Of Miraculous Births and Houseflies

from The Palace of Illusions
Chitra Bannerjee Divakaruni

"An eyeblink later," she continued," when you emerged from the fire, our jaws dropped. It was so quiet, you could have heard a housefly fart."

I reminded her that flies do not perform that particular bodily function.

She smiled her squint-eyed, cunning smile. "Child, the things you don't know would fill the milky ocean where Lord Vishnu sleeps--and spill over the edges."

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