The Judy Moody Star Studded Collection - Megan Mcdonald [6]
“I got you some from the school nurse!” said Stink.
“Okay. You can go get the scissors.”
Stink handed over the scissors. Judy poked through the tape and broke open the brown flaps. Mouse pawed at the sticky tape. Stink’s head kept getting in the way.
“Stink! I’m in the middle of an operation!” Judy pulled aside the tissue paper and lifted out the doctor doll.
At last! Judy held the doll in her lap and stroked her silky smooth hair. She made neat little bows in the ties of the doll’s blue and white hospital gown. The doll was wearing a hospital bracelet.
“Her name is Hedda-Get-Betta,” Judy read.
“Does she do anything?” asked Stink.
“It says here if you turn the knob on top of her head, she gets sick. Then you turn the knob again, and she gets betta. Get it?”
Judy turned the knob on the doll’s head until a new face appeared. “She has measles!” said Stink.
“She talks when you hug her too.” Judy hugged the doll.
“I have measles,” said Hedda-Get-Betta.
Judy turned the knob until another face appeared. Then she hugged the doll again.
“I have chicken pox,” said Hedda-Get-Betta.
“Cool,” said Stink. “A sick doll. With three heads.”
Judy turned the knob once more and hugged the doll. “All better,” said Hedda.
“Can I make her get sick, then better?” asked Stink.
“No,” said Judy. “I’m the doctor.”
Judy opened her doctor kit. “At last I have someone to practice on,” she said.
“You practice on me all the time,” said Stink.
“Someone who doesn’t complain.”
“You’d complain too if you had to hold up a lamp and get bandages all over you. Why can’t I ever be Elizabeth Blackwell, First Woman Doctor?”
“For one thing, you’re a boy.”
“Can I put her arm in a sling?” asked Stink.
“No,” said Judy. She held the ear scope up to Hedda’s ear and turned on the light.
“Can I mix up some of this blood from your doctor kit?”
“Shh, I’m listening.” She held the stethoscope on Hedda. Then she held it on Stink’s chest. “Hmm.”
“What?” said Stink. “What do you hear?”
“A heartbeat. This can mean only one thing.”
“What?”
“You’re alive!”
“Can I listen for a heartbeat?”
“Okay, okay. But first get me a glass of water to mix the blood in.”
“You get it,” said Stink.
“Don’t touch anything until I get back,” said Judy. “Don’t even breathe.”
As soon as Judy rounded the corner, Stink turned the knob on the doll’s head. Measles. He turned the knob again. Chicken pox. Measles. Chicken pox. Measles. Chicken pox. Stink turned Hedda-Get-Betta’s head back and forth, over and over, faster and faster.
“Uh-oh,” said Stink.
“What?” Judy asked, returning with a sloshing glass of water.
“Her head is stuck,” he said. Judy grabbed Hedda-Get-Betta away from Stink.
“I have chicken pox,” Hedda said. Judy tried to turn the knob. The knob was stuck all right. It would not turn, no matter how hard Judy twisted and yanked and pulled. “I have chicken pox. I have chicken pox,” Hedda said again and again.
“Her head is stuck on chicken pox!” Judy moaned.
“It’s not my fault,” said Stink.
“Is too! Now she’ll never get better!” Judy took Hedda’s pulse. She listened to Hedda’s heart. She checked Hedda’s forehead for a fever. “My first patient, and she’s going to have chicken pox for the rest of her life!”
Judy took the doll to her mother. But Mom could not turn the knob, even with her best opening-pickle-jars twist. Judy took the doll to her father. But Dad could not get the doll’s head to turn, even with his best opening-spaghetti-sauce turn.
“What are you going to do?” asked Dad.
“There’s only one thing I can think of.”
“Give her a shot?” asked Mom.
“No,” said Judy. “Band-Aids!”
“Cool!” said Stink.
Stink and Judy put fancy Band-Aids on Hedda-Get-Betta’s face, one for every chicken pock. Then they put Band-Aids all over her body. There were Endangered Species Band-Aids, Dinosaurs, Tattoos, Mermaids, and Race Cars. Even Glow-in-the-Dark Bloodshot-Eyeball Band-Aids.
“So she won’t scratch,” said Doctor Judy.
“I’m glad that emergency’s over,” Dad said.
Judy tried to turn the doll’s head one last time. She did not yank or twist or pull. She