Fable for Susan Jaffe

Once in a country whose name I've forgotten there lived a sculptor so skillful that his creations often came to life. An obsidian cat stalked a granite dove around his workshop; the branch of a jade tree growing outside poked through the window. One day the sculpture he was working on, of a woman dancing, started to breath before he had even finished it. The man put down his tools in surprise. The dancer said,``Hey, my feet are stuck!'' for she was in a way up to her ankles in marble. The sculptor asked her, ``Then you can feel your feet already?'' and she replied ''Of course. And one of my toes itches. So how about getting me out of this?'' However the sculptor went outside to look at the pond with the quartz goldfish and think. He had wondered for a long time if his statues existed already inside the stone, and he was merely freeing them. And yet when he returned to his workshop to finish the dancer, he saw that she was his ideal of beauty and grace, and the thought that she might leave him if he freed her from the marble block was unbearable to him. Day after day the dancer stood in the stone begging, arguing, yelling invectives, but the sculptor would not carve out her feet. The granite dove flew in circles around her head, and the obsidian cat sat still as a statue watching her. One day the sculptor had to leave his workshop hurriedly, setting his hammer and chisel on a bench. It was out of reach of the dancer, but by throwing her weight forward she managed to slide the marble which served as her pedestal near the bench. She took the tools and bent down, being of course very flexible, and hacked away at the stone until she was free. But because she had no experience sculpting, she was only able to cut out a pair of workmanlike feet. She made her escape, followed by the cat and the bird, and found work in the city. She couldn't dance well enough to perform in public, but became a distinguished choreographer and an excellent amatuer singer; she had a lovely contralto voice. One day the sculptor sent her a message, asking her forgiveness and offering to make her feet perfect, but she refused.