Chapter 13 What Happened to the Window Mannequins

In the world of mythology, there is nothing more mischievous than the yellow elf tank Mankai.One afternoon, he was flying over the city, invisible to humans, but he could see everything.He saw a wax beauty standing in the big window of Mr. Froman's department store. The wax lady is beautifully dressed, and in her stiff left hand holds an advertisement that reads: "Great price! This stylish outfit, (imported from Paris) was marked down to $19.98 from $20. " The eye-popping ad attracted a crowd of women who gathered at the window to gaze critically at Miss Wax. Tankmankai chuckled secretly, and there was always mischief in his smile.At this moment, he flew close to Miss Wax, and blew two breaths towards her forehead.

Suddenly, the window mannequin became alive.She was bewildered and startled by the sudden sensation she had had for herself.She still stood there blankly, staring at the woman outside the window, still holding the billboard in her hand. Tank Mankai smiled again and flew away.He should have helped the wax lady out of the troubles that befell her.But this mischievous yellow elf just wanted to make a rare joke, put this unworldly girl in a cruel and heartless world, and let her make a living by herself. Fortunately, it was six o'clock in the evening when the window model realized that she had a life.Before she could gather her thoughts and decide what she should do, a man came to the window and lowered all the curtains so that the curious female customer could no longer see her.

At this time, the clerks, cashiers, store supervisors and accountants all went home. The store was closed for the night, and only the cleaners and scrubbers were cleaning the floors of the business hall. Miss Wa stayed in the window, this small room was her shelter.Beside the window was a small door through which the window-dressers came in and out.At that time, the cleaners did not notice that the wax lady had thrown the billboard on the floor.Sitting on a pile of silk fabrics, she was wondering: who is she? where is itHow did it suddenly become alive? Dear little friend, you must know that despite her beautiful figure and dress, despite her pink cheeks and curly yellow hair, she is very childish, equivalent to a half-hour-old baby.All she knew of the world was the busy street she saw through the window, and all she knew of people was the behavior of the group of women who stood across from the window, comments about the size and style of her clothes.

She had little to think about, and her thoughts were slow.But she decided to do one practical thing, that is, she didn't want to stay in the window and let those women who were not as beautiful as her at all, and whose clothes were not as beautiful as her, judge her. It was past midnight when she made this important decision.The dim light shone on the empty shop, she quietly climbed out from the door next to the window, walked through the long aisle, stopped from time to time, and looked at the gorgeous and fashionable goods with strong curiosity. She went to the glass case full of decorated hats and remembered that she had seen women walking the streets with similar things on their heads.She chose a hat she liked and put it on carefully over her yellow curly hair.I don't want to explain what instinct it was that made her go to a nearby mirror and see if her hat was on right, but she did.The hat was very incongruous with the beautiful dress she was wearing.After all, she is too young to know how to match colors.

She went to the glove department and remembered that she had seen women wearing them too.She pulled a pair off the counter and tried them on her stiff, waxy fingers.However, the glove was too small and she tore it.She tried another pair, and tried several pairs in succession without satisfaction.After several hours, she finally found a pair of pea-green sheepskin gloves and put them on her hands. Then she went to the back of the store and chose a parasol from among a mass of colorful goods. She didn't know the real purpose of this thing, she just saw other girls holding this kind of thing, so she should have one too.

She went to the mirror to examine herself again.She feels her decor is impeccable.To her inexperienced eyes, there was no difference between her and the women who stood outside the window and commented on her.Now, she is trying to leave the store.However, he found that every door was locked. Miss Wax is not in a hurry, she has inherited the spirit of patience from her previous life.For the present she was alive and in beautiful clothes, and all this gave her the greatest joy.So she sat on a wooden bench and waited quietly for the dawn. In the morning, the gatekeeper unlocked the door, and the wax lady passed by his side.Although her body was stiff, she walked towards the street with majestic strides.The poor janitor saw the remarkable Miss Yu leave her window and walk out of the shop, and fainted in fright, almost knocking on the steps.

By the time he regained consciousness, she had turned the corner and disappeared without a trace. Miss Wax judged with her childish mind that since she lived in the world, she would join the ranks of this world and do what other people did.She had no idea that she was any different from those of flesh and blood. Nor did she know that she was the world's first living window mannequin.She also didn't know that her special experience was caused by Tank Mankai's mischievous hobby.This ignorance gave her a self-confidence she didn't deserve. It was still early and she saw only a few people hurrying along the street.Many people walked into restaurants and cafeterias, and she followed their example, walking into a restaurant and sitting down at a casual table.

"Coffee and Hanamaki!" said the lady sitting in another seat. "Coffee and flower rolls!" Miss Wax in the window repeated, and soon, the waiter put these foods in front of her.She had no appetite, of course, and, as far as her body was concerned, it was made almost entirely of wood and needed no food.But she looked at the young lady and saw her put a cup of coffee to her mouth and drink it. The wax lady imitated her too.After a while she was startled to feel a hot liquid run from between her wooden ribs, and the coffee blistered her waxed lips.This annoyed her, and she got up and left the restaurant.Before leaving, she didn't notice the waiter's request to her:

"Twenty cents, ma'am." She didn't mean to default, but she didn't know what "twenty cents" meant. She came out of the restaurant and caught sight of the window decorator in Froman's shop.The man was short-sighted, and when he saw that the lady looked familiar, he raised his hat politely.Miss Wax, too, raised her hat to him, thinking it was the right thing to do.The window decorator hurried away with a look of horror on his face. Then a woman touched her arm and said: "I'm sorry, ma'am, but you have a price tag on the back of your dress."

"Yes, I know," replied Miss Wax stiffly, "the original price was $20, and the current price is $19.98." The woman, startled by her indifference, walks away.Some carriages were standing by the side of the road, and a coachman, seeing the window-model hesitating, saluted her with his hand on his hat. "A carriage, miss?" the coachman asked her. "No," she said to him, misunderstood, "I am wax." "Oh!" he cried, looking her up and down in surprise. "Your morning paper!" cried the newsboy. "You said it was mine?" she asked the newsboy.

"Indeed! Would you like a copy?" "What are they for?" Miss Wax asked inexplicably. "Read Wow! All kinds of news, of course." She shook her head and glanced at the newspaper. "It looks like spots all mixed together," she said. "I'm afraid I won't be able to read them." "Go to school?" the newsboy asked with interest. "No, what is school?" she asked. The newsboy gave her an angry look. "Ah!" he exclaimed, "you're a window mannequin!" and he ran away, looking for a promising client. "I don't know what he means," thought poor Miss Wax. "Am I really different from the rest? I look like them, indeed, I try to imitate their actions, but the newsboy Call me a window mannequin, and act as if I'm queer." The thought annoyed her a little, and she walked on to a corner.There she saw a car parked on the street and people started getting into it.Miss Wax decided to get into the car like everyone else, and sat quietly in a corner. As the car passed several blocks, the conductor came up to her and said: "Please pay the fare!" "What is a fare?" she asked naively. "Your fare!" said the conductor impatiently. She stared at him blankly, trying to understand what he meant. "Hurry up, hurry up!" the conductor yelled, "Get off if you can't pay the fare!" Still not understanding, the conductor grabbed her arm savagely in an attempt to pull her up.But when his hand touched Miss Wax's hard wooden arm, he was startled, and looking down at her face, he saw that the face of the man was made of wax.He yelled in fear, jumped out of the car, and ran away as if he had seen a ghost. At this moment, other passengers also shouted and jumped out of the car for fear of colliding with her.The driver of the car knew something was wrong and fled like the others.Seeing that everyone else had run away, Miss Wa jumped out of the car last and ran towards the speeding car in front of her. She heard screams from all directions, and before she could understand the danger she was in, she was knocked to the ground by a car that dragged her half a block. The car stopped and a policeman pulled Miss Wax out from under the wheels.Her clothes were torn and she was covered in mud.Her left ear was missing, and the left side of her head was sunken, but she got up quickly and looked for her hat.A gentleman had picked up the hat and when the police handed it to her, they noticed a large hole in her head and it had caved in.He was trembling with fright, and his knees were like sifting chaff. "Why, what, miss, you're dead!" he gasped. "What does death mean?" Miss Wax asked. The policeman shivered and wiped the sweat from his forehead. "You're dead!" he replied, moaning. There was a great crowd gathered here, and they looked the young lady up and down in amazement.At this time, a middle-aged gentleman exclaimed: "Hey, she's a wax figure!" "Wax man!" echoed the policeman. "Yes, she is a model in the window." The middle-aged gentleman asserted. "You're right!" "She's a wax figure!" "She's a window mannequin!" chanted the assembled crowd. "Are they right?" the policeman asked Miss Wax sternly. Miss Wax didn't answer, she was stuck.The stares made her embarrassed. Suddenly a bootshiner breaks the silence: "You people are all wrong! Can a window mannequin talk? Can she walk? Can she live?" "Hush!" murmured the policeman. "Look here!" he said, pointing to the hole in Miss Wax's head.The newsboy leaned over to take a look, his face became as white as paper.He whistled, suppressing his trembling. Another policeman came, and the two of them discussed together for a while and decided to take this strange man to the headquarters.They called an express car, helped the injured wax lady into the car, and drove her to the police station.Once at the station, the police locked her in a cell and immediately related the bizarre incident to Inspector Mag. Prosecutor Mag just finished a terrible breakfast and is in a bad mood.After hearing the police's narration, he roared, and casually scolded these unfortunate policemen, saying that they themselves were models in the window, and told some fairy tales to a sane person.At the same time, he implied that they were guilty of alcoholism. The police tried to explain, but Inspector Mag wouldn't listen.They were arguing when Mr. Froman, the owner of the store, burst in. "Prosecutor, I want twelve detectives at once!" he roared. "Why?" Inspector Mag asked. "One of my window models ran away from the store and took with her a $19.98 suit, a $4.23 hat, a $2.19 parasol and a pair of 76 Sheepskin gloves for cents. I'm arresting her!" He took a breath, and the prosecutor stared at him in surprise: "Is everyone crazy?" he asked mockingly and sarcastically. "How can a wax mannequin escape?" "I don't know, but she did. My porter just opened the door this morning when he saw her run out." "Why didn't he stop her?" asked Mag. "He fainted. Since she stole my property and hurt your dignity, I want to arrest her," said the boss. The inspector thought for a moment. "You can't sue her," he said, "because there's no law against window models from stealing." Mr Froman sighed bitterly. "I lost the $19.98 coat, the $4.25 hat and..." "No," Prosecutor Mag stopped him, "the police in this city act with the utmost adroitness to protect our wealthy citizens. We have arrested the wax lady, and she is locked in the 16th cell No. You can go there and have a look, and you'll get your belongings back if you want. But before you sue her for theft, you'd better look up the laws against window models clause." "What I want," said Mr. Froman, "is that $19.98 coat and . . . " "Come with me!" the policeman interrupted his promise, "I'll take you to that cell." However, when they entered Cell No. 16, they found a lifeless window mannequin lying face down on the floor.The wax on her body was chipped and blistered.Her head was badly wounded, and the priced tunic was covered in dust, filth, and mud.Before they could come, the mischievous Tankmankai flew in and blew on poor Miss Wax once more, and her short life was immediately ended. "I guessed it," said Inspector Mag, throwing back his head in his chair with satisfaction, "and I always thought it was a made-up story. If there wasn't a cool head around to keep people sane Well, the world is going crazy. The window mannequins are just wood and wax, that's all." "That's the rule," said the policeman to himself, "but the wax lady was once a living window model!"