DODO 4 ON THE WAY TO THE DOLL FACTORY...

Not long after having reached the other side of the door, the leader who preceded them by a few feet suddenly stopped, at the same time raising his hand. “ Come,” he said, his voice calm and serious, too serious to be ignored. “ Now, and until we enter the building ahead of us another 300 feet away, you must follow me very closely. This, however, should be easy. As you can see, like me you leave tracks in the sand where you walk. Just walk in my tracks and everything should be fine.”

“ But why do we have to be so precise? ” demanded Corinne, curious as always.

“ Ah! Little one. Such curiosity is a sign of great intelligence - and in one so young - it is marvelous.”

Quickly, Corinne glanced at her brother and cousin with one of those I-told-you-smiles. They could almost hear her taunting song- A-A-E-En-En…

The leader hastened to add, “ Before us, hidden in the sand, are portals through which we can fall and pass into enormous caverns. Once there it is almost impossible to escape,” he said, his gravelly voice greatly pained.

“ But what’s this, this story of caves? ” enquired Christian, extremely frustrated by this turn of events and not afraid to show it.

“ There are many, too many, my young friend. There is the cavern of jealousy, those of anger and distrust; those of vanity and ambition, of avarice and irresponsibility. There are also those of lack of understanding and intolerance. These are all big words for such little children. Now you are hearing them. One day you will understand them.”

“ But where do they come from these doors and caverns? ” pursued Christian, as curious as his little sister had been before.

“ They go back to the beginning of time when we wanted to set up in this grand valley. One of the bad witches who live in the valley I was talking about a while ago also wanted it to come spend her lunar holidays. She placed all kinds of obstacles behind the door that allows us access to both this valley and our buildings, to prevent us from ever reaching them.”

“ Why didn’t she put these obstacles in front of the door instead of behind it then? ” asked Christian.

“ Think about it, Christian,” rejoined Corinne. “ She’s a bad witch. She knew that whoever wanted to enter the valley would be more on the lookout for traps on this side of the door than on the other, when so happy with such an easy entry they would have rushed towards the buildings without any worry. Like Papa often says, Elementary my dear Watson.”

“ That is right little one,” said the leader,” and through the centuries many careless Rockmooners and unwary strangers have fallen through these portals and perished. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to survive have promised to try to destroy these caverns that wreak havoc upon the peoples of the universe, that prevent them from reaching their true potential. At this moment in our history, let me repeat something I said earlier for the sake of emphasis, it is lack of understanding and intolerance that we are trying to abolish with our new doll.”

He looked at the children, his face brightening with hope, and added, “ I realize my words are hard to understand, but like I also told you a while ago, some day, and this I firmly believe, you three will be equal to the task.”

Caleb, who had been listening attentively, whose eyes were as big as the full moon, pulled on his cousin’s arm and in a cracking voice said, “ Now Christian - I want something… now!”

Christian gave him his full attention, smiled and turning to the leader said, “ My dear cousin, when he’s afraid he’s always hungry. And he always signals his hunger with these words.”

“ Once we have reached the building in front of us, we will give you something to eat, ” said the leader.

“ Sure is a good thing we didn’t bring Liam, ” interjected Corinne, a mischievous grin on her face. “ It’s a sure thing he would have asked to go pee- pee. ”

” We also have places where one can make what you call a pee- pee. You see, we are different, but also the same, ” added the leader. “All the peoples of the universe, like those of the Earth, are such. Even though it is often our similarities that bring us closer together it is our differences that should make us interesting.”

He continued, his voice now becoming sad, “ Yet, everywhere, and this is one of the great mysteries of the universe, everywhere our differences divide us. It would be a dull universe if we were all exactly the same, in appearance, in thought, in character, in language and religion, in custom, in absolutely everything, would it not? ”

Having finished what he wanted to say, he now screwed his eyes, looked at them pensively, and raised his hand, pointing to the lozenge-shaped building. “ Now be brave and follow me closely. ”

MISSING DODOS… CORINNE’S FALL INTO THE CAVERNS OF HASTE AND UNBRIDLED CURIOSITY… TOO SCARY TO PUBLISH ON THIS BLOG… WOULD PROBABLY CAUSE UNNECESSARY NIGHTMARES…

DODOS 5 AND 6 ON THE WAY… AT THE BEGINNING OF DECEMBER IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS…
COME MEET THIS VERY SPECIAL DOLL!