Sunday, December 11, 2005

The Doll with No Eyes

My neighbors have been redecorating. Like a lot of Soviet-era older people, they're packrats -- they rarely throw anything away. Out in the corridor we share there's a cabinet that contains about twenty pairs of old shoes, I suppose being kept in case the apocolypse happens tomorrow and worn-out footware becomes unavailable. I'm sure they save their plastic bags and empty pickle jars, too.

They have an old cabinet that I guess they don't have room for anymore, and they're moved it out into the hallway we share. It's full of old books -- and a plastic baby doll with no eyes.

Its head is hollow, but not broken -- I don't know where the eyes went. I guess they got pulled out the front at some point.

Naturally one wonders why anybody would keep such a thing. I'll try to get a picture of it, it's damn near the creepiest thing I've ever seen.

Naturally I like to greet guests with it when they ring the bell. I stick the doll with no eyes out the door and say, "Why don't you love me, Mommy?" in Russian. "petchamoo ti nye lubish mnye, mama?"

I keep thinking I could just take it in here and keep it, but who knows, maybe they want it for sentimental reasons.

Hmm, maybe we could take it to the abandoned building near the disc market and get some picures of it. . .

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