Posted 6:41 AM by laura r.

The Dib-Dab, continued

What is a dib-dab? Well, it’s a kind of toy, but one that only children of fairies and wizards can have. It’s anything that the owner wants it to be. It’s a hundred, a thousand, an infinite number of toys; it’s as many toys as you want, all in one.
If you want to play with dolls, for example, it turns into a doll. The most beautiful one in the world. A doll that talks, cries, laughs, eats, drinks, does everything. It evens pees, is you want. Are you tired of your doll, would you rather have a train? It turns into a train, with a locomotive that goes by itself, whistles, and pulls a long string of cars: passenger cars, freight cars, tanker cars, grain cars, and anything else you could imagine. It comes with a ton of tracks, signals, train stations, tunnels, and everything!
Or would you rather play ball? There’s no better ball than a dib-dab! It’s always the right size for the hands that will catch it: little, for little fairies; big, for bigger fairies. All made to measure and in the favorite colors of its owner.
But when you really notice all the advantages of the dib-dab is when you want to play horse, because it becomes a really little horse, and what’s more it talks and understands everything that you say: Giddyup! and it goes. Whoah! and it stops. Jump! and it jumps. The dib-dab also talks when it turns into a stuffed animal. It talks with you and tells stories before you go to sleep.
Ariel didn’t like to play in the garden of the castle of the Queen of the fairies. Although it was the most beautiful of gardens, there weren’t any children there. That is, there weren’t very many of them: there was Crystal, for example, but she was really really much too small to play with her. There were also the little blue fairy and the pink fairy. The others were just the wrong age, some were already almost grown-up, while the others were practically babies....
That’s why, whenever she could, Ariel went down the hill from the castle and played down there, in a little square of regular people, with real children.
There was just a slight problem: not everyone can see fairies. What’s more, it’s quite uncommon to find people that believe in fairies, let alone people who can see them. And with adults you can forget it: they are almost alway blind and deaf when it comes to elves, fairies, sprites and those sorts of creatures.
Even though the children didn’t realize that she was there, Ariel happily ran and skipped with them. When she was lucky enough to find some one that could see her, that was the greatest: they would play together for a long time.
One day, Ariel was having such a good time playing in the square that she didn’t realize that it was lunchtime. The children had all gone home and Ariel was still there, making castles in the sandbox. Her mother had to amplify the sound of her voice with her magic wand when she called her for the fourth time. “Ariel, come home right now, or you’re going to get it!”
The little fairy awoke from her day-dreams and went back up the hil, running and flying, in the direction of the castle. She was distracted, and in such a hurry that she forgot the dib-dab (which was in the shape of a shovel, sieve, bucket and molds) in the sandbox, and didn’t even remember it until later, when, desolate, she was listening to the scolding of her mother and the fairy-godmothers.

II
If she weren’t made of flesh and blood, Lia was so good that you might even think that she was a fairy. Unlike Ariel, Lia paid attention and was in touch with everything. She was the best student in her clss, helped her mother with the housework, and didn’t complain about the food, or ask for toys, because she knew that her parents were very poor and didn’t have money to buy them. And so she only had a doll that her mother had made with a wooden spoon and some old rags.
That afternoon Lia went to play in the square right after lunch. There was no one there, and so she went straight to the sandbox, where it’s easier to play by yourself. You can imagine her happiness when she saw that wonderful set of molds, bucket, sieve, and show...lovely and beautifully made!
She played with them for quite a while, and then she put them carefully in a bag, so that she wouldn’t lose any of the pieces. When the children began to arrive, she asked each one whether they might have lost a set of toys in the sand. The more honest ones said no. The sneaky ones said yes, because they wanted the toy for themselves.
But Lia, who wasn’t at all slow, asked them to describe the set. How many molds were there? What color, what shape? And what color was the bucket? Was there a design on it? And so forth. Of course the little liars always tripped themselves up.
And so having verified that, at least for now, the toys had no owner, she decided to keep them. At home she carefully washed each of the pieces and while she was drying them she began to think: “Who knows, it would have been nicer if they had forgotten a doll in the park instead of this...” - she hadn’t finished thinking “set”, when, zap! it had already disappeared, and in the blink of an eye a doll more beautiful than she had ever seen appeared in her hands... “I must be dreaming!” she thought to herself. “Yes, I must be dreaming! I hope that I never wake up...”
Her parents had not yet come home from work. As usual she heated up the dinner that her mother had left for her. She ate her dinner , and then went to brush her teeth and take her bath. She packed her bag and laid out her clothes for school for the following day, while the doll seemed to looking at her with eyes that could really see. She put on her pijamas, hugged the doll, and went to sleep. But she soon woke up because the doll’s fingers were poking her arm. “A teddy bear would be more practical for sleeping” she mumbled drowsily. And that very moment the doll became the cutest teddy bear.
Alarmed, she sat up in bed, and began to pinch herself, while she murmured, “I must be dreaming, and I can’t seem to wake up. I really didn’t want to ever wake up again, but this is getting serious. I am beginning to get scared.” “No, don’t be scared, little friend”, said the dib-dab. “You’re not dreaming! It just so happens that I am a dib-dab-didub, model 2001, serial number 1-2-3-5-8, but you can just call me dib-dab. I am a toy that only little fairies can have, but my owner forgot me in the park.”
After introducing itself, the dib-dab explained everything for Lia, who was listening with her mouth agape, as he gave the instructions for his proper use. He also said that she shouldn’t worry, and that she should play as much as she could, because they would certainly be separated, since the fairies would come looking for him.
“If you are not a fairy-child, you aren’t allowed to have a dib-dab. Especially an advanced model like the 2001!” added the dib-dab, with a certain amount of pride.
Lia fell asleep with the teddy bear in her arms, and barely noticed when her father and mother came in the dark to give her a kiss good night.
In the castle the fairies only realized the next day that the dib-dab had disappeared. That absent-minded Ariel had done it again. There was a great to-do and panic. It was super, duper, hyper- prohibited to misplace, that is, to lose, give as a present, or in any way leave a dib-dab-didub in unauthorized hands.
“What’s the problem?” asked Ariel, in a contrary tone of voice. “The problem, you minnow-brain, is that if the dib-dab were to fall into the hands of some boy that is as addle-pated as you are, he could wish for some kind of weapon: maybe a sword, a dagger, or pistol, or a machine-gun, or even a bomb, and who knows what havoc he could create!” answered the toy-fairy, who was very upset, since the dib-dabs, just like all the other toys, were her responsability, and she could just see what was in store for her as soon as the Queen learned what had transpired.
Ariel, who was very frightened, had already realized what a foolish thing she had done, and very embarrassed, was crying.
The Queen didn’t even have time for scolding. She called together the emergency council, and sent for Commodore, the sprite. In the council everyone was looking at the far-sighted fairy Cecilia, holding their breath, while she was looking into the distance to see where the dib-dab had ended up.
“Got it!” she exclaimed. “It’s in the house of a little girl named Lia. A very, very sensible girl, who lives with her parents, good people as well, in such and such a street. Don’t worry, because the toy is in good hands.”
“Yes,” said the Queen. “But even so we need to get it back. It can’t stay with strangers. Commodore, please go there and bring me back the dib-dab. The meeting is adjourned. Thank you all.”
Commodore asked his friend the owl for a ride. In such urgent and delicate matters there is nothing better than to go by owl. First, because it is a very rapid means of transportation; second, because the owl makes no noise when it flaps its wings as it flies; and third, because it sees well in the dark.
The owl very helpfully took Commodore on its back, and within a few minutes deposited him on the windowsill of Lia’s room. Luckily the window was half-open, so that our friend could slip inside the room without difficulty. He sat down on the light, where he had a complete view of the territory. He looked around, looking for the dib-dab, and then he saw the girl with a happy smile, even while she was sound asleep, holding the teddy-bear in her arms.
“Dib-dab!”, he called quietly. “Come on, let’s go home.” But who said that the teddy-bear wanted to go. He began an argument, saying that he wasn’t going to go. He didn’t want to abandon the little girl, who needed her much more than that air-head Ariel did. What’s more, Lia was much more responsible and sensible, and it made no sense for him to leave. “But you know that it is strictly forbidden for you to stay here,” the sprite tried to argue. It was all in vain. The dib-dab wouldn’t hear of leaving, and if they tried to drag him out by force he would scream and cause a scandal, which certainly would not please the court.
Resigned, and almost content, since he had a big heart and loved children, Commodore returned to the palace, and explained to the Queen what had happened. “Then there are no two ways about it! I am going to get it myself!” decided the Queen. And since she was in a hurry, she mumbled some enchantments, made a gesture with her magic wand, and in the same moment, having become invisible, she was already observing Lia’s room, seated on top of the bureau where the dib-dab was resting in a drawer, in the form of jars of modeling clay in all the colors of the rainbow.
The girl, already wearing her school uniform, and with her pack on her back, was going to go off to school when a sparrow with a broken leg came flying in through the open window, and fell on the floor, chirping with pain. “You poor thing,”the empathetic girl said, who would have stepped on him if she had not stopped short. “Wait a second, don’t be afraid, I will fix you up.” Saying that, she went running to get some tincture of arnica, a match-stick, and everything else that she needed to set the broken leg. She also brought dishese with grains of rice, corn meal, and water, which she put down within reach of the wounded little bird. Not until then did she go running out to school.
As soon as she was alone in the room the Queen opened the drawer and took out the dib-dab to bring him back to the castle. But she herself was unsure of what to do. She was no longer certain that she wanted to do that and make such a nice girl sad...a girl that was almost a little fairy. And so, when the dib-dab turned into a mouth, and began to shout and protest, she decided to make an exception and leave him with Lia.
First, however, she called on two of the most powerful fairies: the toy-fairy and the peace-fairy. Together, the three cast a spell so that this dib-dab-didub, model 2001, serial number 1-2-3-5-8, could never turn into any dangerous toy: not into weapons, or fireworks, or balloons for São João’s day; not into racing cars; and so forth. They decided to come looking for him only after Lia had become a young woman and didn’t need toys anymore.
Having done that, the three fairies, satisfied, went back to the castle. They were so satisfied that they forgave (mostly) poor Ariel. The Queen ordered that the little fairy be given an 1999 model dib-dab, reconditioned, and in good shape. If she could show that she had been sensible for a whole year, then she would be able to trade in her used dib-dab for a brand-new one. And she could only have her magic wand back after two years of good behavior.
Even so, Ariel was very happy, and so was everybody!

Posted 2:25 PM by laura r.
THE BALL, continued...
The toys were kept in a toy-chest, which doubled as a little bench, under the window in the living room. The ball stayed on top of all of the rest of the toys. Sometimes it could be hard to close the chest, because the ball would stick up a little too far. Grandma, who liked fancy words, would say “Adjust that protuberance below the lid a little.”
And then the toys had to be moved over to one side and the ball to the other, until everything would fit.
One day, however, whether because she was in a hurry, or because she was distracted, Julie forgot to adjust the protuberance, and the chest was left open a little. And in the middle of the night, the ball, because it was curious, began to stretch and stretch, so that it could look out of the opening, like you would look out of the window. Since it was rubber, it began to start bouncing, small bounces at first, and then bigger ones, until plaft!…it fell out of the chest, and the lid fell closed that very moment.
“Oh, oh,” thought the ball. “I am going to have to sleep outside the house…” It tried to give a few bumps to the lid, hoping to force it up again, so that it could go back inside the chest. But the result was that its bounces were so strong that they got out of control, and it ended up on the windowsill, and the window, unfortunately, was open.
“Oh, oh”, thought the ball again, as it slid, and oops, whoah….it fell from the fifth floor down into the street.
It’s a good thing that it was strong. If it had been any other ball, it would have burst. But it just hit the sidewalk hard, and bounced all the way back up to the fourth floor, started falling again, bounced up to the third floor, fell again…and you’ve already figured it out, bounced less and less until it rolled down the street, until it ended up in a pothole.
“Oh, oh”, thought the ball once more. “If a car comes by and runs me over, my goose is cooked.” If a ball could cry, it would have started bawling, and especially because suddenly it really missed its owner. “Poor Julie….what’s going to happen tomorrow morning? She’s going to miss me so much…”
But these reflections were no use at all. There was no way to get out of the hole. After many fruitless attempts, and many ows and oohs and ouches, the ball, which was exhausted, fell asleep. It was already very late at night, and luckily the few cars that were still going by belonged to people that lived there, who knew where the pothole was, and drove on the other side to avoid it. And so the ball woke up the next morning in one piece.
It was early in the morning when a boy, Luis, hurrying down to the bar on the corner, where he helped out, came upon that beautiful, colorful ball, sitting in its hole in the ground. He stopped and looked around: there was no one to be seen! Apparently the ball had no owner….and Luis picked up the ball and began to play. But what a difference in how he played…each kick was enough to kill you…!
“Oh, oh”, thought the ball, although it noticed that the boy was talented: Luis passed it from his foot to his head, to his thigh, to his chest, to his knee…and then Roberto appeared, his friend, who was an apprentice at the bakery next door.
“What a great ball!” Roberto exclaimed, and began to play with Luis. It’s probably not a good idea to tell how many time they kicked the ball, which was starting to get quite upset.
“This energumen (another word that Grandma liked to use) is going to be the end of me! And he’s not even as talented as the other one…”
And so, when an unusually strong kick carried it into an empty lot, the ball tried to roll as fast as it could into a dense thicket, where it found a good hiding place under a very prickly bush. The boys looked for it everywhere, like maniacs. And all the time there it was in the thicket.

And in the meantime, at home, Julie woke up and went right to the toy chest.
“Where is my ball”, she complained. “Yesterday I put right here.”
“Relax,” said her mother. “You are going to wake up Manoela. You’ll see, you left it somewhere else, and you’ve already forgotten where.”
“It’s not true!” answered Julie, almost crying. “I put it right here.”
“If you had put it right here, it would be here, right?” her mother reasoned. “Who would take your ball in the middle of the night?”
“But I put it right heeeeeere!!” Julie insisted, and by now she was really crying.
“Enough of that, little girl, we’ll look for it and find it. It’s got to be somewhere in the house. It’s got to be here somewhere!”

And with that the two of them began to search for the ball: under the beds, behind the sofa, in the drawers, in the kitchen, any place where the ball could be hiding. Julie was so desperate, and was crying so loud, that she woke up her father.
“What’s all this then? Can’t I get any sleep in this house?”
“It’s…sniff..that…sniff, sniff…that…sniff…my…sniff…ball….sniff…dis…sniff…appeared!!! Julie explained.
“I didn’t understand a word, spit it out!”
“It’s her ball…the colorful one, that you brought from Sao Paulo….it disappeared,” her mother explained.
“Well, but that’s not disaster, is it? Let’s go look for it!”
And her father began to look for it as well.


Down in the street, in the meantime, Jorge had appeared, another friend of Luis and Roberto.
“Hey, what are you looking for?”
“A really great ball, with lots of colors,” the two said at the same time.
“We found it in the street..”
“I found it in the street,” Luis corrected him.
“Yeah, he found it,” Roberto agreed.
“Yeah, but if Luis found it, then why are you looking for it?”
“Because we were playing, we kicked it, it went flying and we don’t know where it ended up…” they explained.
“Oh, OK!” Jorge finally understood. “Great, I’ll help you to look.”

And scarcely had he joined the search team when the guard from the corner, who was arriving for work, saw them there and asked what they were looking for so hard. They explained, and the guard, curious, and without anything else to do at the time, decided to join them in their search. And the same thing happened with the man who sold candy from his cart in front of the school, the woman who was waiting for the school office to open, and even with the guard from the parking lot for the company of Soares and Santos.
In Julie’s house things had not improved. In the meantime, Antonia, the maid, had arrived, and instead of washing the dishes and preparing lunch, had joined the team looking for the ball…which by this point included Julie’s father, mother, Uncle Hermano and Aunt Helô (who had come to get some papers), the electrician (who had come to fix an electrical outlet), the delivery boy from the butcher shop (who had come to deliver a chicken and a pound of ground beef), and the superintendent (who had come to complain about the noise). Manoela was the only person who wasn’t complaining about anything, because she was sleeping like an angel in the middle of all that confusion.
The owner of the corner bar and the baker, who had been waiting for their assistants to arrive, had gotten tired of waiting, and decided to take a look to see what had happened to the boys. And they thought it was very strange to find them there, in the middle of a ton of people, looking for heaven knows what.
“What’s going on? Are you coming to work or not?”
“You’re looking for what?”
“A ball!” they exclaimed, in unison (another word from Grandma). “But what good-for-nothings! Layabouts! Lazybones! Get moving!”
Each one grabbed his respective assistant by the arm and began to drag him down to the corner, where the stores were. The rest of the crowd, directionless, broke up.

When the ball saw that the coast was clear, it wanted to get out from under the bush where it had been hiding. But how? It was caught on the prickles.
“Oh, oh!” thought the ball. “Now I am really done for! No one is ever going to find me here…I am going to rot, all dirty, dried-out, and worn-out, between these dry leaves, rocks, dirty pieces of paper, empty cans, yucky cigarette butts, these…arggh,…help!…these…rats!”
The biggest of them, of course, was running like crazy in its direction. The ball closed its eyes in terror. And so it didn’t see the cat, which was chasing the rat, or the instant when the two collided, rolling over the bush. And as the collision shook the bush, the ball jumped out and rolled all the way to the street, where, at that very moment, Cicero was going by.
“Well, look here, it’s Julie’s ball!” the doorman exclaimed. He carefully picked it up, and went right to the fifth floor. And he got there just in the nick of time: Julie’s father was beginning to come to the end of his patience, thinking that it was a lot of ruckus over something so small, and he had already threatened to put her on time-out.

You can’t imagine how happy she was when Cicero rang the bell and brought back her ball…her mother gave it a good washing, so that it looked brand new. Manoela woke up, Uncle and Aunt went away with their papers, the superintendent went out, with Julie’s father mumbling something about children, and Antonia went to take care of lunch.
“Ah, ah” sighed the ball, nestled in Julie’s arms, who was giving it a big hug. “How nice it is to be home.”

That night, when the children were already sleeping, Julie’s father and mother were in the living room, talking quietly:
“But how the ball end up in the street?”
“That’s a mystery wrapped up in an enigma…”
“Well, the important thing, at any rate, is that the blessed thing turned up again…”
“Yes….”

Inside the toy-chest, beneath the window, the ball was sleeping soundly, like a log, with its eyes tightly closed.
.