Then mother steps forward to address the assembled. The program tells me that she is thirty-two, which is old for a first-time mother around here. Dad is lurking behind her as though to perform ventriloquism:
“It’s very hard to give up my babies after all this time. But it’s something we have to do. All I ask is that Chrissie and Karen not be split up. That would be terrible, because they are so close. They seem to know what each other is thinking, even. So I would hope…,I beg you to…”
And then she collapses in tears. She can’t go on, can only make gestures with her free hand. Dad rushes over to scoop the kid out of her arms. Then Curly Haired Boy, to great applause, fetches her a chair, where she sits head in hands, sobbing. The crowd is subdued by the high drama. The twins look alarmed, their smiles have disappeared, but they have not yet started to cry. Dad seizes the opportunity:
“Please excuse my wife. You know how emotional mothers can be.”
Applause from the audience. Chrissie and Karen seem to be talking to each other but it is garbled and I am too far away to make anything out. Their lipstick is smearing.
“Please don’t think that you can’t bid on the girls separately. We wouldn’t want to give you that impression.”
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