Sock Schemes: Part #2

Okay, I’m finally back! I forgot how busy November can be – I had a whole slew of final assignments, but now that’s over and it’s on to exam season, where I should have at least some time. But anyway, the thing you have been waiting for is here!

Part 1, in case you forgot (I know I did). And here we go!

Tomorrow dawns grey and rainy, just the day Toria and Hailey wanted. A somber sky would be fitting for such a somber day, they thought.

Almost immediately after breakfast, Hailey is over at Hedgehog Hollow, dragging her sisters behind her.

“I’m ready!” she says.

“Okay, so . . . ” Toria starts. “Today is – drumroll please . . . ”

The dolls start drumming on tables, stamping feet, knocking on the wall.

“Lost Sock Memorial Day!”

A cheer goes up.

“Okay, so, first up is the ceremony,” Toria continues. “Actually, no, first we need to make pictures of all of our lost socks. Hailey, do you have the paper? Pencil crayons?”

“Yes!” Hailey passes them around. “Draw every single sock you’re missing.”

“We’re missing a lot of socks.”

“Well  . . .” Toria and Hailey share a look.

Soon, sock papers are flying.

“What about shoes?” Nicole asks. “I lost mine yesterday.”

“Um, no, today is only about socks,” Toria says.

“But, um, Toria, I can’t find my shoes today either,” Sophie pipes up.

“Oh.” Toria stops drawing a yellow sock. “That’s weird. Here, I’ll tell you where I hid them.”

“Whoa, hold up, you hid Sophie’s shoes?!” Nicole asks. “And what about mine?”

“I told you yesterday, I didn’t hid yours. Only Sophie’s. She hid mine too,” Victoria says.

“It was all part of our plan! And it worked! We didn’t have to wear socks or shoes all day!”

Toria’s response is reluctant. “Yeah, but we probably should again today.”

“I know,” Sophie sighs.

“Okay, so your shoes are under the pillow, in the book box,” Toria starts, “in the top left drawer of the dresser, in the chicken coop – ”

“But I went in there yesterday!”

“I hid them real well! And then your last two pairs are under the bed and under ForestPoodle’s dresser.”

Sophie runs off to go check those places. Under the pillow? Oddly, there’s nothing there.

The book box is just stuffed with books and for some reason, the shark binder. That’s really not where it belongs.

Even a very thorough scouring of the chicken coop yields no shoes.

There aren’t any under the bed.

Nor under ForestPoodle88’s dresser.

The top left dresser drawer only has . . . watermelon. Weird, but you get used to it. Still, no shoes.

Sophie still can’t find a single one of her shoes. “You’ve given me the wrong hiding spots!” she reports back. “I can’t find my shoes anywhere.”

“No, I’m sure that’s where I put them,” Toria says. “Where did you put mine?”

Sophie shakes her head, a grim but determined look on her face. “We’ll find them later. Now is for lost socks, not shoes.”

Pictures of lost socks have been drawn and are ready to go. They affix them to a table that Toria and Hailey decorate with a statue of a sock.

Flowers are found and scattered around it and they all stand solemnly. Hailey starts singing a song and the rest join in.

(“Oh, Sock of Mine” (sung to the tune of “O Tanenbaum”, or, you know, “Oh Tom the Toad”) – sing this in your head very solemnly)

“Oh, sock of mine, oh, sock of mine,

What are you doing lost, not fine?

Oh, sock of mine, oh, sock of mine,

What are you doing lost, not fine?

“Did you not see that hungry head?

Now you are lost and filled with dread

Oh, sock of mine, oh sock of mine,

What are you doing lost, not fine?”

“Now,” says Hailey, “Our lost socks would want us to sing it all happy and to remember their good memories. So, we have to sing it again, very happily, and with clapping.”

And so they do.

(“Oh, Sock of Mine” – sing this in your head very upbeat and bouncy, clap along if you feel like it!)

“Oh, sock of mine, oh, sock of mine,

What are you doing lost, not fine?

Oh, sock of mine, oh, sock of mine,

What are you doing lost, not fine?

Did you not see that hungry head?

Now you are lost and filled with dread

Oh, sock of mine, oh sock of mine,

What are you doing lost, not fine?”

When that is done, a moment of silence is taken and the ceremony is concluded.

Sophie and Toria run off to find their shoes . . .

(aside: Toria IS wearing shoes, but considering all of hers are lost and her cousins have the exact same boots as her, I think it’s safe to conclude that she is wearing Saila and Hailey’s boots and not hers. Nicole is also wearing Hailey’s shoes.)

. . . returning ten minutes later with, well, absolutely nothing. They can’t find a single shoe.

Charlotte, over there in the corner, looks about ready to burst out giggling, but no one really notices. She’s still safe.

*  *  *

And so ends part 2 of “Sock Schemes”! Are you excited for the last and final part??

-ForestPoodle88