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There once was a sculptor of unparalleled skill. At a glance he could see the shape within a stone as if the surrounding rock had already been chipped away. He traveled all over the world to find the perfect pieces for his art. Each piece was more breathtaking than the last, but he was never satisfied. All his life he had an image in his mind that he desperately wanted to bring to life. An image so beautiful it brought tears to his eyes every time he thought about it.

One day he found a stone. It was a little larger than his head and rather nondescript. But as soon as he saw it the image from his mind blazed forth. It was late in the day and he was tired, but he bought it instantly and hurried back to his studio. All night he worked, bringing to life the image that had lived for so long in his mind.

At last he was too tired to continue and laid down on the cot he kept there for the purpose. He fell asleep instantly with a smile on his face.

He woke to a crash and the cursing of his apprentice. Grumbling, he went to investigate. As he entered the room the first thing he saw was the stone he'd been working on, lying on the floor. A large crack ran through the middle of it, and he could no longer see the beautiful image he was trying to bring out in it.

In a rage he stalked into the room, screaming at the apprentice as he went. His apprentice backed away fearfully, which gave the sculptor room to pick up the stone and throw it at him. The apprentice managed to catch the stone before it could crush his skull and ran when the sculptor reached for something else to throw.

The apprentice was the son of a rich man and convinced he was incredibly talented. In anger at his treatment from the sculptor he decided to prove how good he was by making something amazing out of the flawed stone. He worked tirelessly for days, carving away the smooth lines of the sculptors vision with the rougher, crude lines of his own.

At last it was finished and his father pulled some strings to get it shown at a gallery. He beamed with pride as people came by to look at it, but they were far from impressed.

Meanwhile, the sculptor regretted throwing the stone at the apprentice. Although ruined, it still represented something beautiful to him that he'd sought all his life.

When he learned of the gallery showing he went to investigate. When he saw what his former apprentice had made of the stone he was incensed.

He ranted and raved at how the apprentice had further ruined it. In the end, he bought it to keep anyone else from seeing the travesty.

He took it home and put it up in a prominent place. Every day he gazed at it and tried to see that image again in the stone. Every time he failed.

Years passed and he grew bitter and angry. He stopped working and withdrew from the world.

Finally, near the end of his life, there was an earthquake. The only damage was the statue, which fell off the shelf and shattered into several pieces. He was heartbroken.

Angry that the world seemed to be conspiring to destroy his vision, he began to gather the pieces intending to discard them. But as he collected the pieces he could see, dimly, that image again.

Without further thought he took the pieces and started reshaping them. He drilled holes and ran wire through it to hold the pieces together, as he didn't trust glue to last. At last, after months of painstaking work, he finished putting it together.

Each piece fitted together so tightly that the seams were invisible unless looked at very closely. At last, after all that time, his vision had become a reality. It wasn't quite as perfect as the image in his mind, and he felt that the seams were a further flaw, but it was close. That was the best he could do.

After putting a new plaque on the stand with its proper name, he sat back to admire the beautiful simplicity of the statue he had created. His smile had never been larger.

Some time later he was found, still staring at the statue with that same smile on his face. The statue, when noticed, became the most famous of all his works. Everyone wondered who the model was, but no one ever came forward.

The apprentice told the newspapers his part in it in order to gain some acclaim for himself but only managed to show the world how incompetent he really was. He would never lose his anger over the sculptor showing him up so thoroughly by changing his own work, The Broken Man, into the world famous Woman Within.

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The End…