VETTA, NOT SEEING the growing restlessness of the couple just then, raced out of the shop and into the dusty street where a number of passersby made their way to whatever destination they had in mind. Briefly Vetta scanned the figures in their various autumn costumes, which bore little difference in such a kind climate from those of summer. She espied a mother and young daughter walking side by side. The girl was clutching to herself what appeared to be a peach-coloured unburstable beach ball as a thing most precious. In fact she clutched it so tightly it looked almost ready to burst.
'Kind lady,' Vetta said, simply knowing her to be so.
The mother paused a little uncertainly and the tiny girl, pressed against her mother's side, stared at the curly-haired creature standing there in a striped tie, bright blouse and grey plaited skirt.
'What is it child?' The woman was herself dressed in a simple woollen frock with a narrow belt that suggested casual affluence. Her daughter wore a similar garment in a faint shade of pink and upon her head was a rainbow hat that looked as if it had been knitted by a machine. There was something so precise and hard about the stitching.
'Kind lady,' Vetta repeated and held up a garment she had borrowed from one of the dolls in the toy shop. 'Have you seen this?'
'It is not my Deesie's,' the woman said, mistaking Vetta's purpose.
'Do you not think it might be though?' Vetta said. 'It is so lovely,' and she looked at the shy girl with a smile of encouragement.
'Mama, can I see?' the girl squeaked.
'There you go again, chasing after things,' her mother laughed. Then she smiled at Vetta. 'She saw that ball tossing about in the waves one morning while we were at the beach, rescued it and then wandered up and down asking anyone if they had lost it. When no one claimed it she called it her own and I can't do anything to get it off her.'
After these words the woman took the garment from Vetta's hand and looked more closely at it.
'This is very soft, and made by hand. My mother used to stitch like that, years ago. Over-priced Mapenza High Step stuff replaced it a while back. Did someone drop it and you are trying to find out who? That's very kind of you.'
Vetta pointed at the glass-fronted shop opposite.
'It comes from there,' she said.
'A cheap toy shop?' The lady frowned.
'They have clothes like this too, for girl dolls and perhaps even real girls,' and Vetta smiled at Deesie who now had possession of the garment as well as the ball and was rubbing it against her face.
'Mama, this is nice. Can I have one?'
'We shall see.' She took the garment from her daughter, whose face wore a look of tragic regret, and handed it back to Vetta. 'So you are advertising for the shop owner over there are you?' she said, a little hardness entering her voice for the first time.
'Yes,' Vetta replied briefly. 'Only not really. He does not know. Only it seems such a shame these pretty frocks are not better known here in this place for they are so lovely and his wife makes them all the time because it seems something she really wants to do.' This explanation came out all in a rush.
'Well,' the lady laughed. 'You are a funny one. Run along back to the knitting lady and tell her I like what you showed me. I have elsewhere to be at the moment so cannot go with you. Wait, here's my family business card.' She handed a lilac-coloured rectangle with writing upon it which Vetta did not read for she did not understand what it was.
'Thank you,' Vetta said and scampered away back to the shop, having done enough for the moment as far as she was concerned.
'What were you doing?' Falter Macree said gently as the girl came back into the shop and laid the garment on a shelf. 'I saw you from the window talking to that rich woman and showing her one of my wife's knitted things.'
'Rich woman?' Vetta paused. 'Is everyone rich in Frangea?'
'No child, they are not.'
Vetta then explained what she had done.
'She called me an advertiser,' Vetta laughed, 'though really I was trying to be a friend. Look, she gave me something too in a friendly way.' She then handed the lilac-coloured card over to Falter, who glanced at it, then began blinking rapidly.
'What did she say?'
'She liked the garment.'
Falter passed the card to his wife who read it wide-eyed.
'This says,' she gasped.
'I know.'
Vetta looked at the couple and for the first time felt there was a sense of happiness surrounding them, like a warm blanket on a cold harsh day.
'Toys,' she said, 'bring joy.'
With that she departed the shop for it was time she should return to school and learn stuff like mathematical intuition and deep state metaphysics.
Her absence created a void of wonder, for she was in truth a Wonder girl.
Falter Macree took the business card from his wife again to gaze at it some more. His wife looked around at the contents of the shop, imagining things very differently, seeing colours and numbers and words everywhere. Fun with numbers.
'I think,' she said, 'we have just witnessed a miracle.'
What she did not know at that time but would very soon was another kind of miracle. For new life stirred within her.
