and then climbed in after us. (She said something about "just in case.") Billy tried to take photos, but most of them turned out like this.

There was one that turned out. He took it out of the back window of the helper’s truck. You can see the flashing lights and the front of our pickup on the bed of the helper’s truck.

After a long drive, the helper pulled into an RV campground and left the trailer in the spot the campground people had told The Writer to use. The Writer took us into the trailer, where we would wait while they took our pickup to the repair place.

The Writer and her husband still had to eat after the helper brought them back from the repair place, so it was very late when we all got to sleep.

When we went outside the next day, this is what the place looked like.

The repair place can’t do anything with our pickup until after the weekend, so we will be here for a few days. We may not make it to Arizona, which is disappointing, and it may be hard to play ball here, because it’s so cold and windy, but I keep remembering something Jolena told us when we talked on the phone. She reminded us that we wanted to go on this trip so we could pretend to be real boys. She said that if we had been real boys on this trip we would not only be disappointed, but we would have been cold and hungry a lot of the time.

Now Billy and I are busy trying very hard to pretend to be cold and hungry as well as disappointed.

The nice lady in the office here says she can put this in the mail for me. It's a long walk, but The Writer said she would take it.

I’ll write again when we know how this is going to turn out.

All the best,

Emil

Note to children: It is OK for dolls to ride in a trailer, but real children must ride in the car or truck that pulls it with seat belts fastened and proper carseats if they are not big enough to ride with just the seat belt. (Don't tell Billy and Emil, though, because they will want to ride in the pickup using seat belts and doll-sized carseats!)

Cast--
Mandy: Götz Happy Kidz Katie 2015
Jolena: Götz Happy Kidz Lena in Aspen
Billy: Götz Happy Kidz Lily at London
Emil: Götz Happy Kidz Emilia

Photo of wheelchair stuck in snow: Corey Barss

Photo of gas pump: Jason Hinrichsen on Unsplash

Tow truck image: The Flag Towing

Photographed on location at Silver State RV Park