Trips to Father�s office were normally one of Anna�s favorite activities. First of all it was on the 29th floor of an office building, which would have looked out over the entire city if it had been on the other side of the building, but which still looked out over a multitude of tiny houses and buildings that faded away into what Mother called �Kingdom Come�, which was generally a place she had to drive all over when she was doing her errands. The window stretched all the way from the floor to the ceiling, and you had to be very careful not to press your hands against the glass because Father said you might get fingerprints on the glass, and, as Anna often privately told Elizabeth, the glass might pop right out and there would be nothing to stop you from falling 29 stories to the parking lot below and breaking every single one of your bones. The office itself was a square room with a large wooden desk and a handsome leather office chair with twenty-eight identical indentations filled with brass buttons, which were perfect for using as a cash register or an elevator, as long as Father wasn�t sitting in it, and sometimes when he was. The chair sat on a smooth piece of hard plastic that allowed it to roll around on the thin gray carpet. The bottom of the plastic piece had a million tiny teeth which held it to the carpet. Anna liked peeling up the side of the plastic and pressing the teeth into her skin to make little indentations, but it was sometimes dangerous to sit behind Father there on the floor where he Can�t Even See You.
In a little room just around the corner from the office was a copy room filled with office supplies, which Father always let them use, even though Technically It Was Not Allowed. There were Post-It notes and paper clips, and little creatures that Father called �staple removers� which had spring-loaded jaws with pointy metal teeth. Those little Staple Removers, they liked to eat everything, like important papers or pencils or Elizabeth�s hair. One of their favorite foods was tacks, and if you accidentally opened a box of tacks around them you would absolutely lose control of them and you could barely hold on as they flew towards the tacks and then started gulping them down. �MUNCH MUNCH MUNCH, OH WE LOVE DELICIOUS TACKS�, they would always say. That�s how they kept their teeth so sharp.
Since the conversation she had had with Maximillian, Anna had begun to notice mathematical operators everywhere. The copy machine, for example, was a great big multiplication operator, because you put something in and then you told it how many copies you wanted and it multiplied your original papers by the number you wanted until you got a product. The paper shredder was a division machine which took one big piece of paper and divided it into little fractions of a piece of paper which you could weave into coasters for Father.
Father always let them type things on his very old typewriter, which was an addition machine because it could make letters, but it couldn�t take any of them away. The typewriter made a satisfying �clackity-clack-clack� and Elizabeth could type five hundred words per minute as long as nobody tried to read them.

I am really enjoying excerpts from this book! It is fun to read and see where your inspiration comes from. I was wondering if you were going to weave in saying "Daddy toilet paper" into the dictaphone. ;-)
» Rachel (98.245.159.47) on 2010-11-07 10:45:38

RE:
I totally agree. I mean, if love involves hitting each other sometimes, then I don't even want to fall in love or be in a relationship. That's like saying "Yeah, I love you.. But if you piss me off I'm still going to hit you." Effed up.

P.S. No way! Emma Watson?! Respect. -gives props- She is totally gorgeous 8D
» peanutmelon on 2010-11-08 05:53:54

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