A little before 9 a young woman entered the shop via the side door. Carly wondered who it was she couldn’t tell from the reflection in the mirror. Ashleigh had left after she had finished her coffee. She hadn’t said anything to Carly before going. It was as if she was really a mannequin. She knew that Ashleigh wouldn’t want to do anything that would make her break character so that was understandable, but Rachael hadn’t spoken to her either. Maybe Ashleigh had advised her not to.
None of that told her who this new person was.
“Nice of you to be on time for once Jody,” Rachael said with a sarcastic tone of voice that was lost on the younger woman.
“Sorry boss bus was late.” Came Jody’s reply.
“Well, you made it on time just. You can unlock the front doors.” Rachael told the younger woman who Carly now knew was Jody.
“Will do boss. Is she here?” Jody asked after she had done as she was asked to.
“Is who here?” Rachael knew full well who Jody was talking about.
“You know the woman who is pretending to be a mannequin for the promotion,” Jody said.
“Maybe, maybe not. I can’t say any more than that Jody, I don’t want you giving any hints even by accident to the customers who are taking part in the promotion.” Rachael told her assistant.
“You can trust me boss I won’t tell a soul,” Jody said trying to get the details from her boss.
“Afraid, not Jody. I have some paperwork to finish before I meet with the bank manager again on Monday so I will be in my office if you need me.” Rachael said as she turned to enter her office.
“Ok, boss,” Jody said in reply before taking a look around the shop to see if anything was out of place. She stopped in front of Carly’s group of mannequins, before turning back towards the cash desk and taking her phone out of her pocket.
Carly wished she had been placed next to a clock as after what seemed to her to be hours some customers started to come in. They bought a few things and then they seemed to notice the poster for the promotion.
“You mean that there is a real woman out there pretending to be a mannequin?” The first woman asked.
“Yes, mam. If you can find your next purchase will be on us. After the promotion of course.” Jody told the two women.
“There is no way that anyone could last a full day as a mannequin.” The second woman said.
“How much does it cost to enter the competition.” The first woman asked.
“Nothing of course. All you need to do is have a look at the mannequins without touching them and put the number of who you think it is in the box here. Along with your name and address and we will let you know if you are right.” Jody told the two women switching into saleswoman mode.
Carly from her stand in front of the mirror realized that this was why Rachael had hired her in the first place.
“Ok, then I will bite.” Woman number one said as she led the other woman around the shop to try and locate the false mannequin. They looked carefully at all the other mannequins but ignored Carly’s group. They had decided that they were real mannequins. They took a piece of paper from Jody at the cash desk and wrote something on it and then put it into the box that sat on the cash desk.
This pattern continued and off for hours or that was how it seemed to Carly. She had no way of measuring the passing of time anymore. She was sure that Rachael had positioned her there deliberately. She probably thought that she was doing her a favor by not letting her see a clock, but she really wished she knew what time it was.
“Patience Sister, they will leave soon.”
Again, Carly could not tell where this voice was coming from but certainly sounded the same as it had earlier. Where was it coming from? She looked in the mirror and she could see Jody serving a customer and neither the customer nor Jody seemed to hear the voice.
“Jody, how are things going?” Rachael asked as she came out of her office for a break.
“Well, boss not bad for the first hour we have sold more than we did all of yesterday afternoon,” Jody told Rachael.
“That’s great. It looks like the promotion is working.” Rachael informed her assistant.
“I have had a lot of people ask me if there is really someone out there,” Jody said pointing out towards the shop floor.
“What did you tell them?” Rachael asked.
“I told them there was. I mean there is isn’t there boss?” Jody asked.
“I am still not telling you any more than I already have,” Rachael replied.
“Ok, boss.” The younger woman said looking rather dejected.
Rachael did not like keeping Jody in the dark, but she knew that she was no good at keeping secrets, and even without meaning to she might let Carly’s location slip. It had been almost three hours now since she and Ashleigh had attached her to that stand. She wondered how Carly was doing. Not that she could check without giving the game away. Besides Carly had assured her that she would be fine and would let her know if there was a problem.
