I was taking a walk yesterday, and I passed a house a little down the block from mine. It has a yard that often contains toys and whose sidewalk sometimes has chalk drawings covering it. I know that a little girl lives there, because I've seen her there before. She's about five or six.
Yesterday there was an arrangement of toys in the yard that nearly stopped me in my tracks. As I think it's generally creepy for someone to stop and stare into another person's yard, I gave it a couple of glances and kept walking, and then gave it a few more glances over my shoulder.
It was a tea party. There was a little child-sized table and two little chairs. It was a very civilized scene. The table had an umbrella over it, like a little cafe table.
It was the guests at the party that threw me. They were lawn decorations. One was a bunny, concrete or stone, abstracted and sleek, like an art nouveau rabbit gargoyle. He wore a slightly expectant but slightly vacant expression. He sat at the table with his paws on the edge of the seat.
The other was a plaster owl, much taller than he was wide, painted in blues and greens. He was slightly ragged, and seemed tired. He sat up as straight as he could in his chair, trying his best to remain dignified in a situation that perhaps had slipped out of his control.
The two of them were the only guests. On the table was a plate of Barbie. She was not the least bit mutilated or abused in any way. She was fully dressed and standing on a plate, not so much exemplified as cheerily offered up to the diners.
In any case, it was really an odd scene. If someone asks that little girl what she wants to be when she grows up I dearly hope she says "conceptual artist" and not "waitress."
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