[Inkscape-user] Beginner question: How do I get rid of pie segment in ellipse

I have two objects, a circle and an ellipse, which together make a cartoonish human eye. But there is a black line from the center to the edge for both objects. I understand that this is a pie segment in the circle/ellipse. No matter how I move the little circles on the edge I can't get rid of this line. If I move too far the entire shape disappears. Move back a tiny increment and there is the line again.

To put it another way, how do I create either shape without having any pie slice at all? Just a pure circle or ellipse. I have three books on Inkscape but none of them seem to cover this problem.

Inkscape 47 on Slackware 13 Liinux.