All Dolled Up!

Charlotte

Although I couldn't see it, I heard Charlie's automobile drive off early in the morning. And when night fell, I was once again able to roam around.

Despite myself, I went to the window to confirm that he was indeed gone. And then I went back again a few more times, as though I thought I couldn’t believe my own lying eyes.

My behavior reminded me of how Charlie would occasionally open up the fridge, see there was no food, and then open it up ten minutes later as if he was expecting a different result. Ah, I could see why he did it now.

What to do now? I had the house to myself - though that was true most days anyway. To the point that I was usually bored, and I would be even more so this weekend given that he was away.

At least I had something else to occupy myself with for the time being. I got on the bicycle he had gotten me and tried it out. After a while it became clear to me that Charlie did have a point when he said that there was nothing to be gained by taking the training wheels off. I was already crashing into walls left and right, and thought I did want the freedom and the ability to say that I could ride it without training wheels... there really did seem to be little point to the whole exercise.

Not to mention that the training wheels did limit its speed in a way that was useful - I didn't want to be sent tumbling over the staircase or out a window. This body could feel pain as well as my old one, and I had never broken a bone before, and while I wished to experience new sensations, that was one that I could easily go ten thousand years without knowing what it felt like firsthand.

Plus, up till now, whenever Charlie had warned me about something - he was usually right about it. The world had been a strange and dangerous place even when I had my old body- and this new world with all of its alien technology and the like was even more bizarre and mystical than the concept of a living doll.

Speaking of Charlie, I saw that he had left me a message saying there was something called 'Boba Tea' left in the fridge.

I had no idea what that was, but I decided to go down to the fridge and opened it - the beverage was in a plastic container like most things were packaged in during these times, rather than the much more elegant glass containers that they for some reason never used.

The drink in question had strange candies floating inside it, and I took a sip. Much like nearly everything I had tasted up till now, it was too sweet. It was not unbearably so, however, and at least it was cold.

However, I couldn't think of it as 'good' either, and I put it back in the fridge. I assumed that it wouldn't spoil too soon, and I took a can of beer instead. I had to be careful though, because as I had learned over a few nights, it was extremely uncomfortable to walk around with a swishing feeling in your stomach due to all the fluid.

My phone vibrated as he had sent over something else - a picture of him and his family at what looked like a party.

Perhaps someone else would've felt envious, but I felt my heart warm up seeing the picture. The clothes were certainly out of date (and the women were showing a scandalous amount of skin) but I could easily imagine this as one of my family gatherings. It was outside instead of in a fancy ballroom, and the house in the distance was much smaller than ours. Though as I had learned over decades firsthand - even if the house was big and fancy, it would just make it feel all the lonelier if there was no one else inside to share it with.

"It looks nice, I hope you have fun.' I texted him this to let him know that while I was alone, I was okay and I wanted him to enjoy what time he had with his family.

What to do now? Well, I had finished all of the stories of Sherlock Holmes, and most of the other books were of the occult that I didn't feel like reading.

I decided to watch a movie. I tried a few of the ones in the 'recommended' section, but I turned many of them off within a few minutes. Sensibilities had really changed since I had been born- there were a lot of... objectionable things in most of the movies, so much so that I moved to the children's section.

There, one thing caught my eye- it was a movie called Home Alone. The synopsis was intriguing, and soon enough I was captivated by the whole thing. The idea of one person - a child no less - defending their home from invaders was one that I could easily get behind. Not to mention that he, much like me, had no physical advantage over the besiegers. He outwitted them at every opportunity, and I was half of a mind to take notes regarding what he was doing so that I might practice them one day... though, I had no real use for them right now given that I had begrudgingly accepted Charles as a temporary resident of the house. Perhaps they might be useful later? Though I have to say, I am not a fan of anything that could cause actual physical injury to people, and much of what he used seemed to fall into that category.

The robbers were never seriously hurt, though on closer inspection it seemed to be entirely because the movie's plot decided so.

Yes... I don't think I could resort to such measures, but that didn't mean that I couldn't get creative. I had done simple things like bending spoons in the middle of the night or stacking chairs on tables, but now there were different ideas that came to mind.

I was so enamored with some of them that I decided to work on some samples - like the idea of a trap that would drop a dummy with a noose around it when someone opened a door. I would imagine that that would be quite distressing.

I was actually about halfway finished when I noticed that the sun was about to rise, and cursing myself for having essentially wasted the night on a project that would go nowhere, I grumpily finished the last of the canned beer before freezing up again.

Charlie

It was time for the main event- the fireworks. Earlier, at our old house, it was possible to see them from our backyard - though we had to make our way through the crowded streets to get a better vantage point from a playground nearby.

I had already told my parents that I would need to leave by midnight if I wanted to go back, get some sleep, and still be awake for my shift the next day- neither of them seemed to be too pleased by it but they understood. Suzy would stay until tomorrow morning, given that she was freelancing for now she could afford to delay returning to work for a bit.

As I watched the spectacle, I couldn't help but wish that Charlotte could see this. I was sure there was going to be a fireworks show back in Pine Grove, but our house was quite a distance from anyone else- I wondered if she could see them from there. Heh... it was odd that I was thinking of it as 'our house' all the time now, but in a way, that was what it was. I might've had the legal rights to the place, but my conscience would not feel right treating it like I owned the place outright and I would at least want to hear Charlotte's opinion before I did anything to the place.

I thought about recording things and sending them to her, but given how dark things were the quality of the footage was awful and it looked like a bunch of barely perceptible sparks going off in the sky. As it was, I realized that nearly half of the people there were recording things, and I figured it was better to live in the moment, so to speak.

The fireworks themselves lasted only about fifteen minutes, and the whole journey to get there and the waiting had taken an hour. One could call it a waste of time, though that would only be in the same way that living was a waste of time. I sipped beers with my father, and my mother had made us sandwiches to take there. Again, though little was said between the four of us, the trip itself was more than worth it.

My dad gave me a pat on the shoulder as I told him I was leaving. That was it, but a look from him told me all that I needed to know- he was wishing me good luck. Suzy hugged me.

"Hey- don't abandon me here with these two. Can't you stay a few more hours?" she asked.

My father chuckled while my mother gave her a disapproving look which quickly faded. "No, I'd love to, but I really need to get my internal rhythm back to how it was before, or I'm not going to be able to handle the night shift. I'll see you guys sometime later though." The last words were directed at my parents, and my mother understood that I would be coming back for the necklace.

Not to mention it would give me a chance to speak to that lady in that shop about the book in private.

"Take care," my mother said. As I was about to drive off, I think I saw her wipe away a single tear.

Charlotte's words echoed, "But even if you found more blood relatives of mine, all they would be are more blood relatives... they wouldn't be family. Not in the true sense of the word."

Yes, even if the DNA kit had not been a total bust, if she had met people she was related to, would they have treated her as my family did each other? Granted, we weren't exactly a picture perfect family, but did something like that ever exist in reality at any point in time on earth?

I could see now why she had seemed the least interested in the concept when I had brought it up to her.