Horse Thief at the Yard Sale: Miranda Finds a Home

I'm settling into my new job as Construction Supervisor of Wylde Kingdom Construction, but once I'm settled I'll be able to get back to my regular blogging. Promise. - Miranda

*****

Once upon a time, I had a stuffed bunny. His name was Gage and he traveled everywhere with me. He was my first experience with a toy companion as an adult, and I loved him.

And then, Gage met a strange little red haired doll, and everything changed.

This blog entry originally appeared on Gage's blog, Hare in the Wind, September 9th 2006. I hope you'll enjoy this little story of how Miranda came to join the Wylde Kingdom all those many years ago.

- Wendy

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(Horse Thief at the Yard Sale, or Where Miranda Came From. As told by Gage the Bunny)

 I told Wendy's mom, Karen, that I'd come help at her yard sale today, so I missed the writers' group... again.

Wendy assurred me that nothing draws in crowds like a rabbit doing the hula.


But I'm pretty sure she was pulling my leg.

They had all kinds of stuff for sale. Books...


Old tools (I think they belonged to Wendy's Grandpa)...


All kinds of stuff. (Upon reading the back, I discovered that Buns of Steel, is in fact NOT a work out video to make you a stronger bunny. I'm glad I read the description before I bought it!)


Things were going pretty much exactly as you'd think a weekend yard sale would go, and then...

I spotted her walking up the driveway.


I said "Hi", and she said "Hi" but kept walking, right past me, straight to the box of stuffed animals, which she jumped up on and threw herself into.


I wandered over, and said: "Um, hi. Can I help you? What are you doing in the stuffed animal box?"


She smiled at me and said: "I'm sick of not having a home, so I'm throwing my fate to the winds, and selling myself at a yard sale. How much do I cost?"

"Excuse me?"

"The stuffed animal box. What's the price for things in this box, please?"

"Oh, they're twenty five cents."

"Excellent! I shall find a home for CERTAIN at that price! OH! Look at that!" and she was off digging in the box.


"Do you live here?" she asked me, while casually tearing the dress off another doll.


"No, I live a long way away from here. I'm just helping out today."

"Oh, what's your home like? Do you live with humans?"


"Well, I live in a huge house, with lots of wild plants and stuff all around. It's pretty quiet except for the occasional owl or coyote. And I live with two humans, but they're very nice."

"That sounds absolutely LOVELY!" she said, with a strangely enthusiastic tone to her voice.


Suddenly, she turned like she heard something behind her, tossed the dress to me, turned around and said "Oh, what have we here? Hello little fella!" And she started digging into the corner.


"Here now, you don't want to stay here, do you? Up we go!" I heard her muffled voice say to someone under a bunch of stuffed animals. And suddenly she appeared on the back of a white horse with black spots!

She rode over to me, and asked "My dress please?"

I handed it to her and the horse jumped out of the box.


"It was wonderful to meet you," she said riding away.

"It was wonderful to meet you too," I said. Then I realized, she hadn't really been sold. Nothing had changed for her! So, chasing after her, I asked "Hey, what about 'tossing your fate to the winds' and finding a new home?"


"I have," she said. "See ya!" and away she rode down the driveway.


Weird. Just plain weird.

Thankfully, we got rained out before any more weirdness could occur. We sold a bunch of stuff, and mostly had a good time.

Even if, since I let the stranger (I never did catch her name) ride away with the horse without paying, I ended up owing Karen twenty-five cents! D'oh!

Houseless Again and Things That Go "Vroom!"

So I've been spending a bunch of time at the doll store with Wendy. It's good for her (I'm a very calming influence) but BORING for me. Not that I really had anywhere else to be, though. You see...

I've been getting caught up with my friends who'd been hiding out at DDE, and one afternoon I had Madera over for coffee. We got to talking about the house and everything.

Madera fell completely in love with the house, and I don't blame her, it is a pretty nifty one. Anypixie would be proud to live here, and that got me thinking.

Madera has lived here for a long time, but she's never had a house of her own. I've had tons of houses. And I'm getting one at the end of August from that police auction thingy.

My wall house is done so I have somewhere to stay while I'm waiting for the auction. So...

I told Madera she could buy the house from me, if she wanted, including the bookstore in the basement. She completely flipped out and she's so excited. I think she's going to have a lot of fun running it, and I told her I'd be just a phone call away if she needs help with anything, but I think she's got it handled.

It is a pretty cool house, and an amazing opportunity for Madera. I hope she'll enjoy having her own house and business. She deserves them.

But this left me at rather loose ends. No book store meant nothing to do.

 I tried to be self entertaining, hanging out at the doll store with Wendy.

And ended up taking a nap in the wigs. (comfy!)

So I'm bored.

Very.

Very.

Bored.

But today Wendy said she had just the perfect solution. And maybe she did.

 It's a remote control truck! Cool, huh?

It does a lot of things, and I love it.

It is very fast, and it'll go over just about anything.

It took me a little bit to get used to the controls, but I think I've got it now.

Wendy said to have fun and keep myself entertained. And I did.

I built myself a track. Just a little one. Tiny little track.

Around one of the legs of the "wig boutique".

I figured no one would even notice it. Kind of out of the way and all.

My little race car LOVED the track.

It had some tricky, hairpin turns but I got going pretty good on the straightaways.

Well, until I had my wreck. My truck wasn't hurt at all, but the noise called Wendy's attention to my track and she told me I had to take it down. Something about being a "hazard" and an "obstacle" something "people could trip over!"

Whatever.

I tried to be self entertaining. And Wendy said she appreciated it, but that it seemed to her that I was just the kind of pixie who needs something to do. Like a job. And she said she knew just the thing.

Well, we'll see. 'Cause if it doesn't involve becoming a professional remote control car driver, I'm not sure I'm all that interested. I'll let you know what she came up with as soon as I know.

Also, there'll be a Fawn update soon. I just need to convince the kid to let me get pictures of her. Working on it.

- Miri

Vacation Day - Jeep Trip! Part 2

Okay, so where was I? before all this room box, housing and pixies and stuff happened I was babbling about...

Oh yeah!

When we last left off I was working my way towards the summit of Webster Pass.

That isn't it. That's the shelf road between me and the summit.

This photograph does not even begin to get across how scary a shelf road this is. It's (barely) wide enough for just one, human sized Jeep. Just trust me: Do NOT look down.

But it's okay, 'cause instead of looking down, you can just look out across the valley. Beautiful!

Up the switchback!

Almost there!

Made it to the top!!

And what a view! From up here you can see the whole valley! Breathtaking!

And we saw some other Jeeps making the descent off of Red Cone. That is one steep trail, and it's not even the worst on that mountain. Maybe we'll try that next time.

At the top, we met the most interesting bunch of people with a dune buggy looking thing. Oh, it's no Jeep, but it was pretty cool.

And Mary and Kitty, the two ladies in their party, thought _I_ was pretty cool too!!!

And yeah.

I am.

That was an awesome vacation day. Nice to have a break, especially now that everything here got all busy and hectic again. I missed the other pixies so much, but there are more of them to find. I know they're here, I just have to find them. At least now I have help!

And Fawn is doing great. I'll tell you all about how she's settling in soon.

- Miri

Trip to DDE - Part 2

(For Part One, Click here - Trip to DDE Part 1 )


 

I wandered up to the door and moved the business cards out of the way.

I knocked, but no one answered.

So I just walked in.

No sign of anyone on the first floor. But the house had that strange "hush" feeling to it that only a place where someone is hiding can get. I knew someone was here. I was hoping that someone was my sister, Juno.

I got upstairs, and quietly called for Juno and...

There she was!

With all the other "runaways" too! Pixies I hadn't seen in MONTHS! Hiding out in DDE! Who would've thought?

We all settled on the rather comfy little sleeping bags they had, and they filled me in. They had been hiding in Wendy's purse, just one or two at a time, each work day morning and secretly rode to DDE with her. Once they arrived, they climbed out when no one was looking, hid, and then found each other after the store closed.

It had all been Harley's idea, though Juno had been the first one to make the journey to DDE. Harley was surprised I'd found them, and I told them about the strange, dark haired girl who'd lead me to them.

And that was when Juno filled me in about who the little, dark haired girl was.

She told me her name is Fawn. She's a second hand doll from a big doll collection. She'd only had one owner, and the collector had ordered her about 6 years ago, but no longer wanted her.

She stands still, all day, with all the other dolls (some of whom are second hand from the same collection) and hopes someone will buy her and take her home.

But she's a little old for a ball jointed doll, and a bit beat up. Juno said she had once said of herself that she was old and ugly, and thought she would probably stand in the store forever, and that was just how it was to be. She said she didn't complain, but that sometimes she seemed very, very sad.

Fawn had been helping the runaways right from the start.

It was Fawn who had suggested the dollhouse to Juno as a place to hide. From her shelf she could see that  no one really moved or messed with it, and knew it would be a safe place for them.

And it was Fawn who, when she realized there would be more runaways coming, showed Juno and Madera where the store owner's kids kept some of their toys, including a bunch of sleeping bags for their toy dolls.

Every morning, Fawn put the business cards back in front of the door, so no one would ever suspect that pixies might be in there, sleeping the day away. It was brilliant camouflage.

And Fawn was the one to find the new arrivals and direct them to Juno and the others at the house, just as she had directed me there.

The other dolls wouldn't talk to Fawn anymore, because she helped Juno and the other "renegades".

But Fawn didn't let it bother her. She put herself back on her stand every morning, and slipped her sales tag back on.

And stood still, waiting for a new life that she feared would never come.

I felt bad for Fawn. Here she'd helped my sister, and my friends, who were all very excited about going home (now that I'd convinced them at Wendy wouldn't sell them), and we were leaving her. And to what? Other dolls that wouldn't speak to her? Lonely nights in a doll store? It wasn't right.

There was really only one thing to do, though I couldn't believe I was doing it.

There are no pictures of me begging Wendy to buy Fawn and bring her home with us. I do have SOME pride. I still can't believe it. I went to DDE to PREVENT Wendy from bringing home a doll and instead I BEGGED her to bring one home.

I had clearly lost my mind.

No one could've been more shocked about the turn of events than Fawn, though. She seemed a bit overwhelmed, maybe disbelieving, and was very quiet the whole way home.

Juno found out later that Fawn had been so silent because she was afraid that if she spoke, she might wake herself out of this dream and find herself back on the shelf, still for sale, and she didn't want to wake up.

Poor thing. Well, time will be what shows her that it's not a dream, I think. I hope she likes the Wylde Kingdom.

So now there are a bunch of pixies back in the Kingdom! I forgot what it was like to have voices around, it's been so quiet here.

I have a lot of catching up to do, and we need to get everyone settled. It may be a bit before I get a chance to post, but I'll try to keep you posted about what's going on. And I'll let you know how Fawn settles in too.

Talk to you soon!

- Miri