689. toys and things

Ariel gathered her toys. She did not talk; did not hum. In a line she placed them from smallest to largest, and where the skirt of a doll needed straightening, she straighten it. Nothing that was not a toy was present. When finished she stood before the line and with finger outstretched, counted left to right and then right to left, her eyes moving between objects deliberately. Then she took her hands and held them such to bookend the line, such that all was between them, such to hold the view in her hands. When this was done and only when done, done like the last word written, done like the turning of the back, she called for her father; not loudly, not with the comm but as if he were just a few feet away. Her face held no expression. She stood not unlike the dolls that sat; and when John arrived, this is what he saw and for the longest time, standing just inside the door, he watched.