In which Richard Morris finds us....

"Caroline, you're not going to believe this," John said, looking around. It was an otherwise quiet Sunday evening.

"What is it?" I thought maybe the department Shoggoth had eaten someone - again.

"It's Richard. He's in India."

India? As in India-you're-my-love-song? Needles on the beach at Goa, we will have another flower...

And/or India as in where my ancestor Hitty totally went missing, too? THAT India?


Yeah. THAT India....

~*~

The story is almost as strange as my ancestor's.

Richard Morris, as it turned out, had a younger brother named Tim. Like me and my younger sister Val, Rich had been the prototype and his brother, the second edition. Unlike me and my sister, their maker had promptly listed them on eBay - separately. Rich went almost at once with a Buy-It-Now, Tim, on the other hand, got bid on. Sent to his new home within a day or so, Rich never did know what became of his brother - until recently.

As the fates would have it, Tim had been bought by a mother for her little girl - as a gift to make the family's impending move from Boulder to Bangalore a little easier. The father worked for IBM and had taken an international assignment. So within a few days of his arrival in Boulder, Tim was packed up and shipped to Bangalore, along with a bunch of clothes, some Barbies and a rabbit (stuffie, not pet!) named Edward. 

At least he was supposed to end up in Bangalore. Where he actually did end up, he wasn't sure. He thinks the package might have been misaddressed or the customs forms mislabeled, because the box was opened, inspected - and seized. He and Edward ended up in a room full of seized items slated for disposal. They escaped through an air vent but had no idea what to do next. Had it not been for a doll named Sohalia, they might still be wandering around - wherever they were. She hid them out in the little shop her person owned and from there, Tim was able to track Rich down online - he knew that his brother had been sent to Miskatonic University and found him through the Paranormal Studies Department website. That was when Rich went missing - he hitched a ride on a FedEx international plane to rescue Tim. (BTW, according to Rich, they were in Bhopal.) Once there, Rich was able to get in touch with John, who sent him Maddy's address and the Paranormal Studies department's FedEx account number - which explained the unexpected FedEx package Maddy received from India today.

It's a good thing she doesn't mind surprises...

~*~

This is Rich. He's a little taller than John, at about ten inches.











That's Tim on the right. He's still exhausted and kind of in shock, I think.

And these two are Sohalia and Edward. The guys didn't leave them behind.











Maddy says she thinks the family just got a little bigger, but that's fine with her.

~*~

Maddy's note: "Sohalia" means "Moonlight," according to a web site on girl's names in India. I actually made her back in February, but couldn't think of a way to introduce her until now. Edward is just a stuffie I fell in love with on eBay. For some reason he reminded me a little of Edward Tulane, even though he's not made of china. Rich and Tim I've been trying to get to come out right for a couple of months, at least. They're a little bigger than Caroline, John and Valentine, at about ten or eleven inches. And we'll probably hear more details of Tim's story after he recovers....