Week 6 Storytelling: The Manikin

It was half way through her high school career and Sally was still being bullied by the queen-bee, Candace. Candace was always putting Sally into situations where everyone in the school would laugh and make fun of her. You see, Candace found joy in her cruelty toward other girls. Sally was tired of it and so she devised a plan to get back at Candace.

Sally knew everyday Candace got bored during her fifth period science class and would take the bathroom pass and roam the halls of the high school to make sure she was still the queen-bee. So one day, after the bell rang to start fifth period, Sally took a manikin, dressed it in a skirt, blouse, sunglasses, and a hat, covered it in extra sticky super glue, and sat it on a bench in the main hallway. Sally then hid in a dark empty classroom with a tiny window on the door so that she could watch.

As she predicted, Candace became increasingly board in class and decided to take the bathroom pass so that she could roam the hallways for the last ten minutes of class. “Miss Walters,” Candace said interrupting, “may I use the restroom?” Miss Walters turned from the chalkboard, grabbed the bathroom pass from her desk, and held it out saying, “Very well, Candace. But hurry up.” Candace leapt from her seat and strutted to the front of the classroom. She ripped the pass from her teacher’s hand and stormed out of the classroom grinning from ear to ear.

Candace was walking along when she noticed someone sitting on a bench down the main hallway. She did not recognize the person and walked strait towards them, not knowing that it was really the manikin.

“Hey, I’m Candace,” she said, “Are you new here?”

But the manikin said nothing, and Sally lay low, quietly looking through the tiny window in the distance.

“Where are you from?” said Candace.

Sally continued to watch, and the manikin said nothing.

“Well you could at least introduce yourself. Cute bracelet by the way, can I try it on?” Candace said, determined to take the bracelet.

Still the manikin said nothing, and Sally continued to lay low.

“It is rude to ignore people!” said Candace, becoming enraged. “Give me the bracelet!”

Sally tried not to giggle, while the manikin still continued to sit there.

“I cannot believe this! If you don’t say something then I am going to rip that bracelet off your wrist!” Candace said, angrily.

The manikin stayed still, and Sally watched excitedly.

“That’s it!” Candace said as she violently grabbed for the bracelet, but she could not remove her hand from the manikin’s wrist, no matter how hard she pulled. But the manikin stayed still, and Sally continued to watch from the window.

“Let go of me, crazy!” Candace yelled. “I will seriously slap you if you don’t let go of me this instance!”

The manikin did nothing, and Sally watched with anticipation.

“That’s it!” and Candace slapped the manikin on the face only to have her other hand glued on as well. “Get off of me you freak! What’s wrong with you?”

Still the manikin said nothing, and Sally tried to hold in her laughter.

As Candace was standing there glued to the manikin, the bell ending fifth period rang and the students began to fill the hallway. They began surrounding Candace, all of them pointing and laughing at her. Sally came out of her hiding spot and joined in the crowd’s laughter. She walked over to the stuck, thrashing Candace and said, “Well, well, well. Looks like you’re in a bit of a pickle there, huh Candace.” Candace immediately whipped around and glared at Sally. Grinning from ear-to-ear, Sally turned from Candace and the continuously laughing crowd and walked to her next class, satisfied with her pay back.  

Super Glue (Wikipedia Commons)

Authors Note. One of the wonderful things about Brer Rabbit is that they are somewhat continuous stories about Brer Fox coming up with elaborate schemes to catch Brer Rabbit and eat him. In The Wonderful Tar-Baby Story Brer Fox makes a person out of tar and then leaves it out on the side of the road where Brer Rabbit finds it and gets stuck in the tar. I kept to the story of getting stuck in something but I changed it so that it would be more of a prank/revenge concept. I also decided that I would not use the incredibly indecipherable language used in the original story.

Bibliography. Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings by Joel Chandler Harris (1881).