Costume Series #1
Doll Dream
(10/27-11/02/2007)

The very efficient looking woman in a white lab coat examines the two of you standing in front of her. “So, you think my newest invention is a costume machine,” she asks with a raised eyebrow and rising irritated voice.

You look at him and he is looking back at you confused. Uncertain, you answer truthfully, “That was the impression you gave us.”

She drops the act. “Good, because that’s what it is. And I was looking for someone to try it on. And the two of you would be the perfect couple to show it off. And I’m sure as my friend you’ll both give me your honest opinion.” You look over at him. He is relieved. Frankly, so are you. “So, who’s going first?”

You look over for the third time. He gestures for you to go ahead. “Ladies, first.”

As you step forward, the dark haired inventor continues, “As you know, this process lasts 5-6 hours and when you are done you will be in a costume that will make you look like a human sized doll. Because of this, I will put you to sleep for the entire time you are in the machine.” She pauses and looks you in the eye. “Ready? Because when you wake up you will be a doll, a girl doll.”

You take a deep breath and then nod. “Then lay face down here.” You do so, and feel something injected into your neck. Wave after wave of exhaustion crashes over you. Unable to fight it any longer, you close your eyes and give in.

The dreams fade and you wipe the tiredness out of your eyes, but a giant soft thing smacks your face instead. You open your eyes and look more closely. A giant flesh colored cloth arm with a mitten style hand has replaced your arm. You try to move your fingers, but you can’t feel them. You try to sit up but your body is a little weak from having slept that long.

The inventor friend of yours comes over to you, “Oh good! You’re awake. Let me help you up. It’ll take you a little while to get used to your new body.” You look over to where he was. “Oh, he just went in. He’ll be out in a few hours. Enough time for you to get ready for tonight.”

She leads you to a mirror. “First things, first. I’m sure you want to see how you look.” You turn to the mirror and see a giant rag doll looking back. You look like something you’ve seen but can’t remember what. Your skin looks like cloth. Your hair looks like red yarn. Even your mouth looks stitched when it’s closed. And there’s a red triangle where your nose should be. You can see the hem from where you were sewn up. In fact the only thing that doesn’t look dollish is your eyes. “Close one eye,” she tells you as if reading your mind. You do and your eyelid becomes a button. Surprised you switch eyes and the same is true. You are dumbstruck with the detail she went to.

“Second, you need to get ready for the party tonight. You can’t go like that. What would people say?” She says with a hint of humor. It’s then that you realize that your doll body needs clothes. She disappears. You totter in her direction. She returns with some clothes. “Sit.” You do and she quickly dresses you in a blue long sleeved blouse, a white lacy overall skirt and long red and white striped socks with black bottoms to cover your bulbous feet. Your feet now look like they are wearing shoes. Then she places white bloomers on you. You don’t mind her dressing you because not having hands makes dressing yourself a little difficult.

“Ok, third things third. Stand back up.” You struggle and after 15 minutes you finally get back up. “Ok, that’s not bad, but you see the need for what I’m about to put you through. You need to learn to use your new body.” She takes you to a door and lets you in. “One last thing, in your hands and feet are magnets. They allow you to … Well, you have time to figure it out. See you on the other side.” She closes the door.

You go through a series of exercises. First walking, then grabbing with the magnet. At first it’s frustrating not to be able to bend your hands, but the magnets inside allow to manipulate anything metal. Slowly you go through them getting better and better. Later you pass something from hand to hand, then to eat and drink. You get to the end and even let yourself out.

Just as you do, he exits the machine. As he lays there on his back, you realize that he looks just like you but male. He reminds you of something, but you can’t put your finger on it. His button eyes disappear as he wakes up. Seeing you, he smiles. You reach out your hand magnet and help him up off the table. You lead him to the mirror.

“Wow, you can’t see where the costume ends and the person begins,” he comments.

“That’s just how I planned it. Now, if you’ll come with me, sir, I’ll get you all ready.” He hobbles after the inventor and returns in a while in a plaid shirt, blue overalls, the same striped socks and shoes, a ribbon bow for a tie, and a blue hat. She leads him to the training room door. You reach them just as she’s saying, “Now go on in there.” You hang back. She turns on you, “What are you waiting for? Go in there, too. He has to go through that faster than you did, because we have to be at your party in 4 hours.” Seeing the urgency, you head in after him. “Oh,” she adds as the door closes, “be sure to use the two person exit at the end.”

You help him and guide him through and the two of you make better time than you did. He quickly learns. By the end, he is as good in his costume as he is without it. You approach the exit you see the little sign for the double exit that you missed before. There are two doors side by side, one with a male icon and the other female. You each stand in front of your door and let yourself out. His hand reaches the door first because you hear something next to you. You turn to see a hole in the floor. You look down and see him. You extend a hand for him and reach for something to brace yourself. You hand finds something and your feet find nothing. You fall into a hole sized box. Your inventor friend appears outside of your clear window. She is on the ground lower than you.

Looking to your one side and then back at you, “Ok, sorry for surprising you with this, but trust me this’ll add to the effect.” She looks at you and gestures with her head to the side, “He’s over there next to you.” She looks to the side, “She’s right there.” She starts the looking back and forth again. “Ok, I’m going to take you to and from the party. You didn’t think you were going to drive with those hands did you? Anyway, you are in giant toy display containers like what you would buy in the store. The side you see me through is the door, but you can’t get out right now because you are in the back of my truck. But when you get to the party, please get out and socialize. Anyone can go in for pictures or whatever. The doors are controlled by your magnets.” She pauses. “I’m rambling on again. Anyway, get back in them when you are ready to go and I’ll pick you back up.”

She leaves and soon scenery flies by. Finally you stop in front of the house where the party is to take place. You get lifted onto the porch. After a moment, you see the inventor’s hand push the doorbell. The vehicle behind you leaves. You close your eyes. You hear the door open and a muffled voice ask, “Who had the giant dolls delivered?”

They must have decided to bring you in because several people lift your case and carry it forward. When the box stops and you hear the other box land next to you, you hear some people gasp. You open your eyes and several costumed people from where both of your work gasp again. You reach forward and make contact with the door. You push and the door opens. People step back to let you out. You close the door behind you and look into his. He smiles and exits his to the astonishment of the crowd.

The two of you and your boxes are the talk of the party. Sure enough, people decide to enter the boxes and get their pictures taken as if they were toys. You both get the award for the best costume. You go for some punch but you realize that you can’t pick up the clear plastic cups. You check your box and you find some things you hadn’t known were there, a metal cup and fork. You pick them up and enjoy the food and drink. Later that night exhausted and full of food, you both push your boxes back out onto the porch and get in. Before you know it, you are back in the transport. The rocking of the trip lulls you to sleep.

You wake up slowly. A kiss from your beloved finishes the wake up process with a smile. “Hey sexy,” he whispers. You open your eyes and see he is still a doll. You assume that you are too.

“Hey sexy,” you reply. He smiles back at you. “That was the best party I’ve been to.”

“Me, too.” He bends down to kiss you and you reach up to kiss him back.

“I hate to break up this romantic moment, but today is the day we get you back to normal. He rolls to one side and you both sit up.” She smiles. “But before we do the long boring part, let’s have some fun. Want to?” You nod. “Great! Stand up wherever you want. The object of this game is to stay standing as long as possible.”

“That doesn’t sound so hard,” he says.

“Maybe not, but you aren’t allowed to use your bodies.”

“What,” you ask confused.

She reached behind your head. Suddenly, you can’t feel anything below the neck. You fall backward. Quickly you are looking at the ceiling.

“That wasn’t fair. I’ll have to fix that.”

“What happened to my body?”

She reaches behind you again. “This should fix the problem of having to reach behind you heads,” she says ignoring your question. “He won round 1. Get up for Round 2. It’s best 2 of 3.” You get up and stand with your back to a wall. “Ready? Go!” Your body goes numb again. Slowly you slide down the wall. Upon reaching the bottom, your head bounces and you start sliding to one side. “Oh, he wins again. Ok, game is over. Get up and hug your opponent.” You stand and head over to him. You wrap your arms around him and feel the light sensation of him hugging back. “Now for the final test.”

You can’t feel him. You try to break free, but you can’t move. You see a friend shaped blur pass as you hear magnets clasp together. In the process, you get lowered to the ground. You want to blink, but you can’t. You try to ask what’s going on, but that doesn’t work either. In fact, the only parts of you that work are your ears and brain. You try to make sense of this, but you can’t. The blur comes back and clarifies into the inventor’s face. “Can you hear me? Are you ok?” She waits for a moment to respond which you can’t and then she disappears. You hear the same questions behind you. Still no response.

After a moment, she tries again. “Can you say anything now?”

“Yes,” you both say.

“Good! Now untangle yourselves.” You look at her and she’s smiling. You try to pull your head back away from his shoulder, but you are somehow connected to him. You both struggle for a minute trying to find what is connected to what. You release your right hand and your left foot comes free. You release your left hand and get a “Thank you,” from him. A moment later you are both free.

You stand, but he has more trouble. “I think you are on my foot,” he says and you release your last foot.

She suddenly thinks of something, “Wait, I didn’t try that! Ok, one more test and then I’ll explain all this. Ready? Go!” You wait for your body to lose control, but it doesn’t. “Can you hear me?” You try to say yes, but your mouth isn’t working again. You nod your head. “Good. Then come to my voice.” You see a blur that’s in the direction of the voice that looks like her. You follow the voice and arrive at your friend. Your head works again.

“Ok, I owe you an explanation.” She collects her thoughts. “I fell in love with the idea of a living doll. So much so that when I put you in the machine, I also put in your necks two small devices. This remote controls both of them. I imagine that when I push this button,” you slide to the floor, “you can’t control your body and when I push this button,” you can’t move your head again, “you are a complete living doll. But I realized that it would be a bad thing to do that to someone for a long time. But since I had created it, I had to test it before I let you go. Did it work?” You think through the different things that happened while she was having fun.

“Yeah, it did.”

“Great! Let’s get you out of those outfits. Who’s first?”

You look at him, “Age before beauty,” you say smiling and gesture for him to go first. He heads over to the table and lies on it. She injects a sleeping solution again. The machine takes him in. You and your friend talk and talk about the party and how fun it was and how amazed the people were.

“That’s fantabulous! I’m going to do even better next year.” The machine beeps. “He’s done and will be out in a second on a different table. It’s your turn.” You head over to the table that is appearing. You lay on it like him. You feel the tiredness invade your system. You fall asleep again.
CHOOSE YOUR ENDING
If you want the original ending, look below at [ENDING 1]
If you want the O’Henry ending, scroll down to or search for [ENDING 2]


[ENDING 1]
You wake up to him looking down on you again. “Hey sexy.”

“Hey sexy, yourself.” You smile back at him.

He gets a mischievous smile on his face. “I’ve got an idea. Go with me on this.”

“Ok.”

“Go to the far side of the machine and when I say so, start it.” You head around the machine. You hear him say slightly frightened, “She didn’t come out. Where is she?” You want to go to him to ease his fear, but you realize this is part of his plan..

“That’s odd. She should have come out.”

“She must have gotten stuck in there,” he says with more fear, “Maybe if you look there and I look here, we might be able to see her.”

“That’s highly-“

“Maybe a part of her,” he says unreasonably.

“Fine.” After a moment, “Hey! What are you doing?”

“NOW,” he shouts.

You push the buttons. “What? What’s going on?” She asks frightened.
He waits a minute over her protests. When her voice quiets, “Ok, she’s good. Come over here.” You head over to him and see her head in the machine with her arms and legs flailing trying to get out. As the machine pulls her in, her arms stop swinging and her legs give up the fight. He turns to you, “I thought she could use a taste of her own medicine.”

“Are we going to keep her that way?”

“Maybe for a couple of days. I think she could use a break.”

Seeing his plan, you smile and wait. After 5 hours, the machine beeps. You duck around the machine again. “WHAT did you do this to me for?” You peek around the corner. A clothesless female doll is beating him with her soft arms. You sneak up behind her and pull at the velcro at her neck. She stops and you drop. She whips around and that’s all it takes. She collapses on you.

“Both of you were in on this,” she says as he pulls her off you. “Why? Why?”

“Relax, it was my idea. As your friend, I thought it would be good for you to take a break after such an amazing accomplishment. Now, if you’ll kindly go with us, we’ll take care of you from here.”

“And if you’re a good doll,” you add with a smile, “we’ll let you off in a couple of days for good behavior.”

He takes her over his shoulder and hauls her out. You grab some giant doll clothes and lock up behind them. She spends her time at your house where you take very good care of her. She’s a good girl as she can’t really go anywhere. As you all talk and take care of her, she gets over her frustration and returns to her normal happy demeanor and enjoys it. All of you talk and take care of her, you all grow closer as friends.

In a couple of days, you take her back. As she goes into the machine, she promises, “That was horrible not being able to move. I will never do that to anyone ever again.” You look at him and find him looking at you. You read his eyes that say what you are feeling. The next time you need a costume, you’ll both be here with your friend.

The End


[ENDING 2]
You wake up in the middle of the night desperate to go to the restroom. You slip out of the bed and you see a light under a door. You open it and find yourself in a bathroom. After the need is taken care of, you glance in the mirror and see that you are back to normal. You come full awake. You then realize you don’t know where you are. You are sure your friend put you in one of her spare bedrooms or something. You go back to bed and fall fast asleep.

You wake up leisurely. You slide out of the comfortable bed and head into the beautiful bathroom. It is bigger that your room at home. You linger in the Jacuzzi tub letting the bubbles tickle your skin. You wash up and head to the dresser and closet filled with clothes. You put some on and head down to breakfast. You find a full kitchen. You turn on the TV as you make yourself breakfast.

Unexpectedly, you hear him calling your name outside. You leave your breakfast and head outside the front door. He looks relieved when he sees you. You embrace each other. “What’s wrong,” you ask him.

“I woke up in a house that’s not mine.”

“Yeah, me too. Isn’t our friend so gener-“

“I don’t know where we are,” he interrupts.

“I’m sure we are somewhere that she owns.”

“Are you sure? Something doesn’t add up here.” Suddenly, things don’t make sense for you either. “I’ve been searching for you for blocks. No one has complained or said anything about my yelling for you. It’s like we are the only ones in this place wherever it is.”

“This doesn’t make any sense.”

“There you both are,” she says as she approaches.

“Oh good, you’re here. What’s going on?”

“You gave me something I wanted. So, I’m giving you something you want. You now can live a life of luxury. You never have to work another day in your life. If you are ever in need or want of anything just go and get it. This is my world and you have complete reign over it. Enjoy it.”

“But what about our jobs?”

“You’re going to try out my costumes for me, right?”

“I guess.”

“Great! Then it’s all settled. You work for me. I’ll pay you if you want, but I’m not sure what you’ll need it for. Everything here is free.”

“Our houses,” he adds.

“You like them? I had them made with each of you in mind.” She stops, “Oh, you mean, your other houses. Well, I guess you don’t need them now, do you? If you’d like, you can use your phone to call a realtor to sell them for you. And I kept your numbers the same, so you can call each other whenever you like.”

“What about all these other houses? They must have cost you a fortune.”

“The cost will be just a drop in the bucket when people start paying me to put them in costumes. Speaking of which, I’ve got to go and keep working on my costume machine. I’ll see you later.”  She heads back the way she came.

“What should we do?”

“I’m not sure,” he answers, “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.”

“But this isn’t exactly a free lunch. We helped her and she’s helping us.”

“True, but something still doesn’t feel right.” He looks her direction. You turn to see her go in a house at the end of the street.

“Want some breakfast? I was just making some.”

“Sure,” he says in a voice that indicates he’s not so sure.
After breakfast, you decide to take a walk together. As you pass your inventor friend’s house, you decide to check in on her. You open the door and nearly fall. There’s no house beyond her door. But you do recognize the space beyond the door; it is a giant version of her lab. You look down and if you’d have finished the step you’d have fallen to your death. Straight ahead is a pipe at the level of the door, but too far away to jump. A giant in a lab coat moves around a humongous machine in the distance. You step back to let him see. As he looks, things snap into place. If these houses are compared to the size of the room beyond, they are the size of doll houses. And that makes the two of you the size of … dolls.

The End