Talulah Cut-Glass Email:vitamin_cami@hotmail.com Lives: in Gum Gooloo Gum Jublet. Occupation: An artist. Comments: ""Something about myself?" said the young woman after a moment, in her funny accent, and her funnily quizzical expression. "Well, let's see... I was born here, in Gum Gooloo Gum Jublet. My parents are from America, although we seem to be the only ones living here who knows where that is." She paused, giving me a moment to take notes. Or perhaps she was thinking over her history. Whatever she was thinking, it gave me time to observe her appearance. She looked young, maybe seventeen or eighteen or perhaps in her early twenties. Tall, standing head and shoulders over me, with rich olive skin, shoulder-length brown-black hair, and almond-shaped hazel green eyes. I was bounced out of my reverie as she smiled brightly at me, and continued. "My parents immediately adapted, and when I was six I went to the School of Conversation. I dropped out when I was eleven; they didn't like my accent," she said, punctuating the idea with a not-quite-mirthless laugh. "But I had to be somewhere- I don't feel comfortable if I haven't anything to do. So I snuck into the College of Puppetry, instead. I figured, hey, it was something to do. In any case, I lasted only a couple days before being caught, but a week later, after having proven I wouldn't go away, I was accepted. They thought it would keep me under control and busy. I must say, they were right. There, I excelled much easier than I did learning to talk. I'm not a speaker, although I do love to talk- but no doubt you've already noticed this." I chuckled in agreement. "I graduated when I was fourteen," she continued, "hardly college age, but I had started so early nobody thought it mattered. But in any case, when I was fifteen I hit a case of the jitters- a born traveller, you know- so I took off. Saw the country of Umbagollah, then went to visit my family back in America- they moved back when I proved I could live for myself here, that part was easy. They may have liked it here, but they're still Americans. I stayed for a couple months, then came back to Umbagollah. I moved into my house here, filled it with my treasures from around the world, and am now making a living as an artist, or an actress, or anything else I can get my hands on. So here I am." Talulah made an expansive gesture with one arm around her small, cluttered, beautiful house. We were seated at a lovely wrought-iron table with, aptly enough, a frosted cut-glass top. I was playing with a lovely silver pen, with which I was writing. She had a large number of clocks, besides all the other nick-nacks. The walls were covered in two things- drawings, and clocks. She saw me looking at an enormous grandfather clock propped up on the wall, not ticking. "I make them," she said, for my benefit, when one of her previous comments hit me. "You were fifteen when you left?" I said, startled. "How old are you, exactly?" She blushed. "Sixteen," Talulah replied, smiling embarrassedly. I think I looked surprised, because she blushed harder. --Excerpt from Eccentricities of Man written and published by the travelling writer and reporter, Martin Chergish, of his encounter with Talulah Cut-Glass " Talulah's home has a respected history. One of Caleb Sighwater's best friends lived here. The ambassador often slept on the floor in the main room, wrapped in blankets, and if you look at the wall by the front door you will see a triangular dent at ankle-level, made by the heel of Sighwater's shoe in the middle of an argument. Connections scholars regularly visit the house to examine the dent. It has been spiritually linked to similar dents found on a beach near Jail, in Exian forest trees, and in a rock along the eastern coast.