Unboxing Day (Patreon)

I wrote this, this morning when the thought, “Today is boxing day,” a day not really celebrated in the US, popped into my mind unbidden. Happy Boxing Day.

It was late Christmas Eve when Andy went into the garage and used a box cutter to open a large cardboard box that had been taking up a lot of spacefor the past three months. The box must have been thirty inches square and four feet long.

Inside the box was a heavy plastic and fiberglass case surrounded by Styrofoam glued to more strips of cardboard. The entire things was wrapped in a thick layer of bubble wrap. He cut away the outer box and put away the knife before fetching a couple large plastic trash bags. As he pulled the packing material away from the case, it immediately went into the trash bags. He knew if he didn’t do it now, traces of the packaging would end up floating about the garage for weeks. In a small baggie attached to one of the cardboard strips were two small brass keys. In a larger baggie was a packing slip and instructions.

He flipped through the few pages of instructions and saw nothing out of the ordinary. He got up and put the instructions and packing slip in the middle draw of a workbench. The drawer already contained many other sets of instructions and packing slips.

Free of the packaging, the black case inside was about two feet square and three feet long. He cut up the outer cardboard box and put it in the cardboard recycling bin. He took the trash bags out to the garbage cans outside. The case was similar in style to a hard shell case one might find a musical instrument inside. It had seven butterfly twist latches around the perimeter. They were all locked. He had to use the keys in the baggie to open them.

Finally, he lifted the lid. The box was hinged so that it opened fully with the top and bottom flat against the floor. The interior was lined in crushed black velvet. Individually wrapped in plastic and set inside shaped inserts in the velvet were the goods he’d been waiting to assemble.

Along one of the shortedges was a round, heavy, flat, metal disc about eighteen inches in diameter. The topside of the disc was chrome plated and the underside had long, curved, flat rubber strips.Along the edge of the case was a long metal dowel. He removed both and screwed the dowel into the center of the disc and set it down on the floor. He removed a squarish bag that stuck up out of bottom half of the case. The lid had an empty space where this lower abdomen was stored. There was an opening on theunderside of the crotch where it attached to the top of the dowel.

The legs were removed from the case and attached to the lower part of the torso. The upper torso was attached. The arms, hands, and feet followed. Finally he removed the plastic encasing the head. He turned it around a couple times before stopping to admire the face.

“Good morning, Linda. I hope you enjoyed being delivered,” he said. “I’ve cleared a place for you in the living room.” He attached the head to the mannequin and stepped back to admire it for a moment.

He cleaned up the plastic that had been wrapped around the mannequin parts. He closed the case and stood it up in a corner of the garage. He would need to find a better place to keep that. At least the case was smaller than the shipping box.

He separated Linda at the waist and carried her upper halfinto the living room. He set her down on the sofa. He went back to the garage and picked the lower half of the mannequin off the stand and carried them both into the living room.

He lay the mannequin on the sofa. He put the stand next to the Christmas tree that was set in front of a bay window. “What do you think? Here or here?” he asked the torso faced toward him. After moving the stand a few feet closer to the tree and the bay window looking out onto the street, he said,“Yes, closer to the window will give you something to look at during the day.”

He left the stand by the window and the two halves of the mannequin on the sofa as he went to the bedroom to get clothing for the mannequin.

He pulled individual black stockings up the legs of the mannequin. Green patent leather open-toed high heels were buckled onto its feet. He carried the lower half of the mannequin to the stand and attached them.

He removed the arms and head from the upper torso. He hooked a garter belt around the waist of the upper torso and attached it to the lower half already on the display stand. He clasped the stockings to the straps hanging from the belt.

A short-sleeve, v-neck dress of dark green, satin material and lacy trim was placed on the torso. He made sure it was sitting correctly on her before reattaching the arms.

He stood back to look at her again. He moved her a couple inches to the left and stood back again. “Perfect.”

He held the head in his hand and said, “Once I attach your head to the fully assembled and dressed body, the timer on your restoration begins.” He kissed the mannequin head before attaching it to the neck. A faintyellow shimmer of light emitted from the mannequin and faded as quickly as it came. “There you go. Just another six months, Linda. I hope this journey has been everything you’ve dreamed it would be.” He set a soft, triangular hat made of fuzzy green material and trimmed in white, faux fur on her head.

He gave the mannequin one more kiss before turning out the lights and leaving the room.

* * *

“Daddy, Daddy, wake up Santa was here,” Tyler screamed. Tyler was almost five years old.

“He was? How do you know that?” Andy said.

“There are presents by the tree. And one really special one,” Melissa said. She had just turned nine and knew more about Santa than Tyler did.

Andy allowed himself to be dragged into the living room. “See? See all the presents?” Tyler exclaimed. “And look, there’s Mommy.”

“I told you Mommy would be back soon.”

Melissa was already laying claim to her presents and setting them aside from Tyler’s presents.

“Did Santa deliver Mommy too?”

“Yes, Tyler.”

“Why is she a doll?”

“Because that’s what Mommy wanted for Christmas.”

Tyler sat down and was about to open a present when he stopped and gave the mannequin a hug. “Merry Christmas, Mommy.”