Roan

I couldn't help myself.

I went in and bought it.

I took it home, and instead of getting on my computer, I sat down with a cup of coffee and just stared at it.###

There was something about it. It did not seem to be something designed and built, it seemed like it should be alive.###

I studied the clothing on it, and the first thing that struck me was that it looked like a kimono, the ancient Japanese clothing, but I could not figure out how it was put together.###

I got out an old but huge magnifying glass and peered at it under a bright desk lamp. The little black shoes were like the Japanese shoes I had seen and even worn before, with a separation between the big toe and the next, so little sandals could be worn, but this doll was so precision made it actually had that little separation in the shoes.###

$5.00? This was a work of art, even if made by the thousands in a factory! The body under the cloth felt thin, as if it was just a skeleton, but it seems far more than just a few pieces of wood glued together.###

The head looked like a wooden bead, but under the magnifying glass it was... well... rather unique. It looked more like a dull pearl, and shaped in a rather organic way, like it was grown rather than shaped, and it was not wood. At that magnification, the grain would show up if it was wood, even if once varnished. But I could see no paint or varnish, although it was very white in color.###

The eyes were small black dots, one seemingly almost worn away, but through that level of magnification, it actually looked like the eye was simply half closed. It looked like a real tiny eyeball, not just a black dot. The little tuff of hair on the top of the head actually looked like real hair, varnished together to stick up.###

There was no nose, and the mouth was a red slash, again looking like a painted curving line, but upon closer look, it actually had thin lips, and that was unexpected. Worse of all, those little black dots seemed to be looking at me, like the optical illusion some painting have. I shrugged it off and went on examining it. There was just something about that little doll that didn't seem... well... like a doll!###

I turned the doll up and looked at it's bottom. Printed there on a little white sticker were four words, in English!###

“Caboo, Born in Xancali”###

Confused, I went to my computer and looked up Xancali. I found all kinds of entries, many in languages I had never seen before, but no 'place' named Xancali. And why 'born' instead of 'made'?###

I put the doll on a shelf and went to bed, tired of messing with it. I had not found out anything about it, and probably wouldn't unless I went to the expense of having the doll chemically tested to see what it was made of. That is was very unique was not in question.###

I think I dreamed of it during the night. Lots of confused dreams of strange places and people, and a few with 'people' who were not 'people' exactly but who talked and such. Dreams are very strange sometimes.###

The next morning I went to the shelf and the doll was gone. I searched everywhere, thinking I had simply forgotten that I had put it somewhere else, but it was nowhere to be found.###

So I forgot it and went to work, my mind already moving on to other tasks and interests.