As it happened, while Maria’s simmering frustration with her roommate’s inability to even perform basic chores settled with the distractions of trashy gossip magazines and tabloid television, a pair of familiar figures stepped across the threshold of the apartment building entrance. One was a perfect match to Anette Dahl, or at least, to Anette before recent events. No garish acrylic nails. Skin that was of a normal, healthy tone, features that looked pretty, and yet tame.
It was Anette’s twin sister, Janette, and standing beside her, looking roughly two and a half decades older, was a plump, pear-shaped woman of a similar dark hair color, and whose hair was cut in a short bob as opposed to the twins’ preferred braid. Colette, the twins’ mother, was like her daughters; rather plain, though still pretty in her own way, even if she wasn’t as fit and youthful as she once was.
Janette and Colette had arrived that day after several days of confusion and concern. For some reason, the Anette they had known so long and so well had suddenly made them worried. As though…as though she weren’t able to take care of herself. It didn’t make sense, but at the same time, they had a hard time contacting her, never answering her cell phone, and her voice mail message the default generic automated message instead of the personalized message that they had heard so many times before.
Worried for her twin, Janette prodded her mom, and the two decided to pay an in-person visit to check on her. And there they were at the apartment entrance, their confusion no better as, for some reason, they couldn’t remember Anette’s apartment number.
“Are you sure she’s not listed?” Colette asked.
Janette looked again over the building directory. There was no ‘Dahl’ listed among the residents. “I don’t see her anywhere.”
“What about her roommate?” Colette asked. “I think Anette said her name was…hmm…”
Colette’s thoughts wandered as she tried to recall the name of her daughter’s roommate as a hazy ripple of light tinged the atmosphere within the entryway. What was the name of Anette’s roommate again? It…it shouldn’t have been that hard to recall. Right?
As Colette’s confusion over her inability to recall such a simple thing grew, she poked at her lip with a long, acrylic nail painted a garish, glittery sunshine yellow. What was that name again? Dice? Diego? Daniels?
“Ooh!” Janette tapped at the directory, her voice breathy and light as the sparkly, bedazzled sky blue nail that tipped her finger tapped at the glass over the listing. “I like…found it! It’s…um…” She squinted. “Uh…Die-Ayz!”
Colette, despite herself, giggled as her body quaked and the pear-proportions of her hips shifted like toothpaste in a half-empty tube, redistributing with the subtle, ephemeral prods that made her only want to giggle more. And why not giggle? Her daughter could be such a ditz.
“Like, no, Janette! That’s ‘Diaz’!”
Janette turned her gaze to her mother, the amazement as clear in her expression as the imperfections in her features, the odd acne scar here, the faintest crease there, smoothed away into the perfection of a sculpture.. “Ooh! You’re like…so smart, Mom!”
Colette giggled again, this time sharing her silly-minded mirth with her daughter as the deeper, more pronounced wrinkles and creases in her own flesh smoothed away with the effect of a sculptor smoothing and shaping their latest work. The shared giggle led to more giggling, mother and daughter looking happy as could be standing together, the younger with a beautiful, smooth body of porcelain pallor, and the older soon looking equally as delicate, with only the slightest, finest lines to indicate that, yes, she was older, believe it or not.
“Like…uh…” Janette paused in her giggling. “Mom, why’re we here again?”
“Um….” Colette’s eyes crossed in confusion. Why were they there? Her eyes grew crossed at the thought as her simple bob of hair burst with length tha twisted and braided itself into a thick, beautiful brunette rope that tickled the top of a shelf-like ass. The confusion made her ansty putting her on her toes as her simple shoes morphed into sun yellow platform heels, and across from her, her daughter’s sneakers became a similar style, but in baby blue.
The question still in need of an answer, Colette’s eyes grew more crossed as the question continued to bounce around her emptying head. The ill-fitting clothes that no longer suited her reconfigured figure shifted, warped, and merged into a sun-yellow minidress. And then…
“O-Ohhh!” A thought pushed through the pink fog that engulfed Colette’s mind, and she looked at her daughter, who now stood so pretty in her baby-blue minidress. “Um…Anette is here. Remember?”
Janette gasped as a small, baby blue ribbon grew into being atop her head of braided hair. “Uh…ooh!”
Colette giggled in agreement as a similar ribbon crowned her own head. The ribbon grew in size and in step with that of Janette, until both matched the size, if not the color, of the signature pink ribbon worn by a certain family member. Anette was so pretty! But Janette was just as pretty, and Colette was too! And…and…
As their intellects dwindled and their airheaded expressions took on a glassy-eyed vapidity, Colette and Janette stood together, legs and backs straight, busts forward. Not a bit was out of place. Not their dresses, not their hair, not their ribbons. The Dahls simply stood, looking silly and pretty, and as the ripple in the space around them dissipated with a subtle flash, their place in the new reality was sealed.
*****
Maria cooed, her former frustration now placated by her favorite (well, one favorite of many) docu-series about catty, bitchy celebrities on TV, when she heard her apartment buzzer ring. Rolling her eyes, she got up, strutted to the panel, and pressed the ‘Talk” button with the tip of a long, fake nail. “Uh…hello~? This had, like, better be important, cuz you’re interrupting some very important, like, business, n’ stuff.”
“Yeah, yeah…” The voice on the other end spoke with some annoyance. “You’ve got some deliveries in the entrance from the Doll Factory.”
Maria’s simple mind sparked with a sudden new memory. “Ooh! Like, bring them up!”
“Uh…you really should come down here and—”
Maria huffed. “I said. Bring. Them. Up!” She stomped a high-heeled foot in petulant annoyance. “Gawd.”
“All right, all right.” The voice on the other end seemed tired, which Maria took as a sign that they saw things her way. Which was the right way, natch.
*****
Ten minutes later, Maria giggled and jiggled as she strutted laps around her new delivery. Colette and Janette, sent fresh from the Doll Factory, looked so cute and sexy, and they were, like, such a perfect match for Anette! The Dahls stood posed behind the clear plastic windows of their large, pink cardboard boxes. Maria couldn’t wait to, like, unbox them, and pose them, and, and…
Maria giggled. Gawd, her dolls were, like, soooooo pretty!
Mon May 30 18:27:06 2022
2 comments Last updated: Tue May 31 17:43:01 2022