Temina's Dolls
I was on an Air Canada flight from Toronto to Edmonton, There was a little girl who was sitting across the aisle. She had a backpack that was totally full of dolls. She put one on the back of her seat and one on the seat in front of her and also filled up her seat. I made up this story about her. When I was done I went over to her mother and said "Hi! My name is Robert Munsch. I write kids books and I have just made up a story about you daughter and her dolls. Would you like to see it?" The mom took the handwritten story and read it to her daughter and her daughter liked it, except that she did not like that I had called her "The Little Girl". She said "My name is Temina, so why don't you use my name for the story?" So that is what I did. Temina is from Cold Lake, Alberta.
The day before they went on the airplane, Temina said, "Dolls! Dolls! I can take my dolls. I want to take ALL my dolls."
"One!" said her mom. "You can bring just one doll."
"But" said Temina, "I will be very sad without ALL my dolls."
"Two!" said her mom. "You can bring just two dolls. You can't bring all your dolls. You must have 500 dolls."
"HA!" said Temina, "I have just 27 dolls. You know that I have just 27 dolls, not 500 dolls".
"TWO!" said Temina's mom. "You can bring just TWO dolls."
"OK! OK! OK!" said Temina.
So when Temina came to the airport, she was carrying two dolls.
She was also carrying a backpack that had 10 dolls in it, but the mom did not know about those 10 dolls. Temina had two large teenage boys to stomp and cram and squish the dolls till they fit into the backpack.
After they got their tickets, a man said to the mom, "Can I look in your backpack?"
"Yes" said the mom.
And a man said to Temina, "Can I look in your backpack?'
"NO!" said Temina, "You may not look in my backpack. My backpack is top secret. Even my mom does not know what is in my backpack.
"Right" said the man. "But if I do not look in your backpack, then you do not get on the airplane".
"Well" said Temina, "OK."
So the man unzipped the backpack and all the dolls unscrunched and uncrammed and went flying all over the airport.
"AHHHHHHHHHHH!" yelled the man, "HELP!!!"
All sorts of policemen and soldiers came running and pointed guns at Temina and her dolls.
'IT'S JUST DOLLS" yelled Temina.
"WE'RE JUST DOLLS" yelled the dolls.
"Right!" said the soldiers "Sorry about that." and they crammed and scrunched the dolls back into the backpack.
When Temina got to her seat on the plane, the stewardess said "What is in that backpack? It is a very full backpack"
"Watch!" said Temina, and she unzipped the backpack.
Dolls went flying all over the plane.
"Ahhhhhhh!" yelled the stewardess "Doll Attack!!!"
'IT'S JUST MY DOLLS" yelled Temina "AND THERE IS NO ATTACK"
"Right" said the stewardess "I guess I am just nervous."
Then Temian put put 4 dolls on the wall in front of her, and 2 dolls on her seat, and 2 dolls on top of the back of the seat and three dolls on the roof with tape.
"WOW!" said the stewardess, "Lots of dolls".
Then the plane took off.
After a while the hostess came back and said, "There are 3 kids from China in the back of the plane and they will not stop crying because their mommy did not let them bring their dolls. Can I please borrow 3 of your dolls?"
"Sure" said Temina.
After a while the hostess came back and said, "There are 3 kids from Africa in the front of the plane and they will not stop crying cause their mommy did not let them bring their dolls. Can I please borrow 3 more of your dolls?"
After a while the hostess came back again and said, "There are 3 kids from Ireland in the back of the plane and they will not stop crying cause their mommy did not let them bring their dolls. Can I please borrow 3 more of your dolls?"
Then everybody went to sleep.
Then the plane landed and all of the sudden WAKE UP! HURRY! GET TO THE NEXT PLANE' HURRY! HURRY! RUN! Run!
And Temina did not get back her dolls. She only had one doll left when she got to her grandmothers.
Happily, Temina's grandmother made excellent dolls, and she made Temina 3 more dolls, but Temina still missed the dolls she had given away.
"Well" said Temina's mom "It is nice that your dolls are out in the world making kids happy and, after all , you did have 500 dolls.
"Twenty Seven" said Temina "I just had twenty Seven"
Three months later a big truck came to Temina's house and three big men put three big packages on her front porch.
One package was from China.
One package was from Ireland.
One package was from Africa,
"WOW!" said Temina. "Who do I know in China, Ireland and Africa?"
Temina opened the box from China and there were her three dolls and also ten Chinese dolls.
Temina opened the box from Africa and there were her three dolls and also 10 African dolls.
Temina opened the box from India and there were her three dolls and also 10 Irish dolls.
"My dolls came back with even more dolls!" said Temina. "How did they know where to send them?"
"Ah" said her mom, "while you were asleep in the airplane, I went and put name tags on all your dolls cause I was afraid that they might get lost."
"NEAT" said Temina. "Thank you very much. You are a really good mommy."
"You're welcome" said the mommy
"And I can't wait to go on another plane ride with you" said Temina
"HA!" said Temina's mom, "Next time you go with your dad."
[Last page has no text. Art has Temina and her dad waiting in line at the airport. Temina is pulling a wagon full of dolls.]
© 2003 Bob Munsch Enterprises Limited