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Show I l l ALMOST MAGNIFICENCE She had been magnificent, almost. But now, trouble was, she leaked at the edges. Maybe somebody hadn't sewn the seams straight enough. God's sawdust d o l l , dripping flakes of sawdust. For a while, concerned about the l i t t e r , God hired somebody to follow her around with a whisk broom, but that proved a full-time job and people had their own responsibilities. So God said, "Gee whiz, you'll have to take i t from here, honey. I've got a lot to do. More dolls to make." So she just leaked around town, incrementally. Trouble was, after a while, the leakage affected the order of things. Her husband couldn't sleep at nights for all the sawdust in the bed. He disappeared. Her child, allergic, sneezed too much and had to be asked to leave. Her brain slipped down to the esophagus, the heart sagged, and her uterus got stuck in a knee joint when i t finally gave way to the termite- like excavation. "Ma Ma," she cried l i ke a Baby Cuddles. "Ma Ma." But her mother was gone, blown away like a crisp autumn leaf. "Da Da," she cried, not like a Baby Cuddles, but sort of. But her father was gone too. |