Bits

"Bits" By R. A. BusbyElementary schoolteacher Nadie Denneby is having a terrible day. Not only has her car been wrecked on the way to work, but she feels like she's falling apart?literally. At first it's just a tooth. Then a finger. How many bits of herself can she lose?Writing about her protagonist Nadie Denneby, R. A. Busby said: "I started thinking about her when I was nearing the completion of my novel. Around that time, I went to an elementary school for a workshop, an experience I found personally unsettling. Friendly flower-covered signs were everywhere: Don't walk on the right side of the hall; cover your mouth; wash your hands; put your coat in the cubby; sit on the blue squares for circle reading and so on. When I had to use the teachers' bathroom, I realized I'd come to the true heart of the place. The facilities were as I described them in the story, though I left out the Pottery Barn-style furniture. I started imagining the life of a teacher in this place that was all about regimentation, order, and of course, the complete denial of the female body. I thought, 'Why, you wouldn't even be allowed to possess something as embarrassing as toes, with all their clefts, much less anything else. Your body should be smooth all the way down, like Barbie.' Around then, I had also been thinking of women's invisibility. Women take on a kind of invisibility past their forties, and I toyed with my protagonist becoming invisible herself, but I didn't like the idea because (ironically) the process of turning invisible would actually attract attention, and besides, how would you function? Could you still drive? That's when I came up with the idea that my protagonist was literally falling apart bit by bit, a fact she would feel ashamed of and have to conceal. Nadie Denneby's name is a double pun, actually, a combination of the Spanish word for 'nobody' and the Irish for 'no one' (duine ar bith). Throughout her life, Nadie's obeyed the rules: she's covered her mouth and walked on the right side of the hall, and as an elementary teacher, she's instructed children to do the same. Finally, she comes to the realization that a lifetime of obeying the rules?of toeing the line, if you'll forgive the joke?has brought her nothing."(with a cover by Adrian Baldwin)