All Dolled Up!

Charlie

“Hey,” I said, closing the door behind me and locking it. My excuse, if they were to try to walk in, would be that I was looking for something. “About yesterday night I-”

“It’s alright,” she said. She smiled sweetly. “You might have forgotten, but I had a long period to think about it given I don’t need to sleep. And about what you said - it was all very sweet. And almost comical in a way, when you think about it.” She giggled. “Seeing you talk like that… don’t get me wrong it was frustrating that I couldn’t say anything back to you, but it was like watching you speak to a doorknob.” She then laughed.

I was fine with the small jab at my expense if that meant she felt better. “I’m glad you remembered that I am still aware even when I can’t move.”

“Of course I did,” I said. Thankfully I had avoided embarrassing myself in any way when I had first met her and hadn’t known that she was sentient. If I had still not known about that fact, it was highly likely that I might’ve done or said something that I’d cringe while thinking about for the rest of my days. “Sorry, but there’s still one more night so….”

“I get it,” Charlotte said. “Keep the door locked, I’ll be busy reading anyway. And let me know if you see any little green men walk in.” She winked and got to reading.

“I doubt it,” I said. “And you know what? EMF detectors are definitely garbage, I know that because I saw James bring it near your hallway once even when it was dark out and it didn’t catch anything.”

“What’s an EMF detector?”

“...you know what, it doesn’t matter,” I told her. “I’ll explain what it is later, but it’s a bunch of nonsense.”

As expected, Sam’s crew didn’t find anything at all, except that a camera went off at one point, but that was determined to be because someone left the window open and a cool breeze had wandered in.

Other than that, the night was uneventful. That is, until I heard a snippet of what they were saying at one point while I was sweeping out a section of the floor near where they were working. Now, I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop, but they were talking so loud to the point that it wasn’t possible to not hear what they were saying.

“...nothing’s happening, nothing’s weird about this house, it’s actually kind of normal…”

“...when you think about it, the whole story is so cliché I don’t think that even if we got anything we’d be able to turn it into an episode, I mean a haunted house? People leaving after buying it? I mean, I don’t think Sam should’ve even bothered with this…”

Now, this was music to my ears, because this meant that they would probably not be airing the show, which meant that Charlotte would be fine. I had thought that that would be the most likely outcome, but it was good to see it confirmed. And, I had already gotten what I wanted - those documents about the history of the house.

“...yeah, the only weird thing here is that guy and his doll. I mean, the dude says it’s his sister’s… but did you see how possessive he seemed to be around it? It was kinda creepy in a way, like he didn’t want us even touching it…” The person who said this was Cathy, and she was talking to Peter.

“...really? Yeah, I thought so too honestly… hey, you don’t think that he uses the doll like well…” he made some noises and though I couldn’t see what he was doing, it was easy to infer what kind of action he was mimicking as I heard Cathy laugh.

“I mean, why else would you need a life-sized doll for I guess?” she said. “I can’t imagine he’s much of a chick magnet given how he lives.”

I wished I hadn’t overheard that. It stung my pride quite a bit.

It was true what they said I guess, that eavesdroppers rarely hear anything good about themselves.

Still, regardless of what they thought, it made no difference to me in the long run.

“Well, I guess that’s it and it’s time to pack up,” Sam said as morning broke, and he shook my hand and watched the rest of his crew work on retrieving their equipment and packing up to leave.

“Sorry you didn’t find what you were looking for.”

“Hey, it’s okay, you win some you lose some,” Sam said. “But - if you ever happen to see anything or manage to catch it on a camera or phone, let us know, okay?”

“Sure I will,” I said. “Now, about that payment…”

Sam said it would arrive within a week whether they decided to air this episode or not, though on the flip side even if it was aired I wouldn’t be getting any royalties from it or anything, which was fine with me.

At work, Matt did pester me about whether or not it would be aired or not, and I just told him that I would learn about it later.

Turns out that Sam had ultimately declined to interview him for the potential episode, but I think Matt was hoping that he might get a chance at fifteen minutes of fame if it was aired somehow.

I was told four days later by Sam that they weren’t going to be using it, but it might appear in a ‘deleted scenes’ sort of section they might release later. Whatever, I was sure that even if it had been sent out, it wouldn’t have amounted to anything that would’ve impacted either Charlotte or me. And the money did arrive just like Sam had promised, a day before I got the announcement.

Matt was quite disappointed for at least a week at work when I broke the news to him, and I pretended to be sympathetic rather than reveal how annoyed I was by his behavior.

And so, life moved on, though apparently it wasn’t finished throwing headaches in my general direction.

I knew I was in for another one when my phone began to ring and the caller ID showed ‘Suzy.’

At two in the middle of the night.

Yes, she knew that that was when I was awake, but usually whenever she wanted to talk, it would be around eight in the evening when I was also awake. This meant that unfortunately, this was urgent.

“So, what do you need?” I asked her, exasperated.

“Oh come on, you haven’t even heard what it is yet,” Suzy said.

“Okay, but what do you want?”

“Not even a ‘hello?’”

“Alright then, I’ll bite. Hello, how are you doing?”

“I’m fine, thank you,” she said. “But, there is this one favor I wanted to ask about-”

She couldn’t see it, but I was rolling my eyes.

“As long as it doesn’t involve money, I might be able to help you,” I said.

“Okay, so it doesn’t involve money - I just need a place to crash for a few days.”

“A quick correction - other than a place to crash or money, I can try to help you with things.”

“Come on, don’t be like that.”

“What happened?”

“Well, one of my clients canceled an order at the last moment, and I was also looking for this job, and it also fell through at the last moment. I do have another job lined up, but it’s going to take me time to get even if I clear the interview, and… I have to move out of my apartment at this point for a while ‘cuz I can’t afford the rent right now.”

“Why not move back in with Mom and Dad instead-”

“Well, Dad’s asking me to pay rent if I want to stay with them- can you imagine?”

That surprised me. “I mean, I could understand if he charged me rent, but you…” Then again, when I had been living with them for a while after quitting my old job, my father had let me off of paying rent so long as I did some small things around the house. So, had their ‘golden child’ changed now that we were adults?

“It’s not even about the money - I mean, you know how they acted on July Fourth, right? It got worse when you left - I can’t stand that for any longer than a few hours,” she mumbled. “I don’t want to see their judgmental stares all the time.”

“Yeah, that must’ve been terrible,” I said dryly, remembering how she had thrown me under the bus during lunch to save her own skin.

Despite my sarcasm, in all truth, I would have no real issue having her live with me for a while. We had done the same back when I had just started my first job and she had been in college, and it had worked out for at least a short period of time.

And while I knew that she wouldn’t be paying me rent and I didn’t have the heart to charge her anyway, it wasn’t like I was losing anything. I wasn’t renting any part of the house out as it was, and she would at least pay her fair share and then some based on past experience when it came to food, gas, groceries, and the like.

But there was one glaring issue now - Charlotte was in the house. Granted, this could present the opportunity to tell Suzy about Charlotte’s actual state of existence, but the thing was that I had just invited some other people into the house.

I wasn’t sure how Charlotte would take it if I invited yet another person, and even if I was the sole legal owner of the place I felt like I shouldn’t promise anything without running it by her first.

“Hey - are you still there?” she asked, probably wondering why I had gone silent.

“Well, how are you so sure that I won’t charge you rent though?” I asked.

“Aww, come on, don’t be like that-”

“...I need to think about it a little, I’ll get back to you.”

“What do you need to think about it ? I mean, it’s a ‘yes or no’ sort of thing so what-” she then paused. “Oh, is this about the new girl you’re seeing? Is she living with you? Is that it? Does she really have you wrapped around her finger that much already? I mean, she’s not paying rent or anything to help you out either now then, is she? What happened to ‘bros before hoes?’”

“Look, I’ll get back to you, okay?” I said, and then hung up on her. Honestly, she could be such a handful sometimes, but I also couldn’t stand by and watch her suffer either.

I texted Charlotte about the situation and she almost immediately replied: ‘Sure, let her stay over.’

Again, the issue was that while I could read the words on the screen sent to me, I couldn’t hear her tone of voice or see her facial expression, which would’ve clued me in on whether she was covertly angry or not.

‘Are you sure you don’t have a problem?’ I sent her after a few minutes of deliberating - in the end, it was best just to ask her.

‘Of course - you have to help her, she’s your sister after all.’ she texted back.

And so, I called Suzy back, letting her know that she could stay with us until she got back on her feet.