The Button Doll of Wordishure

By Mick McArt

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"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature:
old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."
Matthew 3:8

High up in the Clankabang Tree that overlooks Shepard's Field, lived a family of squirrels. One day, while the parents were out collecting acorns, the younger of the two children made special plans.

"Happy birthday, Sophie!" proclaimed Jubilee to her little squirrel doll, which was sitting in a chair at the play table in her bedroom.

Jubilee loved to celebrate, and for this special occasion, she made fresh pickaberry tea, birthday cake, and hot-buttery poppacorn. Sophie was a gift to Jubilee from her parents. She was small and soft for hugging. Sophie was stuffed with feathers, which grew from cactickle plants, a tickly cactus that grew feathers instead of thorns. She was also stuffed with Hia Rose petals, which smelled nice. Whenever Jubilee held her close and smelled her, a cactickle feather would tickle her nose. Sophie's tiny porcelain face was beautifully hand-painted by a Wordishure princess, so Jubilee took extra caution to handle Sophie just right.

Today, Jubilee dressed Sophie in a purple dress with lots of silvery lace, matching the one she had on. After putting a ribbon on Sophie's head, Jubilee sat down and poured her doll a cup of Pickaberry tea. As she finished, she could hear the sound of her brother outside her window.

"Toot!" came the sound of a loud bugle. "Toot! Toot! Toot!"

As Jubilee went to the window and looked out, she saw her brother Revelly standing at the bottom of their tree with a wagon filled with all sorts of multi-colored balloons. Revelly loved to make all sorts of noise, especially early in the morning. That is why she usually carried a small blanket with her wherever they went, so she could catch a nap whenever he tuckered out.

"I brought the balloons for Sophie's party!" he shouted up to her.

Jubilee climbed down from her window and gave her brother a big hug. "How did you keep the balloons from floating away?" she asked.

"This big rock kept them safe..." he replied while showing her the rock the balloon strings were tied to.

"Do you think Sophie will like the all these colors?"

Jubilee gave him another hug. "Be careful, Jubah," said Revelly, calling her by her nickname. "You're wrinkling my Tree Scout uniform!"

Jubilee and Revelly both belonged to the Tree Scouts, a club that met across Shepard's Field in a big tree fort. Their friend Gideon was always there, working on all sorts of neat inventions.

"Where did you earn the money for these pretty balloons?" wondered Jubilee as she untied a pink, then a green balloon.

"I went to Shepard's Field and helped the Shepard with his sheep," answered Revelly tapping his bugle.

"He paid me to keep him awake while he tried to do a head count."

Jubilee enjoyed hearing about Revelly using his talent to help others. But now she needed help. "Can you carry these balloons up for me while I check on Sophie's cake?"

"I sure can!" he declared before giving a loud toot on his bugle.

As Jubilee went inside to the kitchen, Revelly took the balloons and climbed up to Jubilee's window.

"Happy birthday, Sophie!" announced Revelly as he stepped inside the room. "Here are some balloons."

Revelly carefully tied both balloons to Sophie's small hand and then took a seat at the table. He spotted the teakettle, poured a cup, and held it up for a toast. Revelly closed his eyes and smelled the aroma of the tea as it floated up to his small black nose. "Fresh pickaberry tea, my favorite!" he said.

When Jubilee entered the room holding a big bowl of poppacorn, she asked, "Where is Sophie?"

Revelly looked to where Sophie was sitting and dropped his teacup on the table. She was gone!

"She was just here!" he exclaimed, standing up and looking all around. He even crawled under the table. Sticking his head out from under the tablecloth, Revelly declared, "She's gone!"

"Where are the balloons?" panicked Jubilee, setting the poppacorn bowl on the table.

"Uh oh," groaned Revelly, running over to the window. Jubilee ran and stood next to him.

High in the sky, floating lazily above Shepard's Field, was Sophie, being carried off by the balloons tied to her hand. "Sophie, come back!" Jubilee called after her.

"Don't worry, Jubah. I'll rescue her!" answered Revelly, racing down the tree to the rest of the balloons.

"Wait for me!" Jubilee called after him. "I want to help!"

But it was too late, Revelly had already wrapped the strings carefully around his wrist and untied the rest of the balloons. Jubilee's eyes grew wide as she watched her brother and the multi-colored balloons rise up into the air.

"Be careful!" she shouted to him from the window.

"Piece of cake!" he shouted back, then added, "Save me a piece, with chocolate!"

As Revelly pursued his sister's doll, he spotted the Shepard below him. He was fast asleep and using his notebook for a pillow.

"Toot!" Revelly blasted on his bugle. "Wake up, Shepard."

Shepard woke up and looked around groggily until he spotted Revelly floating across his field high above him. "Thanks, Revelly. I was just counting them again to be sure!"

"Toot!" replied Revelly happily as he watched some sheep scatter from the noise of his bugle.

Revelly soon passed over Shepard's Field and came to the edge of Springwater Lake. He spotted his tree fort and his friend Gideon waving up to him from the doorway.

"Is that you Revelly?" shouted Gideon. "What are you doing up there?"

"I'm trying to rescue my sister's doll," replied the squirrel as he pointed his bugle in the direction of the floating doll.

"Maybe the Tree Scouts can help," responded Gideon while climbing down the ladder of the fort.

Following him down the ladder was Melody, the little girl who played piano at church, and their friend Quilliam the porcupine.

"Do you see anything different from up there?" asked Melody, twirling around showing off her new Tree Scout dress.

"We joined the Tree Scouts!" exclaimed Quilliam, whose quills were sticking out through his uniform shirt.

"Toot! Toot! Toot!" Revelly cheerfully bugled. "I'm sure Jubilee will want to celebrate this!"

"Is that Revelly's bugle I heard?" came a low rumbling voice from behind the tree scouts. "I must have dozed off."

Fordywinx was the Sleeping Willow tree that the fort was in. He was very nice, and loved to take naps to refresh himself. "I'm sorry, Fordywinx," Revelly yelled down to him. "I forgot this was your nap time."

"Why are you floating around with a bunch of balloons?" Fordywinx asked the small squirrel.

"I'll have to explain later," replied Revelly. Then he pointed to Sophie, who was floating close by Fordywinx. "Can you reach my sister's doll?"

Fordywinx reached out with his longest branch, but was a little too short. "It's just out of my reach," he told Revelly.

"I have an idea!" exclaimed Gideon. Then he gathered Melody and Quilliam around Fordywinx to explain his plan.

Revelly couldn't hear what was said, but he trusted Gideon to come up with a good plan. The children all clapped as they watched Fordywinx pick Quilliam up from the ground. He held the porcupine up close to the balloons, which held Sophie aloft. Quilliam pulled out one of his quills, and then reached as far as he could stretch and popped one of the balloons! The weight of the doll was too much for one balloon, so the doll slowly started to lower to the ground.

"I did it!" shouted Quilliam down to his friends. "I popped one of the....aaacchhoo!" he sneezed.

When the porcupine sneezed, a small quill shot out from his snout and popped the only remaining balloon. With a collective gasp, everyone watched as Jubilee's doll Sophie, fell from the sky. It made a loud crunch when it hit the ground below the tree fort.

"Sophie!" cried Revelly, releasing one balloon at a time from his hand to lower himself to the ground.

When he reached the ground he raced over to the others to see if the doll was okay.

Gideon held Sophie in a windswept swirl of cactickle feathers and rose petals. "Her painted face is broken and she lost half of her stuffing," sighed Gideon sadly.

"This will break Jubah's heart," said Revelly. "Today was Sophie's first birthday."

"I'm sorry, Revelly." said Quilliam. "I forgot that I was allergic to heights!"

Melody walked up and gave Revelly a hug to comfort him. Then, a big smile crossed her face. "I know," she said carefully taking the doll from Gideon. "We can have a rebirth day!"

Everyone gathered around her to hear her idea, and then they all smiled, nodding in agreement.

A short time later, back in the Clankabang tree, Jubilee sat by her window kneeling on her blanket, and prayed. She missed her doll, but her brother's safe return is what she prayed for most of all. Jubilee always prayed when she got scared, and God always found a way to comfort her.

"Toot!" came the sound of Revelly's bugle from Shepard's Field. Jubilee rubbed her eyes and peered out the window to get a better look. She could see Revelly and some others approaching. And there, in her brave brother's arms, was her beloved doll, Sophie! Jubilee thanked the Lord, got up from her blanket, and raced down the tree to meet her brother.

Revelly had brought Gideon, Melody, and Quilliam with him. She ran out and hugged each one of them, (except for Quilliam, who she just thanked).

As she approached Revelly, he held Sophie out to her and said, "I hope you like her, Jubah. She's had some ups and downs, and even been broken. But now, she's been reborn."

As she reached out and took the doll, Jubilee could see that the face had been replaced with patches of sewn together cloth. Sophie now had buttons for her eyes, and a smaller one for her nose. Sophie felt different too; the doll had some new filling.

"We replaced her old heart with something new," said Gideon, smiling at her.

That's when Jubilee noticed that the Tree Scout uniforms they were wearing were missing most of their buttons. The sleeves off the boy's shirts were gone too.

"I sewed her back together," said Melody. "Everyone wanted to be a part of getting her back to you. So we all gave what we could."

Jubilee, with tears in her eyes, looked up at all her friends and said, "I love her even more!"

Jubilee gave Sophie a big hug and held her up for everyone to see, "She is the best button doll ever!"

"Toot!" came a blast from Revelly's bugle as the children all let out a cheer. "Now let's celebrate with some cake!" declared Revelly while rubbing his tummy.

"And fresh pickaberry tea," added Jubilee.

As he marched behind his friends up into the large Clankabang Tree for a great celebration, Revelly declared, "Everyone should be reborn!"