This episode of the SHORTS podcast contains themes, content and language that may not be suitable for some listeners – listener discretion is advised. We all had one… that special toy we cherished as a child… for some reason or other we’d take them everywhere with us and we couldn’t imagine life without them! For Stephanie her doll, lovingly given by her grandmother one Christmas becomes her life-long companion. Written by Sadie Parsley, Dolly brings a tale of life lessons to the SHORTS podcast collection. Thanks to the author: Sadie Parsley. This podcast is dedicated to showcasing varied authors across a range of genres, from around the world and is delighted to have the opportunity to collaborate with such great creative people. If you would like to be included, please contact the team at [email protected]; r/hailandwellmet on reddit; or @hailpodcast on twitter. Special thanks to our wonderful patrons: Gio; Andrew; Ryan – and everyone else. Without you, we would not have the ability to have created this podcast. Check out our Patreon page where you can support the show. Thanks to everyone else involved in this episode of the SHORTS podcast, including: The voice of “Narrator” and the “Doctor” performed by Mike Nye. The voice of “Stephanie” performed by Bernadette Nye. The voices of “Dad” performed by Tarran Merlo. Kai Engel (https://www.kai-engel.com) for the haunting piano accompaniment to this episode. All pieces are from his album “Irsen’s Tale”, which you can get for free at http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Kai_Engel/Irsens_Tale. Theme song created by Shawn Korkie (https://shawnkorkie.bandcamp.com). Artwork by the amazing Keely (https://cutewitchirl.artstation.com/). The generous people at FreeSound.com for a fantastic resource, with specific credits listed below. The generous and talented Kevin MacLeod for all of his music, with specific credites listed below. SFX used under the Creative Commons 0 License (but we wanted to name them anyway to say thanks): simkiott: https://freesound.org/people/simkiott/sounds/43404/ E0las: https://freesound.org/people/E0las/sounds/399674/ MadamVicious: https://freesound.org/people/MadamVicious/sounds/218184/ Ligidium: https://freesound.org/people/Ligidium/sounds/192294/ SFX used under the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/): Ch0cchi: https://freesound.org/people/Ch0cchi/sounds/15288/ bulbastre: https://freesound.org/people/bulbastre/sounds/127005/ “Smooth Lovin” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/). Thank you for listening! 3