"Are they gone yet, Mariah?" Mandy asked.
Mariah was looking out the window of the workroom. "They're just pulling out of the driveway," Mariah reported. "I'll keep watching for a few minutes to make sure they're gone."
The old people were going to get their second dose of the vaccine (vax-EEN) they needed, and then they were going to the grocery store. The dolls thought that might be enough time to tidy up the mess in the workroom and surprise The Writer when she got home.
Mandy and Veronika stood in the hallway looking into the workroom.
"Oh, my!" Exclaimed Veronika. "What are we going to do with this mess?" (We couldn't show you the mess because it would break the camera!)
Mandy looked at the piles of yarn on the floor by the table, the piles of fabric on the floor by the window. There were scissors, pins, knitting needles, books, pattern pieces, the dolls' clothes, trash and other things they didn't recognize lying around on the table, sewing machine cabinet and floor. "We have our work cut out for us," she said finally.
"Well," Veronika said, "They say 'Many hands make light work.' I guess we have many hands. If everyone does a little bit, I think we can make a dent in it." (That means to make it a little better.)
The dolls got busy. Veronika folded the fabrics. She separated the scraps that could be used for making quilts into one pile and made another pile with the larger pieces that would be good for doll clothes. Then she folded each of the larger pieces of fabric and put them away in the cabinet.
The small scraps she put into a bin with a lid. They could be used for making quilts.
Mandy took the unused balls of yarn and put them in plastic bags. The scraps left over from projects she and The Writer had made all went into another bag. They could be used for hats and mittens for dolls.
Mandy put the bags of yarn away in the cabinet. She put all the thicker yarns together and all the thinner yarn together. Then she arranged them by color. She climbed up on the ladder to put the yarn away with other yarn that was similar in size and color.
While Veronika and Mandy were busy with the fabric and yarn, Billy tried to find places for everything. Pippa followed him around, looking for something she could help with.
"What can I do?" Pippa asked.
Billy didn't answer. He put things away where he had seen them before, while Pippa followed him around and watched. Then Billy ran into a problem. He needed to figure out what to do with the small red chair. He thought it would be good to talk about the problem with someone, and Pippa was right there. "I see the place this chair should go," Billy said to Pippa, "but I don't know how to get it there." He pointed to the top of the cabinets that hold the fabric and yarn.
Pippa looked at where Billy was pointing. Brownie was standing on top of the cabinet with some chairs that were not being used.
Maybe Brownie would like to sit on the chair. She must be tired of standing.
"I can lift the chair," Pippa said, "and I can climb up there where Brownie is, but I don't think I can climb up there with the chair."
"You!" Billy exclaimed. "You're too little to climb up there! The ladder isn't tall enough."
"I am not!" Pippa cried. "I climbed up on top of the bathroom counter with no help from anyone! This is just like that only higher."
Billy would have rolled his eyes, but he knew he couldn't. His eyes don't move. "Well," he said, "if you can, that would help. but we need to get the chair up there."
When Mandy was through with the ladder for a few minutes, Pippa opened the door to the cabinets, and she and Billy moved the ladder into place. Pippa climbed up the ladder. When she was at the top of the ladder she used the open shelves to climb on.
When Pippa reached the top of the cabinets, she moved over to where the chair needed to go. Brownie moved aside a bit to make room. Billy made a ball out of some thick yarn and threw the ball to her. Pippa caught the ball of yarn. She let down one end of the yarn, and Billy tied it around the chair. When he was done, Pippa pulled on the chair. She pulled until it was up on top of the cabinet.
Pippa left the chair on top of the cabinet and climbed down again. (Brownie did not want to sit on it, but she was fine with having it there.)
While all that was happening, Jolena folded the clothes and put them into bags to store in the set of wire baskets on wheels. She put the pajamas, bathrobes, towels and sleep masks in the bottom basket, where they would be easy to reach at night when the dolls were tired. The next basket was where she put underwear, socks, tights, bathing suits and her ballet clothes.
The next basket was for sweaters and skirts. There were a lot of those. Then she put all the play clothes (shirts, jeans, slacks and leggings) into the top basket.
All the boots went into a box with the umbrellas.
While Jolena was busy with the clothes, Emil went around the room picking up anything that looked like trash. Anything he was sure would be thrown away, like used tissue, candy wrappers, scraps of yarn shorter than 2 inches, and old plastic mailing wrap, went into a big black plastic bag.
Anything that could be recycled went into another bag. Every time Emil found a yarn label or anything else he thought The Writer might not want thrown away, like a sales receipt or a coupon for savings on something to buy, he put it into a big plastic basket for her to go through. He knew he needed to let her decide whether to throw them away or recycle them. These things belonged to her, and she needed to be the one to throw them away or put them into recycling.
Charlotte was busy with the knitting needles. Some of them were too small to have sizes written on them, but she knew how to use the tool for checking the size. She knew you put the needle into a hole, and if it stuck and wouldn't fit in the hole, the needle was too big, so to try the next size up. If it went into that hole but not the next smaller one, that was its size. After checking the sizes, she put each needle into the needle book in the correct pouch.
Mariah picked up the books that were stacked on the floor and put them into a box. She put a piece of paper between sets of ten books, so The Writer could see at a glance how many were left. Then she put the mailing envelopes and mailing labels into another box.
Mariah closed the boxes so The Writer could stack them if she wanted. They were too heavy for Mariah to lift.
When the dolls were all finished with what they could do, they heard the garage door open.
"The Writer is back!" Charlotte exclaimed.
They climbed back up to where they had been before The Writer had left. They knew she would be surprised. They knew they had done a good job. The workroom was much tidier than it had been when the old people had left.
The Writer came upstairs to put her sweater away. She stopped in the doorway to the workroom. Something had changed. She could not remember when it had been so tidy and organized.
The dolls were all where The Writer had left them. They were trying to look innocent.
"Hmmmm..." The Writer thought. "My workroom looks tidy now. I wonder if I need another shot of vaccine soon."
Veronika: Götz Classic Kidz Vroni
Mandy: Götz Happy Kidz Katie 2015
Jolena: Götz Happy Kidz Lena in Aspen
Charlotte: Götz Happy Kidz Anna in Paris
Mariah: Götz Happy Kidz Mariah, "Chosen" from My Doll 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.
Watch for the next story each Friday afternoon at 1:00 PM Pacific Time.
Copyright © 2021, 2024 by Peggy Stuart
