‘I’m like this because Freak thinks I mishandled you. I’m being punished for everything that happened to you! So in a way, you’re responsible!’
‘He told me, yeah. I’m sorry – I thought, to be honest, that you’d be okay now.’
‘Because you’ve agreed to use the gloves, right?’
She says it gleefully, like it’s the best news anybody could ever hear. She reaches out, grabs me joyfully by the waist, and for a moment I’m seriously worried she’s going to whirl me around in some sort of ecstatic, waltzing dance.
‘Which means he will forgive me, I’m sure! Eventually, if not pretty soon! And you see, Jill – there are the most amazing advantages to giving Freak what he wants. This is just the worst of it–’ once again, she twirls her head slightly, but this time in the way a fashion model let’s everyone see how beautiful she is – ‘but the best more than makes up for it!’
No matter how hard I try, I can’t think of anything that would make up for looking like this.
‘Look, Jackie; wouldn’t it be easier if we just went to the police?’
‘The police? Of course! Why didn’t I think of that? Duh!’
Yeah, you guessed; she says it so it’s just absolutely dripping with sarcasm. She even gives herself a theatrical slap on her forehead.
‘Because, Einstein, I’d end up looking like this forever!’ she snarls, pointing back at her own face.
She looks horrified. On a face that’s already horrifying, that’s some mean trick.
‘Sure, going to the police wouldn’t earn Freak’s displeasure at all, would it? He’d be frankly overjoyed, wouldn’t he? So you’d keep your pretty little face just the way it is, and you could just sit through the entire court case charming everyone with your pert little nose and twinkly eyes!’
‘But doctors, the hospital, they could–’
‘Look at us and throw their hands up in horror! You were dead, remember?’
‘Well, perhaps not dead, but–’
‘But better off dead! There wouldn’t have been enough of you working to fill a wheelchair in an iron lung, Jill! Freak’s operations aren’t normal operations, ones that can just be tidied up a bit by a few of those ever-so-caring jerks from ER! We do what Freak wants, or we end up envying the Elephant Man for his ravishing looks!’
‘Then…then there’s nothing we can do?’
She shakes her head. But that weird smile begins to show itself on her face once again.
‘But didn’t you hear me when I said the best more than makes up for it? There are advantages to this; things like you’d never, ever believe were possible!’
She touches the glove box in my hands like it’s the most precious relic she’s ever seen.
‘So you’ll do it, right?’ Her eyes sparkle excitedly. ‘You’ll help your friend, like he’s asked?’
I nod.
‘Why not? If it helps her – and us – yeah, why not?’
She grabs me again like we’re about to go waltzing round the garden. Worst of all, for a split moment I even fear she’s going to kiss me.
‘Jill, you’re wonderful! Oh, and believe me, you won’t regret it! You really won’t!’
*
Chapter 24
Jackie’s rant about the police and hospitals had only confirmed what I’d already been thinking myself; that they wouldn’t be any help.
She’d also more or less confirmed what Freak had told me; that the only reason I’d ended up suicidal was all down to a mix of my own special abilities and Fiona just showing up like that. Which meant it would be perfectly safe for Cath to use the gloves.
So, what problem was there in simply doing what Freak was asking? And if I went along with what he wanted, there was no need for the police or any new operation anyway.
And I might even get to see what all these other ‘advantages’ Jackie had mentioned were.
First thing, of course, I need to check that Cath herself is on for it. Tell her up front – no lies this time, nothing being hidden from her, as Jackie had hidden things from me – what the gloves can do for her.
Then if she still wants to go ahead with trying out the gloves, why should I deny her the chances I had?
*
Getting Cath on her mobile is the easiest thing in the world.
It never leaves her hand. (Okay, maybe when she’s in the bathroom.)
Even as I approach her in the street where we’d arranged to meet, she’s gawping at her mobile, despite the facts she’s supposed to be taking her shiatsu Gabby out for a walk.
‘Hi babe,’ she says, with only a fleeting glance up from the screen. ‘What’s all this mystery then? All this “I’ll tell you when I get there”?’
Suddenly, her eyes open wide in shock.
‘Babe! You look gorgeous again!’
With a click, she takes a picture of me. She immediately whirls her camera around so I can see the screen.
Yeah, I’ve got to admit I do look pretty good.
‘You looked terrible before! What was it? Mumps? All that awful swelling!’
She smiles, curls an arm around me, gives me a quick hug. Letting me know she’s pleased that I’m back to my old self.
‘Just some allergy, I reckon.’ I give her a warm hug in return. ‘But look, that’s not why I’m here, Cath.’
‘Ohh, the mystery, right? But wait, wait, Jill.’
Spinning around, she takes a quick snap of Gabby. She instantly brings her phone back up between us so we can both see the picture.
‘Ahhh,’ Cath sighs. ‘Isn’t she just so cute?’
‘Gorgeous,’ I say brightly enough to satisfy Cath that I mean it.
‘So, what’s all this mystery then, babe?’
‘A secret, Cath; I’m sorry, but I’ve been keeping something from you.’
Cath’s so surprised she actually slips her phone into a pocket in her jeans.
‘Babe! Friends should never have secrets!’
‘Cath, we both know that you’ve been holding a secret back from me too!’
‘A secret? No, no, Jill; I’ve never kept a secret from you – you should know that.’
‘Cath, I don’t mind; in fact, in this case I think it shows just how good a friend you are. Because you didn’t want to hurt me.’
‘Babe, babe, you’re worrying me now! Why do you think I’d keep a secret from you that might hurt you?’
‘No, no; I mean you didn’t want me to know, because you thought knowing would hurt me. But I knew anyway, Cath; I could tell that when I was going out with Jase, you fancied him too.’
She turns her head away in embarrassment.
‘Jill! What are you saying? I never–’
I reach out and give her a reassuring hug.
‘Cath, I’m not upset! We can’t help who we fall for, can we? And I think that the way you tried to hide it so you wouldn’t hurt me was absolutely wonderful of you!’
She gives me a wan smile.
‘Well, sorry babe; but he is gorgeous, isn’t he?’
Her eyes open wide in horror as it dawns on her that Jase just broke up with me.
‘Oh, sorry babe! I didn’t mean–’
‘That’s okay, that’s okay,’ I laugh. ‘I’m over him now, don’t worry! So over him! But Cath; if you still want to go out with him, then I’m not only fine with that, but I might – I know – I can help you get him out on a date!’
Cath pouts miserably.
‘Babe, let’s face it; Jase is even out of my league.’
‘Ah, but that’s where I come to my secret, Cath; I’m going to tell you how I worked out how I could get Jase to go out with me.’
*
Chapter 25
When I look at
myself in my dressing table mirror the next morning, I’m feeling very pleased with myself
Naturally, Cath had looked at me like I was just a little crazy when I’d told her about the gloves.
‘Trust me,’ I’d insisted, ‘I don’t know how they work; I just know they do!’
As a sort of explanation for how they might work, I’d told her they must have somehow recorded the emotions of people who had previously worn them; ‘You know, like a house somehow records a highly emotional event like a betrayal or a killing, making us think we’re seeing a ghost!’
I couldn’t tell her that the gloves were made of human skin, or of Hezzy’s unfortunate history. Well, it would all just gross her out, wouldn’t it?
So I told her that I’d inherited them from some long-lost relative.
How easy lies can just start tripping off the tongue, right? And once you’re in, once you’ve started telling them, it’s hard to back out.
Okay, so she’s a friend, and I shouldn’t be telling her these things. But if I told her the truth, she’d be missing out on the experience – the experiences – of a lifetime, wouldn’t she?
As soon as she’d seen the gloves, Cath had realised they were special. You could just see it in her eyes that she thought they were just so amazingly beautiful.
When she’d picked them up, she’d almost purred with delight when she’d felt how incredibly soft and light they were.
‘They’re sort of warm, too,’ she’d said in thrilled surprise. ‘Even before you put them on, you can feel this wonderful warmth in their leather!’
Even when she’d just slipped one glove on, I could tell that she was already beginning to believe that everything I’d said about the gloves was true. Her pupils were dilated with pleasure. She was pouting, grinning wildly.
Her eyes closed as soon as she slipped her hand into the second glove.
What can I say?
I don’t want to go into much detail, as it was actually more than a little embarrassing for me, standing next to my friend as she seemed to more or less go through the throes of ecstasy.
Even more embarrassing, however, is that I’m now wondering what the heck I looked like to Jackie when I was the one wearing the gloves, and she was the one standing alongside.
Little Gabby, sitting on the floor next to me, simpered worriedly.
The thing is, when you’re experiencing all those amazing things that the gloves can offer you, the real world outside of you simply ceases to exist. You’re suddenly in a whole new, more exciting world, where you’re a goddess and everyone worships you.
When Cath finally took the gloves off, her face was covered in a light sheen of sweat. She appeared exhausted, yet desirously happy.
She couldn’t thank me enough for letting her wear the gloves.
‘I didn’t…just didn’t know…anything could be like that!’
As she left my house, I noticed that her phone was still in her pocket. She was paying more attention to her dear little Gabby too, while managing to walk out with the hint of a confident sway to her body that would have had a catwalk model gaping in admiration.
‘Come on Gabby dearest; Mummy’s got something she needs to do.’
That’s what the gloves can do to you; bring out a ridiculously high level of self-assurance that you never believed you had inside you.
I almost fondly tap the gloves lying alongside me on my dresser top.
‘Thanks Hezzy,’ I say, ‘we’ve all got so much we can all learn from you!’
*
I glance back at myself in the mirror. I smile contentedly at what I see.
Wow, I’ve never looked better!
In fact – are those really my eyebrows?
No! They’re the eyebrows I’ve desperately wanted since about a year ago. That’s when I first saw the latest outcrop of young models and starlets flourishing these wonderfully angular brows that could make anybody look hot!
I’d begged Mum and Dad to let me have them. To let me have just one more nip and tuck they could’ve got their favourite surgeons to do as a favour, they spend so much down there. But did they let me have them? No way did they!
They’d told me to wait, told me to make sure that that’s what I really wanted before I went ahead with it. Hah, that’s rich, coming from those two, with more plastic than Barbie and Ken.
But now I’ve got the eyebrows I wanted anyway.
The perfect eyebrows. Shaped like I’ve paid gazillions for them!
So, this is the sort of extra advantage Jackie was talking about, is it?
If it is, I like it! Yes, I like it very very much!
And if I’m starting to earn Freak’s approval; do these advantages stretch to getting to wear one of those fabulous dresses he has in his shop?
*
Chapter 26
This time Miss Dorent greets me warmly.
‘Mr King will be with you in a moment, Jill,’ she says after she’s finished showing a middle-aged, expensively dressed woman into the back room.
‘Mr King? Oh, yes, yes; of course! Mr King!’
I glance around the shop, noticing straight away that the Elizabeth Taylor mannequin’s back in its place. She’s wearing the same dress she was last time, so either it’s a copy, or the woman who’d taken it away last time had either hired it, or decided not to buy it.
Farther down the shop, there’s a newly bared, regular mannequin. I can’t remember which one of the more realistic mannequins had originally been in its position.
An excited tittering comes from the doorway leading into the back of the shop. A truly glamorous and gorgeous woman appears there, huskily shouting back her thanks to ‘Mr King’ over an elegant shoulder.
She whisks past us, I think giving me a pitying look, then heads out of the shop doorway. A limousine is waiting outside, one that must have quietly drawn up while I’ve been looking around the mannequins. A chauffer holds the car’s rear door open, and the woman gracefully slips into its luxuriously upholstered seats.
‘Mr King will see you now,’ Miss Dorent cheerfully informs me as the car drives off, indicating with a fluid wave of an arm that I can step into the back.
I’m surprised. The older woman must still be back there with him, unless she’s being attended to by some other assistant I haven’t met yet. Which, of course, isn’t inconceivable.
Stepping through into the back, I’m greeted by a beaming Freak. There’s no sign of the woman, though there are plenty of doors towards the back that she could have slipped through.
As in the front of the shop, there’s now a bared, regular mannequin in here, replacing one that had been wearing the green evening dress I’ve just seen the gorgeous woman leaving in.
‘I wasn’t expecting you back so soon!’ Freak declares happily. ‘Oh, I just love the eyebrows! Very very you!’
‘Oh, you noticed!’ Of course he did, idiot! But what I mean is, I’m pleased he did.
‘It’s hard not to notice,’ he says. ‘On you, they’re particularly beautiful!’
I nod appreciatively.
As he’s obviously in an extra-special good mood, I decide, what the heck, let’s just get what’s on my mind out in the open straight away!
‘I was wondering, Mr King.’ I say it with a slight chuckle that seems to amuse him. ‘Would there be any chance of me borrowing one of your amazing dresses? Or perhaps even buying one? On special terms that won’t leave me bankrupt before I’m anywhere near twenty?’
‘Borrow one?’
He says ‘borrow’ like he’s horrified by the thought alone. Then he smiles, like it’s all just been a joke all along.
‘I’m sure, yes, that we can work something out that you’ll feel happy with.’
I’m thrilled. I look about me, wondering which dress would suit
me best.
Any one of them would make me look like a celebrity, a catwalk queen, a Hollywood actress.
‘None of these, I think,’ Freak says dismissively, noticing my interest in the dresses surrounding us. ‘For you, I think you’d appreciate something far far more special.’
With a waved arm, he indicates that I should step towards one of the doors towards the back of the room. The door silently opens by itself.
I hesitate; a back room of a back room?
‘Still don’t entirely trust me, right?’
He laughs. He doesn’t look offended. Rather, he looks like he understands my hesitation.
He claps his hands towards the doorway, saying, ‘That’s okay; we’ll bring it out here.’
Inside the darkened room, I can hear a sudden, urgent scuffling. It’s as if someone or something had been lying in wait for me in there. I’m relieved I refused to enter, though now also just a little nervous about what might be going on in there.
A few seconds later, a few of the weird little men and women who I vaguely remember operating on me step out from the room. I almost leap back in shock, having almost forgotten their involvement in everything that’s happened to me recently.
They’re all tugging on ropes. Behind them, I see something on a wheeled trolley being slowly revealed as it moves from the room’s darkness into the light.
It’s another dress, another mannequin. But yes, as Freak promised this is incredibly special.
It could be a Tudor queen walking towards me, especially as the trolley makes no sound, while most of it is hidden by the huge expanse of dress. Her movement is gracefully smooth too, the carefully sanded floor offering no obstacles to give her any sudden jolt or judder.
The dress alone must be worth a fortune, a mix of red and green silk layering that really shouldn’t work, but here gives the impression that every dress should be like this. As well as being heavily embroidered, pearls and rubies have been sewn into the swirling design, such that it glitters as if illuminated by its own light.
More beautiful than ever, however, is the wearer of the dress. Her auburn hair alone could set a new fashion, with everyone wanting to copy the way it drapes down across her shoulders in fabulously elongated curls. Her complexion is flawless, bar a light smattering of freckles that somehow draw your attention to her ridiculously bright hazel eyes. Her mouth would make the reddest tulip turn green with envy, while her neck would draw a similar reaction from even Nefertiti.
Who wouldn’t want to be this girl, or at least share a fraction of her incredible beauty? It’s hard to believe she’s just a mannequin after all; she looks so incredibly real, so amazingly alive. It’s the first time I’ve been up close to one of these amazing mannequins, and I didn’t realise just how incredibly detailed they are. She must have cost a fortune to make.