at those gradeschool sleepovers your friend's mother always refused to put away her favorite doll, that enormous, peculiar-looking kewpie. why did she leave it on the guest bed as if insisting that it sleep between you and your friend? after the scary movie, it would be there waiting for you, no matter how or where you turned your head. it stared right at you both alive and dead. whether waking up from a bad dream or sleepless, even in the pitch black night, with closed blinds, the plastic eyes intensely glistening with moonlight.