Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Mystery in the Doll Room

Sailor Andy was still admiring the black ink tattoo that Myra had put on his shoulder earlier that morning.  It was a tattoo of an anchor, and Sailor Andy thought that it set off his outfit just perfectly.

Just then Myra came back into the room, followed by her 14-year-old grand-daughter Nicole who was spending the night.

Myra sat down in front of the computer to check her email while Nicole sat in the chair beside her.

Saillor Andy watched them while they worked on the computer.

"Well, I just sold Abigail and Gracie" Myra exclaimed to Michele. "I have had those two dolls listed on my website for so long that I had about gven up hope of ever selling them."

"Which two dolls are Abigail and Gracie?" Nicole asked.

"The two dolls sitting on the shelf with their arms around each other", Myra answered. 

The two dolls were sitting side by side with their arms around each other's shoulders.  

One doll was a black doll with black ponytails. She was wearing a blue and cream homespun check print dress with a big pink button on the bodice of her dress.  Her ponytails were tied with scraps of the pink fabric left over from the other dolls dress.   

The other doll was white with red pony tails.  She wearing a pink and cream homespun check print dress with a big blue button on the bodice of her dress.  Her ponytails were tied with scraps of the blue fabric left over the other doll's dress.

"Which one is Abigail, and which one is Gracie's?" Nicole asked. 

"Abigail is the white doll, and Gracie is the black one." Myra answer.

Nicole looked at them and laughed saying, "I can see why it took so long to sell them because they are both pretty homely."

Myra just laughed too as she turned off the light and followed Nicole from the room.

Sailor Andy was just starting to drift off to sleep when he heard a rustling noise somewhere off to his left. As he peered thru the slight light coming in through the window from the street light outside he was surprised to see Abigail and Gracie playing with the spool of crochet thread that Myra had absentmindly left on the shelf that morning when she came in to do his tattoo.

Sailor Andy was puzzled as he watched them play with the thread because they appeared to be tying knots in Myra's crochet thread, and he knew that Myra would not be happy when she saw it.

Abigail and Gracie both jumped when Sailor Andy asked "What are you tying knots in Myra's crochet thread for?"

"We are making a rope to climb down from the shelf so that we can hide," Gracie answered nervously as she started to bite her fingernail.

"Oh I love to play hide and seek!" Andy said excidedly. "Can I play with you?"

"No!" Abigail told him crossly as she glared at him. "You need to go to sleep now!"

Sailor Andy was disappointed that the two older dolls would not let him play!

The two dolls kept tying knots in the thread as Sailor Andy watched sleepily, and just as he was about to drift off he thought he saw them drop one end of the crochet thread over the edge of the shelf and start to climb down to the floor below, but he could have been dreaming.

"What did you go tell him that for?", Abailgail asked crossly as they started climbing down the make shift ladder.

"I'm sorry!" Gracie asnwered. "He just caught me by surprise."

"Well, You should have known the boy would have want to go to if you said you were going to go hide!" Abigail scolded her.

"I know! I'm sorry!" Gracie again apologized Then she thought that it was time to change the subject so that her cranky friend would quit scolding her so she asked, "Where are we going to hide anyway?"

"I have been thinking about that," Abigail answered. "I have an idea, but I don't know how well it will work!"

"Tell me anyway!", Gracie said excitedly.

"Well, Danielle brought her backpack when she came to spend the night, and we could just hide at the bottom of it until Myra gets tired of looking for us." Abigail mused!

Gracie could not think of anything better so they both got into Danielle's back pack and crawled down past all Danielle's stuff down to the the bottom of the bag.

It was early in the morning when some strange noises woke Practical Penny up. She knew even before she looked down from her perch on the doll shelf that Myra was searching for something again. Myra was always losing her things..

"What in the world is Myra looking for now?" whispered Whimsical Wendy as she leaned so far out to get a better look that Practical Penny had to grab her twin sister to keep her from falling off the shelf.

"You need to be more careful before you fall and break a stitch," Practical Penny quietly scolded her.

Whimsical Wendy dutifully scooted back and looked thoughtful for a minute. "Maybe she has lost her best fabric scissors that no one is allowed to touch," she whispered after thinking for a bit.

No! I don't think that is what she is looking for," said Practical Penny quietly. "I can see her scissors laying there on the table below us."

Whimsical Wendy thought for a few more minutes while Myra dumped out another box of craft items, and started putting everything back into the box piece by piece.

"Well maybe she is looking for her long doll needle again," Whimsical Wendy whispered again after a bit of thought. "You know that she is always losing them."

"No! "I don't think that it is the doll needles this time either," said Practical Penny quietly. "I can see two of them on the pin cushion down there beside Myra's sewing machine."

Whimsical Wendy’s forehead wrinkled in thought. "Well I see the muslin, the stuffing, the paint, the sewing thread, the embroidery thread, her needles, and her scissors so what else does she need to make a doll with she mused."

Just then Whimsical Wendy heard hubby say something to Myra from the other room. "What in the world are you doing in there?" he complained. "You're making so much noise that I can't hear the TV.

Myra left the box that she was searching through and walked to the door leading to the other room while she wiped a few stray strands of hair out of her eyes.

"I sold two dolls from my website last night," she told hubby, "They were supposed to be on the doll shelves, and now I can't find them anywhere. I can't figure out where they went."

Myra came back into the doll room and finished searching through the last box of craft items while the two dolls watched in silence. She must have given up on finding the two dolls because as the two dolls watched she began to straighten her room.

Practical Penny was thoughtful while she watched Myra clean. She remembered hearing a lot of whispering and rustling last night after the lights went out, and now Myra had told hubby that two dolls were missing from the shelves. She wondered which two dolls it could be as she looked around the doll room.

Her attention was drawn back to Whimsical Wendy when she anxiously whispered, "Which two dolls did Myra sell?" When Practical Penny looked at her sister her big grin had disappeared and tears were beginning to form at the thought of being separated from her twin sister Practical Penny.

"Well it could not have been either of us" Practical Penny told her twin sister quietly as she gave her a reasuring hug. "We are still sitting here in plain sight, and the two dolls that Myra sold are missing."

Whimsical Wendy looked relieved and her big grin started to form again at Practical Penny's answer.

"The only two dolls that I see missing are Abigail and Gracie." Practical Penny continued quietly. "Do you know where they went?"

Just then Practical Penny noticed Sailor Andy who was waving his arms and hands around like he was about to take to flight and fly down from the doll shelf.

"What in the world is Sailor Andy doing?" Practical Penny quietly asked Whimsical Wendy.

Just then the phone rang in the living room and Myra left the doll room to go answer it.

After Myra left the room Sailor Andy spoke up and said, "I was trying to talk to you in sign language!"

"I don't understand finger talk!" Practical Penny said crossly. "If you can’t speak and want to tell me something then just wait until Myra leaves," she said grumpily. "What did you want to tell me anyway?"

Sailor Andy swelled up with importance because he knew something that the other dolls did not know. "They must have ran away last night!" he told the other dolls excitedly.

All the dolls in the doll room started talking at once.

"Why would they run away?" demanded Fancy Pants from across the room.

"They could get hurt"! exclaimed Scaredy Cat from his perch next to Fancy Pants.

"Oh those poor dears" moaned Nurse Nancy, "They could bust a stitch and no one will be there to fix it for them!"

"Shhhhh!" demanded Practical Penny. "Let Sailor Andy speak!" "Now tell us why they ran away!" she demanded.

"When Myra got the order last night she said that she had sold Gracie and Abigail, and I guess they did not want to be sold so I guess they just ran away!" Sailor Andy explained.

"How could running away be any better than being sold?" asked Practical Penny.

"I don't know!" Sailor Andy replied, "I just know that they were here making a rope to climb down off the shelves last night when the lights went out, and now they are gone!" he explained.

Just then Myra came back into the sewing room followed by Nicole and all conversations between the dolls stopped.

"What are you going to do about the two missing dolls?" Nicole asked Myra.

"I have two more of the doll dresses made just like the ones I sold were wearing, and I have the materials to make two more dolls so I guess that I will just make them again."Myra answered.

"Are you going to tell the customer that you have to make them again?" Nicole asked.

"No, because the last time this happened the customer cancelled her order," Myra replied.

Myra got out her muslin and her patterns to make two new dolls, and Danielle sat down in front of the computer and went to facebooking with her friends while Myra worked.

Practical Penny looked around the now neat sewing room and wished that it would just stay this way so that Myra would not have to spend so much time searching for things.

Just then she noticed Black Bertha looking guilty and trying to hide behind Sandy Giggles. Practical Penny remembered that Myra had sold Black Bertha last year, and that Black Bertha had disappeared and did not come out of hiding until the customer had canceled her order.

To be continued......