Once upon a time there were two little girls whose names were Flopsy Topsy and Brownilocks. They were best friends. Since Flopsy Topsy and Brownilocks lived on the same street they often visited each other.
On this particular day Brownilocks went to Flopsy Topsy's house to play until her mommy came home from the store. The two girls laughed and played together with all of Flopsy's toys in the playroom. And there were so many toys to choose from! There was a big doll house, a train set, some dolls, a toy kitchen and a table at which the girls could sit and play together. There were coloring books and crayons, story books to read, and even a piano they could play to make music. With all of these toys to choose from you would think that Flopsy Topsy and Brownilocks could play happily together for the whole afternoon. But it was not to be.
All of a sudden, both Flopsy and Brownilocks reached for the same doll. It was a beautiful mermaid doll that each of them liked very much to play with.
"No, Brownilocks! That's my doll!" said Flopsy Topsy. "Give it to me, Flopsy, I had it first!" cried Brownilocks.
And so it went. Flopsy Topsy and Brownilocks, two best friends, became very angry with each other. They shouted to each other, each claiming that the doll belonged to her. They pulled the doll back and forth, back and forth, back and forth until finally the beautiful mermaid doll broke in two. Flopsy Topsy ended up with the mermaid's head and Brownilocks ended up with the mermaid's body.
Flopsy Topsy began to cry. "Now look what you have done, Brownilocks! You have broken my beautiful mermaid doll!" "I didn't break it, you did!", cried Brownilocks. Then the two friends began to fight over who broke the mermaid.
All this shouting created so much noise that Flopsy Topsy's mommy came in from the kitchen to see what was happening. "Why are you two girls shouting at each other?" the mommy asked. "She broke my doll!", sobbed Flopsy. "No, she broke it!" said Brownilocks as she angrily pointed her finger at Flopsy.
The mommy took both pieces of the doll out of the two friend's hands. "It looks to me like you both broke her." said the mommy. "Well, she was trying to take it away from me." said Brownilocks. "No mommy, she was trying to take it away from me." said Flopsy Topsy.
"Who was playing with this doll first?" asked the Mommy. "I was!" said both of the girls at the same time. "Who took the doll out of the toybox?" asked the mommy. "I did." both of the girls said together and looked at each other with defiance in their eyes.
"Do you think," began the mommy, "that maybe you both decided to play with the doll but didn't tell each other?" Flopsy and Brownilocks looked up at her. "And that maybe you both got to the toybox at exactly the same time...." she continued. The girls turned and looked at each other. "And that just maybe both of you tried to take the mermaid out of the toybox at exactly the same moment?"
The two friends looked back at the mommy and slowly nodded yes. "I thought that might be what happened." said the mommy. "But my beautiful mermaid is still broken." said Flopsy sadly. "Well", said the mommy, "let's see what we can do about that."
The mommy took the doll into the kitchen as the two girls followed close behind. They all sat down at the kitchen table. The mommy examined each of the two pieces of the doll carefully. Then she took the mermaid's head and placed it on top of the body. She gave the head a quick push, and snap! The mermaid's head was back where it belonged!
"Mommy you did it! You fixed my mermaid!" cried Flopsy Topsy excitedly. "She's just as beautiful as she was before", said Brownilocks happily.
They all went back into the playroom. Then the mommy went into the toybox and took out another doll. This doll was a handsome prince. "Now", said the mommy, "I am going to show you a game to play with both of these dolls". She gave the mermaid doll to Brownilocks and she gave the handsome prince to Flopsy Topsy. Then she took Flopsy Topsy's hand and turned the prince toward the mermaid doll.
"May I have this dance? she asked, pretending to be the prince. She took Brownilocks' hand and turned the mermaid toward the prince. "Oh your majesty", she said pretending to be the mermaid, "I would be honored to dance with you." Then she brought both of the hands that held the dolls together and made the mermaid and the prince dance with each other.
The two girls giggled and started to hum and made the dolls jump and twirl. After a while the mommy stopped the game. "Now", said the mommy, "you give your prince to Brownilocks." she said to Flopsy Topsy. Flopsy did as her mommy asked. "And you give your mermaid to Flopsy", she said to Brownilocks. Brownilocks handed the mermaid to Flopsy. "Now young ladies, it's your turn to pretend!", said the mommy.
So the two friends began to talk, pretending to be the dolls. After a while the mommy put her arms around both of the girls and said, "Do you see now how you can both play with the same toy together and still have fun?", she asked. The two friends smiled and nodded their heads. "That is called sharing." the mommy said. "I hope you will always remember that sharing something with each other is much better than fighting over something you both want.
"I'm sorry that I yelled at you." said Flopsy Topsy to Brownilocks. "And I'm sorry that I yelled at you Flopsy, you're my best friend." said Brownilocks. "Yes", said Flopsy, we will always be best friends!" The two hugged each other and happily went back to their game. The mommy watched them walk away and smiled. "I bet that they always will be best friends!", thought the mommy and then she turned and went back into the kitchen.
THE END
RedPrincess {{~_~}}
10/11/91