neat, dustless packages, lock the closet door and throw away the key. But we're not putting Johnny in a dark closet."

Stephen stuffed tobacco in his pipe and searched in his pocket for a match. He couldn't find one.

"Johnny's a member of a family group, sure," he went on. "But he's also a very eager little boy starting out on a great adventure. It's natural for a child to stop at odd crossways and ask advice. Fuzzy Head just happens to be standing at an important crossroad in Johnny's life."

"But he's had that doll for seven years now, Stephen! You said yourself it was sissified for a boy of eight to play with dolls. You never did. Have you changed your mind?"

"No ... I'm not too happy about that," Stephen admitted. "Every father wants his son to be a real he-guy. But you've got to remember that Fuzzy Head isn't a baby doll. He's a little old man doll, more of a character toy than a doll."

"I see. And do you approve of the way Fuzzy Head's developing Johnny's character?"

"Johnny has character!" Stephen retorted. "That's the important thing. Do you want our son to be a rubber stamp?"

"Naturally not. But a two-headed calf would have character too. A great deal of character!"

Stephen was shocked. That the mother of his son should be capable of drawing such a parallel—and deriving emotional satisfaction from it—seemed incredible, almost monstrous, to him. What he failed to realize was the depth of his wife's capacity for self-torment and the strength of her desire to jolt him out of his complacency.

As he stared at her, aghast, she said an even more shocking thing: "Sometimes I think Johnny's not even human. He can be as cold and distant as one of those little clay figures made by African witch doctors!"

Her face grew suddenly anguished. "Stephen, if I didn't love him so—"

Stephen's features softened. He put his arm about his wife and gave her an affectionate squeeze. To clear the air he said jestingly: "Well, now, maybe you've hit on something. He was born a year after Bikini and—I was there!"

Helen Ambler stared at her husband, her eyes widening. "Stephen, what do you mean?"

He had not thought that she would take him seriously. In his anxiety to reassure her he made the 

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