Eli was used to being on the
selling end & had never bought
a work of art; considering the dead
woman his first acquisition over the
protests of her parents back in China;
but no laws were violated & the artist,
Me-Pink had left a last will stipulating
that her golden frame was indeed up for
sale; an empty painted shell, the money
to be paid to her parents; Eli paid & even
included a finder's fee & never hearing
from them again, kept the girl's body
pristine w/ a newly formulated transparent
polymer coating; she'd be fine until the flesh,
muscle & bone withered away beneath the gold
paint; but that could be months, years or days
& Eli would sit staring at the decomposing body
beneath the bright yellow sheen & think he was
looking down a dark hole; he was glad Becky
had told him to move it; he got to spend time
w/ it in solitude w/ the Atlantic yawning like a
giant sea serpent, & not even the biggest one of
them; so in love was Eli w/ the piece that when
the dealer called to tell him the artist had been
pregnant at the time & would he consider selling
the embryo, he refused, indignant at the suggestion