And now a page from one of my personal stories…

A couple of years ago I used to work at a high end store which sold high end women designer clothing, shoes handbags. The department I worked on was on the top floor and was consider the premiere floor and during some months it was the slowest floor customer wise.  Not everyday people would want to drop major cash on a pair of shoes or a shirt. So I got bored quickly and would do simple mundane tasks until a customer would come.

One day I noticed a rather tall older man sitting on the near near the escalator. I would of normally  just not pay much attention to him but he was having a down stare down trance at one of the mannequins in the top designer department where the sale associate from the department was busy taking off a garment from the mannequin. I didn’t think much of this until the sales associate was gone and the gentleman all of a sudden shot up from his chair and walked really fast towards the naked mannequin and just stop right in front of it and starting staring at it really closely. I was a little confused and was about to approached him but he quickly ran off because the sale associate return to put the garment back on the mannequin,

No no this wasn’t like the movie Mannequin where comedy ensues and the mannequin comes to life when the store is close and everyone is gone. 

It was kinda of weird but I quickly forgot about it until the next week when I saw him on the same floor but in a different department. Every department on that floor had it own set of unique mannequins. So when I caught a glance of him he was in the department that had the mannequins with the wig hair, false eyelashes and makeup. It was not really hard not to notice him because he was literally face to face with the mannequin in some kind of intense stare down…again. I saw his mouth moving and I thinking: Is he talking to that mannequin? A couple of minutes later I saw the manager of the department of where the gentleman was standing in approaching him. I was dying to know what was going to happen so I kind of inched my way towards a rack of clothing to tidy that rack (but to mainly hear their interaction!):

Sales Manager: “So I see you really like this new sweater on the mannequin. It comes in all sizes and two different colors. What size does your wife wear?”

Gentleman: “What do you think they are thinking about when they are standing here.”

Sales Manager: “….huh, who?”

Gentleman: “Them. (gestures towards the mannequin) What are they thinking???”

Sales Manager: “ahhh WELL sir I don’t think they are thinking anything. These are not real!”

Gentleman: “Oh YES they are!” (starts caressing the wig hair on the mannequin)

At that point my mouth drops and then I see the sales manager slowly back away from the display and the gentleman. Goes to the register and I am pretty sure at the point called security. However I think she spooked off the gentleman because he literally run walks out of the the department to the escalator.  

After that escapade I didn’t see the gentlemen for a couple of months then I saw him very randomly when I had to close in the evening. Then I would see him every day I worked in different departments literally face to face with the mannequins. However every time someone would approach him he would run off. I am not sure if it was out of fear or have a real person brake the his trance like stare down but he ran. Sometimes if he stood in the department with the most real like mannequins he would take chucks of fake eyelashes and hair with him maybe as mementos or maybe it was something more. I could never really pin point the reason as to why he would take those things.

Shortly after those sightings I quit working there. I grew bored with the environment and quickly moved on to more interesting avenues. Sometimes though that gentleman would randomly popped into my mind and I would wonder… does he still go to that floor and talk to them? Does he still take souvenirs from them?  How many times has he seen the movie mannequin or Maniac?  And more importantly did he keep returning back to that floor because they talked back to him?

oh well…..

Until next time!