Lotta loved her piggly bear. At night, he slept beside her; and when Jonas and Maria weren’t around, she talked to him a lot.
Lotta was convinced that Bamsen was lying on the pillow feeling hurt because Jonas and Maria had hit him. As she stroked him, she cried and said:
“My poor Bamsen! I’m going to give Jonas and Maria a real hiding for this.”
Jonas, Maria, Lotta, Mother, and Daddy lived together in a yellow house. Every morning, Jonas and Maria went to school, and Daddy went to his office. Only Mother and Lotta stayed home. “I’m so glad that I have my little Lotta,” Mother would say. “Otherwise, I’d be all alone in the house.”
“Yes, you’re very lucky to have me,” Lotta would agree. “If you didn’t, you’d be all alone in the house, and I’d feel sorry for you.”
But Lotta didn’t say that this morning, not when she was so angry. She just sat there pouting, and looking very cross. It was time to get dressed, and Mother brought the fluffy sweater that Grandmother had knitted for Lotta.
“Not that one,” said Lotta. “It tickles and scratches.”
“No, it doesn’t,” said Mother, patiently. “Feel how soft and smooth it is.”
“It tickles and scratches,” said Lotta without touching it. “I want to wear my velvet dress.”
Lotta had a light-blue, velvet dress that was her Sunday best. She wanted to wear it even though it was only Thursday, and a very ordinary Thursday at that.
“You can wear it on Sunday,” said Mother. “Today, you’ll wear this sweater.”
“Then I’d rather go naked,” said Lotta.
“Suit yourself,” said Mother, and she went downstairs to the kitchen.
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Every day Jonas and I play games. We let Lotta play with us when we are playing games she knows.
But sometimes we play pirates and don’t want Lotta to be with us. She’s always in our way and keeps falling off the table, which is our ship. Then she cries and she wants to keep right on playing anyway.
The other day Jonas and I were playing pirates and Lotta wouldn’t leave us alone. So Jonas asked her:
“Don’t you know what to do when you play pirates?”
“You stand on the table and jump and you are a pirate,” Lotta said.
“But there is a much better way,” Jonas told her. “You lie on the floor under your bed and you hold still.”
“Why?” Lotta wanted to know.
“You just lie there pretending that you’re a pirate and you keep on saying over and over, ‘More food, more food, more food.’ That’s what pirates do,” said Jonas.
Lotta believed this is what pirates do. She crawled under her bed and said, “More food, more food, more food,” over and over again.
Jonas and I climbed up on our table and sailed away on the sea while Lotta stayed under her bed saying, “More food.” It was almost more fun watching Lotta than playing pirates.
“How long do pirates have to lie under the bed saying ‘More food’?” Lotta asked at last.
“Until Christmas Eve,” said Jonas.
Lotta crawled out from under her bed. “I don’t want to be a pirate any more because I think they are stupid,” she said.
Sometimes Lotta is a big help in our games. For instance, when we play angels—guardian angels, that is. Then we need someone to protect, so we protect Lotta. She lies in her bed while we stand next to her moving our arms. We pretend that we’re flapping our wings and flying and protecting her. But Lotta doesn’t like that game much either. All she gets to do is lie still again. It’s the same thing she does when she plays pirate, except that she lies under the bed then.
Sometimes we play hospital. Jonas is the doctor, I am the nurse, and Lotta is a sick child lying in her bed.
“But I don’t want to lie in my bed,” Lotta said the last time we asked her to be the sick child. “I want to be the doctor and stick a spoon into Mia Maria’s throat.”
