photo: jetheriot
She’s three feet tall and has a hole in her hip where her left leg used to be.
Peering into her hip-hole I see four pairs of ribs, not sideways across her chest, but front to back. There are two more ribs – struts, really – at the floor of her pelvis. I can feel them with my finger through her hip-hole. Just beyond the pelvic struts I see the hip joint of her still-attached right leg. Normally the joints are invisible. They’re hidden internal mechanisms. But this doll has a hole where her leg used to be, and her hip joint is visible from the outside.
Her joints are mint-green. They were never intended to be seen, so it doesn't matter that they don't match her skin color. When I jack-knife her right leg back and forth I see the hip joint rotate. Imagine a tiny top hat made of mint-green plastic. Now slice the top of the top hat off – you end up with a brim and a pipe-shaped element. The brim of the top hat hugs the inside of her hip-hole, and being wider than her hip-hole, keeps her leg from falling out while allowing it to rotate. The pipe-shaped part of the joint projects through her hip-hole and fits snugly into a slot on the inner surface of her right thigh.
When I shake the doll she rattles. A loose object in the doll’s chest cavity is prevented from falling into her pelvis by a high pair of ribs, but when I shake her a little harder, the object tumbles down, and I can see it through her hip-hole. It’s a mint-green plastic ring, half of her fractured left hip joint, the brim of the top hat.
Her broken-off left leg looks like a long ham-bone, tapering into an ankle, then a flexed flat foot. There’s a short piece of mint-green plastic, the pipe-part of the hip joint, inserted into the inner aspect of the leg. My mom thinks there’s hope for re-attachment.
I suppose the doll’s leg could be held in place against her hip socket while I wrap duct tape around her waist. Underneath her silk kimono, the repair would go unnoticed. Of course the procedure would result in the immobilization of her legs. She wouldn't be able to sit or kick anymore, and the tape, once it has peeled away, would leave sticky patches of adhesive behind, flypaper for her hair.
Supergluing her joint back together would be neater and more permanent. It would also preserve her leg rotation. The problem is how to hold the two halves of the joint in precise alignment long enough for the superglue to dry. I’d have to drill a hole into the doll (where her anus would be if she were a person) and insert a pair of tweezers to hold the internal ring in place while I pressed her leg through her hip-hole from the outside, sandwiching the thin layer of liquid glue between the two reconnected joint parts.
I imagine I'd prescribe a period of bed rest after the procedure, twenty-four hours at least, to allow the glued joint to cure completely. And even after she was back on her feet, I’d advise her to take it easy. Superglued, her re-attached joint would always be vulnerable. It might hold out for a while, or it might break again immediately. It’s hard to know with superglue, but I suspect it would only be a matter of time before the joint failed again, especially if she took up gymnastics.
To more permanently secure her leg, I’d need to reinforce, not merely rejigger, the joint. I could add some small aluminum points to the rim of the mint-green pipe still stuck in her broken-off leg, the points pointing away from the pipe like the points of a crown. Then I'd insert the jagged joint into her hip-hole, glue it into place using the tweezers-through-the-anus technique, and dog-ear the metal points, one by one, bending them back down around the internal ring, working the whole rim of the pipe.
Best-case scenario, the metal points hold the joint secure even during rough horse play, and she maintains full leg mobility. Her joint would be as good as new, hidden inside, invisible. She'd have a new hole in her body, to be sure, but a permanent anus seems a small price to pay for a new leg.
Worst-case scenario, the metal shreds her insides with each rotation of her leg, then rusts, freezing the joint in place. Or one of the points breaks free and tumbles out of her anus onto the floor where it’s picked up and swallowed by a toddler.
And there's always the option of just letting her be. Isn't a one-legged Barbie doll more fun to play with than a two-legged Barbie doll anyway? Missing a leg, she’s a better dancer, easier to spin around.