Page 386 - The Grotesque Children's Book

“Blaming you for her death? I don’t see that.”
“There. Right in the center of the thirty-third bay.”
“It’s just a woman eating bread.”
“It’s Joanna of Austria. You see she’s holding her right arm over her womb.”
“Her stomach. She’s hungry.”
“Her womb. The whole frame is an oval; a shape like an egg. She’s longing to conceive,
just as Joanna was longing to bear a son. The lacing on her bodice is an invitation to enter her.”
Lorenzo Pulveri gave up on his fingers. “I prefer the nubile naked girl. This one’s old.”
Zaccario continued, “She’s worried, is what she is. The white scarf is forming an X
across her breasts, a blockade. That’s why she wants so badly the bread of life to work. But the
bread she’s looking at...do you see she’s longing for it to be transformed into gold.”
“Into gold!” stammered Pulveri. “Who could eat that!?”
“Gold, representing the ultimate transmutation. Bread into life. Lead into gold. Next to
her elbow, you see, on the table, is the golden loaf. It’s the same shape as the vessel, as her
work, as the egg.”
“You mean the jug? The wine carafe?”
“That’s not a wine carafe. It doesn’t have handles, and it’s not open on top.”

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