Once apon a time there lived a small child

Once apon a time there lived a small child that had only one eye. Her name was Beth. She was always so happy and appriciated life.

This was a constant source of consternation for Beth's beleaguered mother, who had sold Beth's right eye to a sailor down at the docks. He'd given her an all-too crisp hundred-dol

lar note. That's the way Beth learnt that tears dry on their own--tears from her surviving left eye, that is. The sailor kept Beth's right eye in a pickle jar by his hammock & star

shaped lamp on the nightstand. Unbeknownst to the sailor though, the right eye could still see, and Beth could see thru it. She was able to give her intact left eye a rest.

A candle flickered past, illuminating a sphere of relief in the darkness, until it disappeared far above. More candles came, on desks, end tables, and shelves. She drifted, Alice.

The hallway of candles were too overwhelming for her. She fainted, and was knocked out for a while. When she regained consciousness, a figure appeared from the other side of

the dark abandoned insane asylum. Were there different people laughing and/or crying in the other hallways? "Oh, my vapors, I do declare", she said coyly, trying to grok the situat

-ion from behind her grimy lace fan. Unsteady on her feet, she wandered the halls of the asylum in her nightie, searching for the source of these ghostly voices. Every shadow

hid a silent potted plant. The voices wafted up a stairway. She descended into the basement. In the darkness she came upon a custodian listening to talk radio. How disappointing.