“You can lay back now.” the taxidermist told Penelope and she did as she was told, wondering why her back felt numb. She could no longer feel the plastic she lay on, only the slight sensation of pressure from her own weight pushing down into the cushioned couch beneath. It was strange, she remembered having a lovely hot bath but had no memory of putting any sort of pyjamas on afterwards, let alone a onesie, but she supposed she must have done as that was what the couple were helping her out of now, a cute, peach-coloured one that was pinkish-red on the inside. Must have been a fancy one as it had built-in gloves too which she saw peeled off the ends of her fingers, the sleeve turning inside out in the process. It must have got stuck between her legs somehow as the nice man was using his silly little knife to release it and Penelope raised her hips as requested to help them pull the tight onesie over her bottom and off her legs.

Her feet looked strange. Too pink somehow and with funny patterns on them. Trying to sit up a little, Penelope saw her whole body was the same. Was she sunburned? Had the bath really been too hot? No, that couldn’t be it! There must be one of those stained glass windows in the room, she decided, like in some churches or castles. The ones that cast strange colourful patterns onto everything and made everything funny colours. She felt very sleepy now. The man was putting the onesie into some sort of tub. Was he soaking it before washing like Mummy did sometimes? She supposed that must be it.

“It’s okay to sleep, dear!” the woman told her kindly, stroking her hair and dabbing her forehead a little with a cool flannel. “We’ll make sure you’re all ready in time for your Uncle’s party!” Oh yes, that was it! She was going to a party! That was why she had been having a bath. She remembered seeing a pretty white dress hanging up somewhere. She would be wearing that soon and looking so lovely for her beloved uncle! She closed her eyes but could not properly fall asleep. There was still that nagging feeling that she had something important to do, something to help prepare for the party. Or was it helping with dinner? The nice lady had definitely said she would be involved with dinner somehow! Something to do with a pie, perhaps? Or dumplings? She had not done a lot of cooking before but would listen to any instructions she was given very carefully and try to be as helpful as she could.

Someone was holding her hair now. The woman, she thought, since the hand supporting the back of her head felt bigger, like the man’s, and she could see his other hand in front of her again, moving around somewhere above her eyes. She thought he had his knife in his hand again but she really couldn’t be sure. He really was very silly if so! Not only was the blade far too small to cut her head off with but he wasn’t even cutting in the right place! To her slight surprise, when he had finished and wiped away whatever that warm stuff was that was trickling down her face, he pulled her hair clean off her head! Had she been wearing a wig her whole life and not known about it? Or did hair just come off like that for everyone? She wished she’d known that sooner as it would have made washing it a whole lot easier! He handed it to the woman who took it away somewhere. She tried to turn her head to watch where she went but the man was holding her quite firmly in place. Not that she minded. Turning her head would take energy and she really didn’t have much of that right now. It was starting to get dark, she realised, but only in the corners of the room, slowly moving inwards. She didn’t think that was how darkness normally behaved but she had to admit she had never really given it much attention before so perhaps she just hadn’t noticed?

“Close your eyes.” the taxidermist instructed gently and she did as she was told. The top of her head felt cold without her hair but otherwise she was not uncomfortable. Once again she felt the cold pressure on her skin, just down the couple of inches left of her neck this time. She felt the man tugging at the area where he had presumably just cut then felt his fingers around her forehead. There was a strange noise like a sort of wet popping and she could feel him fiddling about behind her ears, or was it under them? She really couldn’t tell. A metallic scrapping noise, a little like someone stirring tea in a china mug, resonated inside her head then all sound went strange. The gentle classical music that had been playing in the background went… the only word she could think of was fuzzy, like her ears weren’t able to focus properly. Then suddenly her eyes were open again and the taxidermist was holding something that looked like a rubber mask. Noticing that her eyes were stinging a bit, she tried to blink and found she couldn’t.

Putting the mask down, the nice man said something to her that she couldn’t make out although his tone sounded warm and caring. He took the flannel his wife had used and dipped it in a bowl then rolled it a few times and laid it over her eyes like a blindfold. This felt immediately relaxing and Penelope hoped she may now be able to sleep. The darkness in the edges of the room had been creeping closer and closer but now she was experiencing perfect, peaceful black. The man spoke again, very close to the side of her head. It sounded like he said “Sleep now” but she was not sure. There was a slightly uncomfortable pressure in the side of her neck as if someone was pushing their thumb very hard into it but then it subsided and she could hear a soft trickling sound like a stream. Gradually a bright light appeared in front of her, getting steadily bigger as if she was moving towards it. She began to make out colours… just areas of green and blue at first but then she realised it was a lush green meadow with blue skies above it, the sun illuminating it cheerfully and trees in the distance. She saw the stream that she had been hearing and sat down beside it, slipping her feet in then reaching forward and letting the tiny golden fish swim between her fingers.

“She’s gone.” the taxidermist told his wife quietly with a wistful smile. He loved his work, the art he produced and the way he was able to preserve girls at their most beautiful for the foreseeable future but for projects like this there was always the tiny hint of sadness that went along with a girl’s final moments.

“I’ll go get the kitchen ready!” she smiled and put a comforting hand on his shoulder. “I’ll make you a coffee too!” He smiled his thanks then removed the wet flannel from over Penelope’s lifeless eyes which had rolled back in her head so that only small crescents of the electric blue irises were visible. Seeing that the blood flowing into the bucket on the floor had slowed to a residual drip, he pulled the tube out of her neck and put it aside. Knowing from experience that the next stage was much easier in the kitchen, he lifted the flayed carcass that had been Penelope off the couch and folded it into a large tub where it curled naturally into a foetal position. Lifting it by the handles, he carried the tub into the kitchen where his wife had the granite worktop cleared and a chopping board ready for him along with the necessary tools.

Carefully, since it was now quite slippery, he lifted the carcass out of the tub and laid it flat on the counter. He then lifted the head and slid the chopping board underneath before making one decisive chop with the heavy cleaver, a tool Penelope would no doubt have considered far more appropriate for the job than his tiny scalpel, severing the head. Tipping it upside down, he used a small but very sharp kitchen knife to cut the tongue free from the surrounding muscle and pull it out.

“Want me to take that?” his wife asked, holding out a small plate for him to put it on.

“Would you?” he smiled, dropping it onto the offered plate then turning his attention back to the head as his wife disappeared into the workshop with the removed tongue. With a small electric saw, he removed the top of the skull and lifted out both hemispheres of the brain. Once the he was empty, he cut through the optic nerves then used his thumbs to push Penelope’s pretty blue eyes out from behind. As much as he was able, with the same small knife, he cut away any usable meat from the skull then put what was left in the pot on the stove which his wife had already brought to the boil, knowing that he needed the skull to be clean before he could progress with the next stage.

Over the next few minutes, he methodically stripped Penelope’s carcass of her meat, sorting the remains into three piles, one of pure meat, another of the bones which still inevitably had scraps of meat clinging to them and a final one for the offal.

With the amateur butchering complete, he went back to the workshop to return his attention to his professional task, pausing in the doorway as he had an idea and quickly returning to the kitchen to collect Penelope’s little pink heart from the offal pile. This had not been part of the original contract but he was keen to try out the technique and she had been such a sweet, helpful and willing subject he did not mind at all giving her a little freebie!

In the workshop, he checked the skins in the curing solution and was pleased to see that they seemed ready for the next stage. Going to the large drawer where they were kept, he selected the two halves of the drying mannequin which he judged to be roughly the right size – a humanoid head and torso shape made from widely-spaced wire frame, then fitted them onto the mount in the drying chamber, feeding the arm and leg hoses through the relevant holes. To avoid damaging the hair, the scalp had to be treated slightly differently but his wife had taken care of that and Penelope’s beautiful golden locks now sat like a wig on a polystyrene dummy head waiting to be fitted back onto the finished doll.
Treating the now toughened but still slightly delicate hide with care, the taxidermist pulled the skin which had covered Penelope’s body from the neck down out of the solution are carefully mounted it on the drying mannequin like the onesie she had taken it to be in her laudanum-induced stupor. Next he took her pretty face and wrapped it around the head of the mannequin, gently clipping it in place. The eyebrows and lashes had been destroyed by the curing process of course but that was expected, the replacements would be threaded in like the hair of a conventional doll. Stepping back, he switched on the dryer and the hide somewhat comically inflated, reminding him as it always did of the moment in the chocolate factory movie where the girl addicted to chewing gum starts to turn into a blueberry! Ten minutes of this and the skin would be as durable as thick leather but with the pliability of much thinner rubber.

While he waited, the taxidermist cleared away the plastic sheets and took the bucket of congealing blood out into the garden and slopped it over the vegetable patch so that it could nourish the soil before rinsing the bucket out with the outside tap. By the time he came back inside and had washed his hands, ready to start work, the drying cycle was complete. He removed the hide from the mannequin and gave it an appraising shake, finding that it was cured to perfection while retaining its perfectly lifelike colour and softness. The process of mounting the skin, while painstaking, was relatively simple in theory and, as he made his way over to his work station, he turned the skin inside out, pushing a finger into each of the toes to make sure they were loose and empty of debris. For ease of access, he moved the doll body onto the couch where Penelope had lain to be flayed and carefully pushed each silicon toe into the respective skin pocket.

Taking his time and making sure there were no air-pockets or wrinkles as he went, the taxidermist gently eased the skin up the doll’s legs. Once it was over the hips, he paused and used the cold-bonding method which was similar to soldering in practice but without the resulting ridges and caused both elements to fuse together in a way that nothing short of taking a knife to it could separate to fix the vaginal and anal openings to the relevant parts of the doll.

The top half was a little trickier as getting the arms in meant stretching the hide to the limit of its tolerance but he had done enough of these in his time that he knew all the tricks and was able to slide the skin on and up over the shoulders before gently easing each finger into its sleeve. Wanting to perform a quick test, he switched the doll on and checked that the touch-sensitive nipples had settled into the correct place within the skin. The left had but the right was ever so slightly misaligned so he gently massaged the skin around the areola until the rather satisfying moment when the hard nub popped into place.

Next, he rolled the doll onto its front and took tugged the two halves of the skin as close to each other as he could. Next he took clips to hold the seam together while he used the cold-bonding took to seal them together, taking care this time to only bond the two halves to each other and not to the doll inside. Once he was finished and the clips removed, there was only a very thin scar, no more than a millimetre wide and only slightly paler than the rest of the skin. Feeling justifiably proud of his work, he sat the doll up and sealed the skin of the neck to the neck of the doll then finally slipped the sheaths inside the vagina and anus, noting with satisfaction how this plumped Penelope’s cute pubic mound and vulva back out in a way that was sure to seem inviting to her uncle.

“Great work as always!” his wife smiled, standing in the doorway of the workshop. “Dinner will be about half an hour.” Realising this gave him enough time to finish the body of the doll, the taxidermist took the set of nails that Penelope had chosen and, with a small drop of the cold-bonding solution on the back of each which would fix them even more securely than a real finger or toe nail, he carefully pressed each one into place. When everything was finished, he switched the doll on once more and watched the very natural breathing and felt the warmth of the soft, preserved skin, both of which were made eerier by the lack of head. Satisfied that he had done his job well, he switched the doll off and left it sitting up on the couch.

Fitting the nails had only taken just over fifteen minutes so he still had time to work on the extra little side project! Humming cheerfully to himself as he often did when he worked, he took Penelope’s heart and trimmed off the valves and fat deposits, giving it a smoother, more appealing shape that he hoped would not look too like a potato when finished! Next he threaded a long needle and pushed it through the small but powerful muscle, happy to see that the holes closed up behind it, resulting in a length of cotton running from top to bottom.

Next he took a tub from one of the cupboards marked with hazard symbols and put on gloves and a simple mask before opening it. The substance inside was dark green and viscous, the base form of the more recently developed compound to allow Polkanisation to sterling silver rather than the more common bronze. The resulting creation would not be as durable, for sure, but this piece was not intended to ever be left outside or exposed to the elements. Carefully, holding the ends of the cotton, he lowered the heart into the tub until it was completely submerged then lifted it out and allowed the excess liquid to drip off. He could see the bonding beginning to take effect immediately and, holding both ends of the cotton in one hand now, he used a hair-dryer to make it harden a little, but no so much that it would not resume its correct shape when the cotton burned away with should be almost immediately.

Satisfied that the coating was even, he went to the smaller, table-top kiln he used for Polkanised heads or hands when the much larger one that could accommodate a whole body was not necessary. Checking among the assorted stands available, he selected one that looked a little like an egg cup and set the heart in it, in the middle of the kiln.

The Crucifix had cooled and was ready for cleaning but that could wait until the next day. Penelope was his priority for that evening but first he wanted his dinner, having been looking forward to it ever since his wife had made the suggestion, his anticipation made all the sweeter by knowing how keen Penelope had been on the idea too! He washed his hands and took off his work apron then, checking that the door of the shop onto the street was locked, the sign flipped and the window lights off, he went through to the adjoining house and into the dining room where his wife was waiting for him, looking every bit as proud of her own work as he was of his, with a large, delicious-looking pie taking centre stage among the bowls of mashed potato, vegetables and gravy.

“This is a real treat!” the taxidermist exclaimed as he tucked into the delicious, steaming slice of pie on his plate while his wife looked on lovingly, enjoying watching how he appreciated his meal as much as she was enjoying her own. The lumps of slow-cooked Penelope meat were so tender they practically melted in the mouth and the gravy made from her head meat and some other offal was rich and delicious.

“I’ll be working on the party food this evening,” she smiled as she cut him a second, generous slice and lifted it onto his plate, “while you’re finishing the doll. Sweet little thing, she was!” she remarked happily as she looked thoughtfully at a piece of girl-steak on her fork, “She was so happy to hear about all the tasty treats I was going to make with the bits you didn’t need!”

After dinner, the taxidermist helped to clear the table then retrieved Penelope’s blanched skull from where it sat drying on the kitchen counter.

“Now be off with you!” his wife shooed him playfully out of the kitchen. “You’ve got work to do and so have I!” Chuckling, the taxidermist took the skull into the workshop and set it down on one of his work-tables.

Checking the small kiln, he saw that the process was complete and carefully took the heart out on its stand to cool. Like the white powder that turned to bronze, the green liquid coating hat turned black but even a gentle rub with his gloved thumb revealed the gleaming silver underneath. From what he could tell, it had worked perfectly and by the time he had finished working on the head, this bonus piece would have cooled enough for him to clean and complete his idea.

Now that the skull was completely clean, the first task was drilling the holes. To make things easier for himself, he separated the jaw and set it to one side along with the bowl-like scalp he had removed to empty it out. Carefully, with the drill on a low speed, he made the centimetre-wide holes in each cheek for the motors which would allow for different facial expressions – neutral, smiling, and “surprised” which everyone knew was really for giving oral sex. Once the holes were made, he used his precision power-sanding tool to smooth them out. The other hole was a little narrower and he made it on the back of the skull just below the hair-line ready for the charging port. He then fitted the refillable reservoir just above the eyes which would keep the eyes and mouth moistened and the main power bank for the electronics. Carefully, he slotted the two small motors into place and fed the charging port into the hole he had cut for it and welded the connections together inside.

Next he fetched the mask-like face from the drying mannequin and the wig on its stand. Onto the inside of both of these he fitted the mesh of wires which would heat up when the doll was in use to create realistic warmth in the same way as the body’s circulatory system. This really was a throwback to earlier methods used for converting girls to love-dolls before the technology had allowed for lifelike breathing and circulation. Back in those days, the skin had simply been mounted on a solid silicone body with tight holes in the right places and a battery pack recessed either between the shoulders or in the small of the back to provide this artificial warmth and things had certainly moved on since then but he still believed this method worked very well for heads which were, after all, one of his best-sellers. Unlike the full love-doll he was making of Penelope which required dedicating a whole girl to the project, heads could be bought cheaply from butcher’s shops and slaughterhouses who cut of hundreds each day but to whom they were essentially waste products. This meant that he could get away with charging essentially just for his time and materials, making them a very affordable purchase for most people and a popular gift “for the man who has everything.” They always sold especially well around Christmas and Valentine’s Day!

After feeding the delicate wires into the eyelids which would give the Penelope doll the ability to blink on a random cycle, he painstakingly fitted the artificial eyelashes then threaded new eyebrows using strands of the beautiful young girl’s own hair. After wiring the jaw back onto the main part of the skull, he fitted the thin metal strips around the mouth that would create the articulation and attached them to the motors. It was finally time for his favourite part of the process, the part which really made him feel like an artist! There was a skill involved in mounting a hide onto a dummy body, of course there was, and he had seen some shocking examples in his time of the job done badly but it always felt a little too easy for him, like most of the work was done for him and he was just assembling a kit rather than actually creating a work of art. Creating the heads this more traditional way gave him the creative outlet and satisfaction he so craved.

Once again, the taxidermist hummed happily to himself as he hand-sculpted first the inside of the mouth and the gums around her cute pearly-white teeth with the dark pink polymer which would dry slightly spongy to make for pleasant usage and then, working from photos of Penelope taken when she was alive and a computer-rendered 3D image of the typical musculature in a face of her shape, he used clear silicone to give body and shape to the skull and stub of neck, ready to take the flash mask.

It was perfectly possible, he knew, to have a head mount printed fully articulated with all the electronics already in place, just like the doll body, but that struck him as inauthentic somehow. By using the girl’s own skull as the base for the head, he felt that more of the actual girl was preserved. It was possible also to make a whole doll by the same method with which he made the heads, using the girl’s skeleton as the base, but this took far longer, was a lot more complicated and resulted in a product that was prohibitively more expensive making it impractical, with the finished result not being any better objectively or functionally and in fact having more limitations as, while breathing could be achieved, the artificial circulatory system could not, requiring it to rely for warmth on the more old-fashioned method of mesh beneath the skin.

By the same token, he knew, the quality of 3D printing available now meant that a doll functionally identical too and almost impossible to tell apart from the doll he was turning Penelope into could be produced entirely artificially, using only scans of the girl, as well as the internal mould if she wanted or a generic ribbed sheath if not, without causing her any harm at all. There were other business he was aware of that did indeed offer such services, with parents having replicas made of their daughters or girls asking for duplicates for their parents or siblings before going to the butcher or being cooked some other way, or simply to give as gifts. There was even one family a friend in the trade had told him about who had become regular customers, bringing their two daughters who were now seventeen and fifteen in every two years from the age of four onwards so that their potential future spouses could get to experience them at a variety of different ages! It would have been perfectly possible for Penelope’s Uncle to be presented with an incredibly lifelike replica of his beloved niece to play out all his sexual fantasies with while she got on with her life for however much longer that might have been, which he did not suspect would have been incredibly long given how happy the prospect of people enjoying her meat seemed to have made her, still she could have chosen to let her body grow and mature for two or three more years. But he knew that that was not what she, or the other girls who came to him for the same procedure, wanted! She did not want to give her Uncle a toy that just looked like her, she wanted to give herself to him entirely!

While the silicone set, he hollowed out the preserved tongue and fitted the long, finger-width motor inside it then carefully fitted it into the head, soldering the electronics in place and cold-bonding the preserved muscle to the silicone insides of the mouth. Once the glass eyes were installed, he fitted the base to the neck which would allow the body to charge via the head and also gave access to refill the reservoir which he tested and found to be satisfactory, making the inside of the mouth realistically wet.

Finally, it was time to fit the face. This process took a lot longer and was a lot more involved than the body as so many more specific points had to be connected and electronics soldered and fused along the way. It took nearly an hour to get Penelope’s face back on her skull but once he was finished, the taxidermist felt immensely proud, using the pressure pads behind the ears to test the different expressions she was capable of, finding them pleasingly lifelike. If it were not for the fact that she was just a head sat on his work-bench with the top of her skull missing, he could almost have believed Penelope was alive again!

The skin at the top of the “mask” had been fused to the rim of the skull and metal connection points left exposed so that the warmth could travel up into the mesh inside the wig. The taxidermist then took the top piece of the skull and fitted it inside the wig. The two pieces of bone would not be fused to each other but very securely pegged so that there was no chance of the scalp falling off and a tool would definitely be required to prize the top piece away but access for maintenance of the electronics would still be possible if it was necessary.

Very carefully, the taxidermist put the bewigged scalp in position, lining up the alternating pegs and holes that he had fitted in both parts, then pushed down very firmly, feeling it snap decisively into place. If her fringe was pulled all the way back, a slight seam would be visible at the very top of Penelope’s forehead but with her hair in its natural, loose position, it was totally invisible.

“Well then, young lady,” the taxidermist chuckled to himself, lifting his creation off the bench, “some would tell you to quite while you’re a head!” He must have accidentally put a little pressure on the control behind the ear as he lifted her as Penelope’s pretty face broke into a happy smile at this joke, giving him a warm feeling inside and making him chuckle all the more, “but there’s some body over here who is desperate to connect with you!”

“You and your dad-jokes!” his wife chuckled affectionately, having quietly come in to watch him work without him noticing. “The second tray of pies are in the oven and the chilli’s simmering away nicely!”

“They’re in for a real treat at that party!” he grinned. “Come over here and meet Robo-Penelope!” Indulgently amused by her husband’s enthusiasm for his work, she went over to the couch and watched as he carefully fitted the angled pegs sticking up from the neck into the grooves in the bottom of the head which was looking slightly to the left then twisted the head to face forwards, locking it into place. With loving attention, he distributed her beautiful hair over her shoulders then switched the doll on. Automatically, the Penelope doll smiled again as the pump in her chest began to circulate the warming artificial blood and she gently began to breathe in and out. Feeling justifiably proud of himself, the taxidermist stepped back to admire his work and his wife put her arm around his waist.

“Well!” she exclaimed, “These things will never be quite like a real girl, that’s rather the point of them after all!” she chuckled. “But I have to say, that’s damn close! I suppose I should get her ready to meet her owner now?”

“Good idea!” he agreed, kissing the top of her grey-haired head. “I have one last little surprise to work on!”

“Come on Goldilocks!” the woman chuckled, lifting the seated Penelope doll and sitting her on her hip, supported by one hand on her back and the other on her lovely bare bottom. “Let’s get you dressed! Big day for you tomorrow!”

After watching his wife leave with his latest creating, smiling lovingly at the pair of them as they went, the taxidermist sat down and used a rag to clean the black residue off the metallised heart then another to polish it to a gleaming shine. Next, he took out the same engraving tools he had used to make the plaque on the doll’s box and studied the heart carefully for a few moments to decide which side was the front and which the back. Having decided, he stamped the shop’s logo onto the back then, on the wider, smoother space on the front carefully engraved the words in beautiful, italic lettering: “Totally and Completely Yours, Forever” Very pleased with how it came out, he went into the living room to show his wife.

The box that Penelope had been shown earlier was still on the coffee table but now it was occupied by the angelic doll wearing the lacy, translucent white dress, the choker around her neck to conceal the join and the garland of flowers around her head like a crown. Laying with her head on the pillow and her golden hair splayed out around it, she looked like something straight out of a Pre-Raphaelite painting. She was switched off now, no longer breathing, but still with a slight smile on her lips, laying in quiet and tranquil stillness.

Her hands were on top of each other just below her chest and, carefully, the taxidermist turned and cupped them so that she could hold the engraved, silver heart. It really was the perfect final touch he had hoped for. With his business head back on, he checked the drawer at her feet and made sure that the instruction manual, charging cables, remote control, care kit and spare vaginal and anal sheaths were all in there. Satisfied, he carefully placed the glass-fronted lid on the box and clipped it securely shut then he and his wife kissed each other, turned off the light and went up to bed. It had been a long but very fulfilling day, both professionally and emotionally, and they wanted to be up bright and early to be ready for the collection in the morning.

EPILOGUE

“Where can we put these?” Penelope’s mum asked as her brother opened the door to his house where the party was already underway, if an occasion where adults who don’t know each other very well stand around making awkward small-talk with drinks in their hand can properly be called a party. She was staggering under the weight of a stack of Tupperware boxes while her husband followed close behind carrying a large, vat-like saucepan covered over with tin-foil. “The chilli will need heating up but the rest is good cold!” She leaned forward and they exchanged kisses on the cheek.

“Wow! What’s all this?” he asked, trying not to look disappointed that they did not seem to have their promised gift with them.

“Don’t you recognise your niece!” his sister chuckled. “She wanted to help out with the party!”

“Oh right!” Colin replied, a little puzzled still. “Um, put everything in the kitchen!” He gestured, inviting them inside.

“Don’t worry!” his brother in law spoke softly as he passed him, winking cheekily. “We’ve got her in the back of the car!”

Once the food had been deposited in the kitchen and introductions made, Penelope’s parents accepted a drink each then slipped out to the car to retrieve their very special gift. The weight of the doll combined with the sturdy wooden and glass box was not inconsiderable so they carried the wrapped gift between them. A hush fell among the guests as they brought it in and set it on the coffee table.

Struggling to contain his excitement, Colin tore away the paper. At first, what he saw beneath the glass, dressed in the beautiful fairy-like costume and clutching the silver object to her chest, looked so lifelike he felt sure he must be being pranked and as soon as I opened the box his cheeky niece would jump up and yell “Surprise!” but very quickly he realised that she was not breathing. Carefully, he unclipped the lid and lifted it off and took the doll in his arms before reading the words engraved on the heart she held: “Totally and Completely Yours, Forever”