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D'Elenor and Minkus: A Visit From Her Parents

D'Elenor has the squiggles.  She's had 'em since 3:30.

"O Dear," she says, as she looks out the window, onto the rainy street.  "O fuddlebum."

Her parents are coming over today.  They want to see her new child and meet her husband.  The child Alfonso sleeps in the crib in the corner.  Her husband Minkus is downstairs on the couch eating cheese puffs.

"Minkus!" she calls to him.  "Stop eating those cheese puffs!  You will upset my mother!"

"Yes, dear!" he calls back, but D'Elenor can still hear him snacking at them.

"You will make the couch all orange!  And your whanger, too!  If you touch it down there!" she shouts at him.

"I won't touch my shlanger today, honey!  Nor the couch!  I understand your notions of cleanliness and abide by them!"

D'Elenor wrings her hands.  The child Alfonso is not made from Minkus's seed.  It is the seed of Ted, who lives near the Laundromat.  He is an upstanding young second generation Chinese immigrant, whose parents gave him all the headstarts they could in life, including naming him Ted.  No one has noticed Alfonso's upturned eyes, and if they have they have not commented on them.  D'Elenor takes pains not to introduce her baby to Gabby Mouthe's or Chatty Cathy's.  Minkus is far sighted is the reason he hasn't said anything.  But D'Elenor's mom will notice for sure.

"O fuddly duddly," she says.  "Maybe if I keep his face covered? But mother will want to see Alphonso's face.  Maybe if I throw acid at her eyes.  No no no.  Stop.  That's just not proper.  What will I do?"

Then the doorbell rings, and she hops to the window.  Alas, it is mother and father.

"Get the door, Minkus!  Wipe your hands first!"

She hears Minkus call, "Just a minute!"

She grabs two clothes pins from the hanger.  She pinches them on Alphonso's face so that his eyes are at even keel.  "There," she says.  "Just a baby with clothes pins on it's face, and nothing more."  She lifts Alphonso from his crib and zwoops him down the walking blocks. 

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