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Visible Woman

March 4th, 2004 · 1 Comment

visiblewoman.jpg

For years I kept her parts collected in my closet. In the broken box I hid her bones, creamy white and hollow. She had organs: intestine and stomach, lungs beneath the ribs, all pink, never painted. I had her heart. I liked her skull with the jawbone that moved, the top that lifted off to show the brain. But my favorite part was the baby. Pull the intestines out and change them for a compressed set; then add the maternity plate with baby and placenta inside a transparent plastic uterus. Presto pregnancy.

I loved my Visible Woman. I’m not sure I ever glued her together as I was supposed to do. I loved playing with her parts, seeing how they fit into place. I don’t know what happened to her when I got older. What became of her when I went to college.

A while ago, I searched on the Internet and found one company that sold Visible Woman. I bookmarked it for future reference.

Last month, when I went into a store where I shop for workbooks and other homeschooling supplies, I saw her. Actually I saw him. They had a Visible Man. But no Woman. I couldn’t resist asking them to order her for me. For me and the girls, that is.

The other day we studied bones. I took the woman out of the box. We pulled the creamy plastic pieces off of the sheet and put them together. Arms. Hip. Backbone curve. The skull with the jawbone that could talk. The girls loved her too. They also liked looking at the baby, split into two parts on the plastic sheets. They were upset when I put her back in her box.

I’m waiting. They are still young. Too young to enjoy making a model. Too young to have the dexterity to paint the pieces. To attach the joints and organs together. But I can’t wait. I can’t wait to see her again.

Tags: geek

1 response so far ↓

  • 1 Anita Rowland // Mar 5, 2004 at 8:38 am

    We had the visible woman and man when I was growing up — the woman was cooler of course, because of the pregnant or not option.