I Am Mannequin

• Tijana Pavlovic , Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2019

I wonder if I stand here still enough, they’ll look me up and down and keep walking. They might point and pick at my clothes. But what I really want is for them not to notice me. I mean, they look straight through me anyway.

Day after day, people as busy as bees rush to get the Christmas present they forgot about, the transformer for the wailing child who won’t shut up, the clean shirt that a mum can never find, and a box of nickers for the dads who seem to misplace them. So many people yet, they don’t see me, only the outfit delicately placed on me. They don’t know me.

I shifted my eyes towards Merlin, the new employee, as he rushed towards me with a new outfit. It was usually Maureen who changed me, and after hours. I felt the warmth of his hands tickle my icy exterior in the most awkward places as he undressed me. “Merlin!” spat Maureen. “We need clean up on aisle 3 stat! Fix her up later.”

I wanted to scream, run out of the store and hide in the comfort of the storage room. I told myself not to panic and that all I had to do was get myself to the staff room. Get out my phone, call for help. Why wasn’t I moving? Why was I frozen?

I can’t believe that he left me here, in the nude, at the front of the store! How humiliating! Finally, Merlin approached me, the stench of a baby’s vomit lingering around his uniform, and on my new clothes! They were ghastly! I wait impatiently as he dressed me, scolding him silently for his lack of being a gentleman.
I stare through the store window, to the restaurant next door. I spot a regular customer back for his 3rd round of fries today. He should really hit the gym some time! On the table across from him sat the businessman enveloped in a grey suit, screaming at the person on the other end of the phone. Because of his abrupt loudness, the baby behind him woke up from her precious nap and a piercing wail echoed to even where I was standing.

I stood there, desperate, not being able to move for what felt like an eternity trapped in darkness and blinded by the bright light that glared above my head. What was happening to me? Was Maureen playing a trick on me?
No, she wasn’t. Maureen came back the next day to find me in the exact same spot where I became frozen. She turned the lights on, smiled bitterly, looked around and nodded in approval.

Guess she was happy with the new design at the front of the store. After all, I am mannequin and I come to life if and when I chose to. I wonder if she knows that. Perhaps one day she will, when she becomes one, when I make her become one.