Free The Friendship Doll by Kirby Larson Page A

it looks like if you go left instead of right at the end of the Avenue of Flags, you’ll be closer to the entrance to the Social Science Hall.”
    Lois rubbed her eyes. What was happening? She shook herself, hard, to clear her head. Her handkerchief flew out of her hand and landed with a soft
whup
on the floor. She bent to pick it up.

    A good friend gives our heart wings
.

    Lois stood up so fast her head was spinning like an airplane propeller. “Who’s there?” she asked, peering into the dark edges of the room.
    No one answered.
    Time to get out of there. Back to Aunt Eunice. Some fresh air would do them both good. They’d been in this place long enough. She’d done what Aunt Eunice had wanted all day. It was her turn now. The Sky Ride was calling her. Lois reached again for the hanky, still on the floor. “Ouch!” Another poke in the chest. This one was hard enough to make her need to sit down. She pulled her knees in, wrapping her dress around her legs.
    One more scene rolled like a player piano scroll through Lois’ mind: Mabel, this morning, come to send Lois off. Her elbows poked through her thin sweater, and she was barefoot to save wear and tear on her shoes.She’d gotten up early to make cinnamon doughnuts for Lois’ train ride.
    Lois looked over at the doll. It stood there, the same hint of a smile on its red lips. Its arms still rested gracefully at its sides. It didn’t appear to have moved at all. Of course, it couldn’t move at all. It was only a doll. And yet something had happened here in this room.
    “I guess you aren’t so dumb after all,” Lois said.
    The doll said nothing—of course—but its eyes gazed knowingly at her.
    Lois rested her chin on her knees, looking back at Miss Kanagawa. Ambassador of Friendship.
    Friendship.
    Lois chewed on a fingernail. Then another. That ride would last, what, five minutes? A good friend would last a lifetime.
    With a long exhale, Lois reached for the handkerchief, still on the floor, and picked it up. The flash of yellow was a vibrant reminder of her dreams.
    Canary yellow. Amelia’s
Canary
. Amelia, who worked at odd jobs to earn enough money for flying lessons, holding on to her dream all the while.
    Lois hefted the cloth-wrapped coin. Slowly, carefully, she picked at the fabric to untie the knot. Soon the quarter rested in her palm.
    She set it, warm and solid, on the floor. Then she ran her hands over the
Canary
printed on each corner of the handkerchief. A smile flitted across her lips. She thought Amelia would approve.
    Lois folded her precious souvenir handkerchief into fourths and tucked it into the doll’s obi as a small token of thanks.
    It was after midnight when she and Aunt Eunice arrived home, tired, bedraggled but elated, from the fair. Mabel’s bedroom light was still on, so Lois ran right over. The smile on Mabel’s face when she opened that carved wooden apple to find the miniature tea set tucked inside gave Lois’ heart such wings that it soared—at least six hundred feet high.

MISS KANAGAWA
    It is a blessing that none of my sisters can see me now, with this wrinkled handkerchief in my obi. What would they think? It is distressing to appear so; most unbecoming for an ambassador.
    And yet it is my duty to be accepting of these odd American customs. She is a child, after all. I am sure she meant well, even if her token of appreciation has marred my appearance. And by the lightness of her step I surmise she has made a wise decision. With no small help from me, of course. I think I am beginning to understand Master Tatsuhiko’s teaching that good and bad can be intertwined with one another.
    Oh dear. That peculiar feeling is back again. Above the spot where that handkerchief rests, on my left side. Humph.
    It is not painful, as it was before. In fact, the sensation puts me in mind of a taiko drummer, striking the drumheads with the bachi sticks in a peaceful rhythm. Yes, if I think of it as a drumbeat, the feeling is not so bad.