Excerpt
Antoine set a big clock for 3:00 pm. He made this huge clock with the magic in his hands and it was hung on the big oak tree. All of Queen Faustina’s door knob chimes blew gently in the wind, and they made a joyous melody for their vows.

When the huge clock hit 3:00 pm everything shifted into forward gear.

The Queen and the Wizard announced that everyone at the wedding had to rush on over the Madame Plume’s pink plantation home for the birth of a little girl at 3:33. The time had to be exact, and he had a pocket watch also on his side.

Everything was happening so quickly.
Madame Plume, Marie La Vie, and Madame Poulette watched in amazement as Miss Betty Lou gathered the 100 boys and girls to run over to Plume’s house at the other end of the braided rug road. The 16 sugar mill ladies helped her.

“Why do we hurry?” Marie La Vie asked in her deep Cajun accent. “Never before do I feel so rushed!”

Madame Plume took another bite of wedding cake. “I don’t know, but they said at 3:33 pm and they are rushing to my home at 3:00 pm. Makes no sense at all to me. This is not what I expected today.” She rushed on over to her own home with the rest of them. Her feathers were flying in every direction as she ran to catch up with the rest.

“Wait for me, Faustina! I need to be there for the birth you know.” Now, she was running. “HEY, wait for me!”

When Plume got to her front door, everyone in the land was at the “birthing table” where she POPPED all of the dolls to life. Miss Betty Lou told the 100 boys and girls outside and the Queen and the Wizard would show them the baby girl when it was time. Some sat on the swing and on the big front porch, some played in the trees, and others just sat on the grounds.

“Okay, POP our little girl to life Plume, it’s almost 3:33 pm,” Wizard Antoine said with an excitement in his voice like Plume had never heard before. Queen Faustina was all smiles too, the biggest grin she had ever seen on her face. Ever!

“Okay,” Plume said, trying to calm herself down. “I’m usually in this room alone with my wand at the “birthing table”, but beings this is a very special occasion, welcome to all of you who are here to witness the birth of the newest little Princess in the land… and also my niece.” Madame Plume took a bow. “Now, if everyone could just push back a little and give me and my fabrics some room, I’ll get started with my magic wand.”

The way that Madame Plume POPPED the dolls to life had never changed since the beginning of time. She twirled her magic wand over her head. When she did this, all of her fabrics that filled the birthing room on every wall in the huge room, from the top of the ceiling to the bottom shelf on the floor would spin swiftly around the huge room overhead in a circular motion. The magic wand made the fabrics spin around the room. Madame Plume was the best doll artist around. She was well known in every doll land for her raggedy chic looking dolls.

The residents watched in amazement. So many fabrics were twirling overhead, that they could not see the birthing table at all. But Madame Plume knew what she was doing.

This went on for a few minutes, and finally the mass of twirling fabrics began to thin out, slowing down, and each piece went back to the shelf they were in when the twirling began.

On the birthing table, at 3:33 pm … there she was. The first Princess of the Land of Sha Bebe, officially made by Madame Plume. The little girl stood up on the table.

Madame Plume screamed. Queen Faustina fell to her knees. Antoine caught his Queen. Marie La Vie put her hands on her cheeks and said ‘Oh Mon Gris-Gris’! Miss Betty Lou and Madame Poulette just stood there with their mouths wide open. The 16 sugar mill ladies backed up and stood perfectly still.

“What happened?” Madame Plume was stunned!

“I’ll go and zap a very special magic flying quilt for our new little Princess,” was all that Madame Poulette could say as she left the room quickly to make her a special white blanket, fit for a Princess with fringes on all four sides.

The 16 sugar mill ladies said they were going to fix the wedding table outside with more food and drinks as they left the room.

Miss Betty Lou went into the yard and gathered the 100 boys and girls to go back to the wedding table to enjoy more cake and music. Some of them wanted to see the new Princess, but Miss Betty Lou told them that when the Queen and the Wizard were going to be ready, they would make their announcement. It would be a very special announcement. She told them, “Let’s wait and see. We’ll all be surprised at the same time.”

Meanwhile, Madame Poulette came running back into the birthing room with an exquisite white blanket to give to the new Princess. She made it especially for her. She was saving this white piece of fabric to make herself a shawl, but she wanted the Princess to have it.

The only residents in the room now were the Queen and the Wizard, sitting near the birthing table, Madame Plume, Madame Poulette, Marie La Vie and two Cajun fairies, Acadia and Olivia. No one said a word. The silence was deafening.

Madame Poulette broke that silence and said, “Awe Sha, come with me little Princess, you need to meet your mama and your daddy. You’re beautiful.”

She put the little girl in the pretty white blanket that she had just made, and then she handed her to the Queen and the Wizard. Queen Faustina and Wizard Antoine looked at their little girl and then they both looked at Plume.

“Why is she blue? Is she okay? She is beautiful, but I have never seen a blue doll before in any land.”

Marie La Vie knew why and she answered. “She’s what you call a Quizard. She comes only to a real Queen and a true Wizard. Very rare. Yes! Very rare. Such a wonderful event for me to see. I never saw a Quizard before now.” Marie La Vie was elated and continued to stand with her arms crossed as she observed this beautiful event.

“There is a magic key somewhere in this land, because a Quizard is born.”

Madame Plume shrugged her shoulders, not knowing what to say, and she didn’t hear what Marie La Vie announced. No one heard Marie La Vie. They kept looking at the blue doll.

Plume began to cry. “I don’t know what happened! Maybe it was all of the rushing. Maybe the fabrics felt rushed. The fabrics are used to a quiet room with no one here but me. Maybe my wand is failing me … Oh … I’m so sorry. She is so beautiful! Look at her regal clothes!” Plume was wiping her tears, and crying uncontrollably.

The Wizard got up from his chair and hugged his sister. She still had her wand in her hand while she was crying, and she hugged Antoine back.

“She is beautiful Antoine! LOOK, she has your pointed eyes. Oh my goodness! Her eyes are white, but she’s beautiful. My wand has never made a doll that looked this different, and my wand make many, many dolls, as you know. You do know that, right?”

“Yes, I know.”

Madame Plume was beginning to feel a little better now that Antoine gave his approval. She looked at the Queen. “Faustina, how do you feel? Are you okay? She’s a special doll, you must admit that.”

“Oh, I love her deeply. She’s what the wand wanted us to have. I wouldn’t want another doll but this one. It was just that initial shock of seeing a blue doll, and I my knees got weak for a second or two, but I adore her.”

The little girl was hugging Faustina, and then she went to her daddy and gave him a hug. They were delighted about her caring ways.

“Can Aunt Plume get a hug? I made you special.” Madame Plume had her arms outstretched ready for her hug. At that moment, her wand went haywire. The wand was controlling her, not the other way around.

“What’s happening? I can’t let go of my wand!” She was out of control. Her hand with the wand was going up and down, left and right. All of her fabrics began flying overhead, and twirling in a circle faster than before.

The Wizard picked up his little girl and handed her to the Queen while he held on tightly to Faustina. Madame Poulette and Marie La Vie again watched in amazement. Acadia and Olivia flew low and stayed next to the front door. It was like a tornado of fabrics in the birthing room. As abruptly as the fabrics began flying overhead, it ended. And there on the table was another girl Princess, as normal as all of the 100 boys and girls who were playing in the yard.

Complete silence filled the room again. Marie La Vie kept still and watched with her two hands clasped inside each other. The mole that she was born with between her eyes felt nothing evil going on. Marie La Vie would have felt evil from what she called her third eye, and she had a pleasant feeling inside of her while she smiled.

“Okay! I didn’t do this!” Plume spoke up. Her wand had never in all the time she had made dolls, took it upon itself to make a doll without her leading the fabrics to do so. Ever! But there she was … another girl Princess, and only 3 minutes after the first one.

“Is this one our little girl too?” asked the Queen, holding the first one close to her.

“I have no idea. Your guess is as good as mine. This has never happened before!” Madame Plume put her wand down on the chair before another doll would POP to life.

The second Princess got down from the table on her own, and ran to the first Princess and gave her a hug saying, “Maggie, you’re here!”

“Molly! Yes, I made it to the doll land with the help of Madame Plume’s magic wand. I was waiting for you.”

They embraced on the Queen’s lap for what seemed to be an entire minute.

Again, the silence was broken by Madame Poulette. “TWINS. I tell you, it is twin Princesses. Awe Sha, and they are both beautiful. Welcome Princess Maggie and Princess Molly.”

“How can they be twins Poulette, they don’t even look alike?” Plume was so confused.

“They are twins because they know each other. What else could this be?” said Madame Poulette. “Maggie already knows Molly.”

Immediately, Maggie and Molly began playing in the room.