The bell tinkled as the ladies entered the shop. He was terrified. He could hear the muffled voices through the paneling – not clearly – but from the tone of voice he could guess the actual words. “What doll?! There is no doll for just five pounds in my window!” “There is. Come and I’ll point it out to you.”
He heard the bell tinkle again and braced himself. This was his chance. Mrs Lindsay came around in front of the window and jumped back a little when she saw the enormous, and frankly creepy, doll in her window! Her jaw dropped. Frank desperately fluttered his eyebrows and shook his head. The ladies almost died with fright. This creepy doll was now moving! Eventually they composed themselves and realized that some poor person was somehow stuck in the shop window dressed as a doll! Their eyes searched the display for some signs that the person was strapped down or restrained in some way but could not see anything like that. Still they realized that the person had to be saved.
Steven breathed a sigh of relief when they rushed back into the shop and he heard the jangle of keys behind him. He just might get out of this with minimum fuss. The small access door opened to his right. “Oh you poor dear! Who did this to you?” Mrs Lindsay asked as she removed the dolls to his side. “Hhhnnngggg!” She pulled back the lace cuffs on his gloves. “Oh dear! It’s padlocked.” She felt around behind his head where he was attached to the wall. “The same here!” “Hhhnnngggg!” Steven grumbled in frustration. Damn Sally Foster!
He’d thought he was going to be freed but he was still stuck there in the shop window on High Street in a pink frilly dress with his pink frilly bloomers on show made up to look just like a pretty dolly! Mrs Lindsay had a thought. “Just a minute! There was a small envelope dropped inside the door when I arrived. I’d forgotten all about it.” Steven could only wriggle and writhe again as she fetched it.
She read the note in the envelope. “Dear Mrs Lindsay, please see what you can get for this unwanted doll. I’ve put a price of £5 on her but take whatever you can get. Perhaps you can swap her for a more attractive doll.” Once again Steven was offended at the cheap price put on him as a doll. She continued: “the keys are tucked inside his frilly bloomers.” Steven tensed. “HIS? Is it a boy?!” Mrs Lindsay looked in at him and looked up and down at his dress, his bloomers, wig and fluttering eye-lashes. “Are you a boy?” He couldn’t actually nod so he just looked pleadingly at her and then fluttered his eyelashes looking towards the keys in her hands suggestively.
She hurriedly unlocked the padlock behind his head and his mask fell away. He gasped in relief. Then she unlocked his wrists and ankles. Steven quickly crawled towards the small opening in a flurry of frills, lace and ringlets. No doubt the seat of his frilly bloomers was in full view to anyone looking in the window but he didn’t care. He just wanted to be out of there.
He stepped out onto the floor of the shop and almost fell forward when he tried to stand in the high heels. He pulled off the wig and staggered towards a chair. He sat down there and unbuckled the pink shoes and pulled them off. He wriggled his feet to get the blood flow moving again.
“Who did this to you?” Mrs Lindsay asked as the astonished ladies looked on. Steven looked up and fluttered his eyelashes. He wasn’t sure if he could simply pull them off or not so he just continued to flutter them. “Shall I phone the police?” “No!” he held up his white-gloved hand desperately. “Don’t. Please phone my mother.” The ladies looked at each other on hearing the boy’s voice.
Steven peeled off the lacey gloves and wrote the number out for her. “And please ask her to bring some clothes.” He looked down at his pink dress and petticoats. Mrs Lindsay phoned and his mother answered. The shop owner wasn’t sure what to say.
“Could you please come down to my shop. There is a …. situation … with …” she looked to Steven for his name and repeated it down the line. He could hear “Situation? What do you mean?” Mrs Lindsay didn’t know how to explain it. “Perhaps it’s best if you just come down here quickly. He is fine”, she added hurriedly, “just come quickly.” Steven interjected desperately “and bring some clo…” but he could hear that his mother had already hung up. He sighed heavily looking down at his frilly dress. He still wasn’t sure if he was wearing tights or stockings just that they were pink and white.
His mother appeared quite quickly. She walked in the door and stopped suddenly seeing her son in a pink frilly dress. “What’s this?!” “Somebody locked the poor boy in my shop window dressed like this”, Mrs Lindsay explained. “What? Why would anyone do that?!” Steven looked at the floor glumly. “Well?” “It was Sally Foster”, he said frowning. “And why would she do that?” He sighed heavily. “I suppose it was because I pulled her skirt up last week in front of all the boys.” His mother was going to hear about it now anyway so he might as well admit it.
“You what?!” He sighed again trying to look suitably remorseful. “I don’t believe it. Well you deserved it then!” She told him firmly. He frowned, hurt that his mother would take their side but what could he expect – women stuck together.
“And did the school not do anything about it?” she persisted. He shrugged. “She didn’t report it.” “Well, she should have”, his mother insisted. “And you should have been suspended for a week.” He couldn’t disagree with her. The school was cracking down on that sort of thing these days and the punishment was clearly set out. Obviously Sally had decided to get her own form of justice he realised looking down at his pretty dress.
“Well, I’m going to suspend you for the rest of the week”, she informed him. He looked up wondering what she meant. She looked at the two lady customers who were still looking on, still in shock. “We were going to buy him – the doll”, Mrs Giles told her, proffering the five pound note in evidence. “That’s when Mrs Lindsay discovered him. I wanted to buy … the doll for my daughter who has a big collection of dolls like this. Mostly for display – not for playing with.”
“Well I think you should still buy him and he should be displayed among your daughter’s dolls for the rest of the week”, his mother responded. Steven’s jaw dropped. She couldn’t be serious. The ladies were equally surprised and unsure what to do. “Mrs Lindsay, could you take the lady’s money and give her a receipt.” She turned to Steven, picked up the wig and replaced it on his head.
“Mum! Please!” A stunned Mrs Lindsay did what she was told and returned with a receipt for five pounds. Steven’s mother was strapping the pink high heeled t-bar shoes onto his feet again. “Mum, please no!” he begged as she tugged him by the arm and he stumbled in the high heels. “I shall deliver your doll to you presently.” Mrs Giles wrote out her address more out of curiosity than anything. Steven was pulled out the door in his frilly doll’s outfit still pleading.