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Word Count: 209
Title: Babbs is No Longer Engaged to Marry
Warnings: I don't think there are any swears
Genre: fiction
"I have more of a veneer than a shell, well maybe a shell. Does the shell fish feel its shell or just the meaty flesh attached to it? I suppose that it wouldn't make much sense if it could feel its shell."
"And isn't a shell meant to protect the self?"
"Yes, so I'd say I have a veneer, not a shell. I'm really quite vulnerable. If I really had a shell you would only have to arrange me, place me prettily and on occasion check to see that some predator with shell crushing jaws had not eaten me."
" Like people lost in psychosis, coma, catatonia or autism, registering a distance knock on the shell of their conditions, the growth of density from years of unaffectedness, making those knocks quieter and quieter..."
"'As quiet as a tomb', what mind thought those words?
'O God, I have an ill-divining soul!
Methinks I see thee, now thou art so low,
As one dead in the bottom of the tomb'
"Well there you have it don't you?. Even Shakespeare knew it was the best wedding dress."
"What? Death?"
"Yes."
"But it was Juliet who said that line."
"So I meant wedding garb, geez do you have to be so sexist?"
"I'm the voice in your head, don't blame me. You should really talk to real people you know. You are quite clever, in a horribly depressing way."
The male nurse came in and checked knobs and monitors, placed a hand on Babbs shoulder and smiled, and then set about turning her to one side and then the other as he changed her bedding; finally returning her to the center of the hospital bed and pulling the sheet and blanket neatly above her chest. He arranged her arms on top of the blanket, looked in her eyes again and smiled, then continued on to the next bed.
