5—Pop Pop Pop Dora

No Phone!

Lucy and Hannah had been on their way into Great Aunt Nature Walker's house to meet Adora Birch when all of a sudden, their mother and father said it was time to get in the car to go on their vacation to Nana and Pap-Pap's. But now the girls were home from their every excellent vacation and wanted to get back to Great Aunt Nature's house to meet this mysterious new person Adora Birch. However, when they went into the kitchen for a banana phone, all they found was a banana peel lying in the sink. Lucy tried holding the peel up to her ear, but it just drooped down over her hand.

Hannah was disappointed and went into the dining room to color. But Lucy just stood and began to think. Everyone she had ever known ate bananas instead of using them as phones. What's more, other people walked down the street talking to each other, not to trees. And if little children couldn't walk somewhere, they went in strollers, not drifting along on fairy wings. Were all the adventures with Great Aunt Nature Walker real or make-believe? Lucy wanted it to be real. But facts are facts, and it was very hard to believe in the strangeness of Great Aunt Nature Walker's world.

Trying to Color Away Confusion

Hannah, on the other hand, did not seem to find the situation with Great Aunt Nature Walker the least bit strange. But that's how it is when you're two. Things don't have to make sense. You just have fun. Lucy wished she were two again. But once you're five, there's no going back. So she sat down at the table with Hannah and tried to busy her confused mind with coloring.

"Pop pop pop Dora," said Hannah.

"What?" asked Lucy absently, hoping her mother had written bananas on the shopping list.

"Pop pop pop Dora," Hannah repeated several more times while clapping her hands to the sound of the words. "Pop pop pop Dora!"

Lucy laughed at the silly sounds, then joined in. "Pop pop pop Dora . . . pop pop pop Dora, . . ." they sang, clapping their hands.

"Yes," Lucy heard Great Aunt Nature Walker's voice saying behind her, "Adora Birch was telling me just this morning that we should have you both over for popcorn and cider."

And when Lucy turned, there she and Hannah were, just steps from Great Aunt Nature Walker's yellow door, exactly where they'd left off.

"Pop pop pop Dora!" cried Hannah as they stepped through the yellow door.

Living Room

"Oh by the way," Great Aunt Nature Walker said to Lucy, "I've been meaning to tell you—any time you're not handy to a banana phone, you can always get back to me on a wave of laughter."

"Okay," said Lucy still in such a daze of astonishment that she thought she might be dreaming.

Dining Room

But then as she looked around Great Aunt Nature Walker house, everything seemed quite real and even normal with a living room and a dining room and a kitchen. 

Starry Countertop

Kitchen

The kitchen was best of all with red walls, creamy colored cabinets, and shiny black countertops that sparkled like stars in the night sky.

Yikes! A Monster!!!!

But then suddenly, Hannah and Lucy grabbed hold of each other and drew back at the sight of a short but scary looking black monster with a gigantic arm for a head. "Oh, don't be afraid," Great Aunt Nature Walker said. "That's just Woody the Stove. I don't have a furnace. So Woody eats wood and turns it into fire that heats up the house. He sends the smoke from the fire up through his arm and out the chimney.

"Woody is a good friend to have on a chilly afternoon like this one," added Great Aunt Nature Walker. "In fact, I think Woody could use some lunch." She opened a little square glass door in Woody's stomach, then put in some twigs and wood from her wood box. After lighting up the fire, she closed the door and said, "Now, Woody means no harm. But he gets very hot when he eats. So you will burn yourself if you touch him."

Woody the Stove Having Lunch

Lucy and Hannah understood. And amazed as they were by Woody the Stove, they were no longer afraid and watched with great interest as Woody got all heated up with his lunch. And sure enough, in just a few minutes, they saw a fiery glow through the window in Woody's stomach. And the house felt cozy and warm. 

Meanwhile, Great Aunt Nature Walker had poured pop corn into the pop-corn popper and plugged in the popper. Pop pop pop went the popper, as Great Aunt Nature Walker set out three glasses.

"Where is Adora Birch?" Lucy asked as Great Aunt Nature Walker took a jug of apple cider from the refrigerator.

"Why, she's right there beside Woody," replied Great Aunt Nature Walker, nodding at the door.

Lucy and Hannah looked but saw nothing.

"Is Adora Birch tricky in her invisibility like the elves?" Lucy asked.

Adora Birch

"But she's not invisible," said Great Aunt Nature Walker pointing at a small smiling face that was peering out of an unpainted circle in the tan door leading from the kitchen into the garage.

The little face was so cheerful that Lucy and Hannah smiled back without even thinking how odd it was to be smiling at a door.

"Did you draw that face on the door?" Lucy asked.

"Oh no," Great Aunt Nature Walker explained, "Adora Birch is not a drawing. She is one of the Wood Spirits and quite real. The Wood Spirits live inside trees. Adora had been living in a birch tree in a very large forest for several hundred years before men came with big noisy metal saws to cut the tree down and turn that tree into the wood to be made into things like this door."

Being trapped in a door and not able to move did not seem like a very good idea to Lucy. "Why didn't Adora run away?" she asked.

"Every Tree has its Wood Spirit," Great Aunt Nature said. "A Wood Spirit and its Tree are best friends. And a Wood Spirit will never leave its Tree no matter what."

"Adora Tree!" exclaimed Hannah.

But Lucy wondered: Was Great Aunt Nature Walker was just making this up? And yet, there was that smiling and very convincing little face peering out of the door. 

Great Aunt Nature Walker set up a bench seat from the dining room table so Lucy and Hannah could climb up and touch Adora.

Together, Lucy and Hannah touched the little face with their fingertips. Adora Birch was so tiny and, despite the hard solid feeling of the wood door, felt fragile and sweet. "Hello, Adora Birch," said Lucy and Hannah. And while Adora Birch's lips and expression didn't change, the sisters felt something move in the air. A whisper. A kindness. A happiness like when their mother and father said they were proud because Lucy and Hannah had done something good. It was almost like Adora Birch had, well, talked without talking!

How could this be?

"Shall I tell you about Adora Birch?" Great Aunt Nature Walker asked.

Lucy and Hannah, both too wide-eyed with the wonder and mystery of Adora Birch to speak, just nodded a big OH YES!
So Great Aunt Nature Walker helped them up on the tall chairs at the shiny black kitchen counter, scooped them out big bowls of hot pop corn, poured them glasses of sweet cool cider, and then walking back over to Adora Birch, began the story. "Adora Birch and I," she said, "have been friends for eight years now. And it all began when I had to get a new door. . . ."