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NARRATOR (GEORGE):
The Toy Museum remembers everything.
It remembers the first teddy bear sewn by an immigrant.
It remembers Barbie striking a pose at a 1959 toy fair.
It remembers dragon trucks that eat cars
and tiny supermarkets where children practice being grownups.

But tonight,
the museum is thinking in rectangles.

Bricks.
Studs.
The quiet click that has become
one of the most recognizable sounds
in the toy world.
The Night Watchman
has wandered into the construction wing.

[Footsteps on a slightly hollow floor; faint echo.]

NARRATOR:
Shelves of building sets stretch in both directions—
castles, spaceships, cities,
boxes with age ranges on the front
and smiling children on the back.
But on a low pedestal near the center,
there’s a quieter scene.

A cluster of green plates,
a few stalks of brick-built bamboo,
and three black-and-white figures
assembled from a modest handful of pieces.

NIGHT WATCHMAN:
Ah. And pandas.
Two things I’ve seen everywhere
and never really put together.

Aquarium from Carnival of the Animals by composed by Camille Sans-Saen, Performed by the Seattle Youth Orchestra. Source: https://musopen.org/music/1454-the-carnival-of-the-animals/. License: Public Domain (composition) / Creative Commons (recording).

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