The Fitting Room

         
      Tei-Tei has a queer fondness for red stuff.She goes for anything that accentuates crimson in her belongings and clothings. Even shoes for that  matter, or belts,or cellphones. Perhaps she is
such a vibrant and passionate lady that she aspires for a redded closet.
      One warm afternoon,a close friend tipped her about a newly opened boutique in Bangkok.The friend claimed the store offered numerous choices of red painted dresses, blousesand accesories.
      Tei-Tei couldn't contain her excitement.She's been tired of
common fashion stores in their town and the store her close pal suggested truly caught her interest.
      So without delaying any time, Tei-Tei headed straight to "EKANS BOUTIQUE".
      
      
      

      "I am Madame Eskire," the Boutique manager was cordially introducing herself."What type of item are you looking for?".
      Tei-Tei lay aside her leather bag and gasped for a few,
short breaths. "Honestly, your place is quite hard to find..."
      The manager chuckled a bit. "Come, I'll show you around."
      Tei-Tei welcomed the friendly invite.She removed her straw hat and fixed her kerchief.
      "I'd like to check your new kerchiefs...and possibly a couple of dresses later." Tei-Tei made a slow demand and flashed the Manager a faint smile.
      "Sure...try this on."
       Tei-Tei was mesmerized."How did you know I adore RED?".
       The manager scowled, and showed mild irritation." From the
gut, I guess."
       Tei-Tei went inside the third partition of the linear fitting room. She began to don the red kerchief.
      
 
                Suddenly, there was an abrupt shriek heard from the vicinity of the boutique. Then a very long wail followed suit.
       Madame Eskire has just pushed the button from the third fitting room. Her half-snake and half-man son would not starve for
the next several weeks. Tei-Tei was a good enough meal for him.
       Her scaly son has been pining for a white-skinned woman with
a red kerchief. The last time he scored a big meal was the moment a
third-year Dentistry student from Bangkok stepped into the third fitting room. The severed woman was wearing a striped, red kerchief.
Her meat was not like anything that the son had ever tasted. And from that instance, he framed a theory that any woman with a red kerchief on would make a great, indefinable meal.
    
     The next day, Shamira dropped by EKANS BOUTIQUE. Undaunted
and weary, she asked quizzically if Madame Eskire had met Tei-Tei.
     "She said she'd return immediately to her house and we're gonna
try all the items she bought from here.We are to attend a party later tonight." She narrated in a fast-paced, sing song manner.
     "No, she never went here." Madame Eskire jolted, examing the
an ID picture of Tei-Tei.
     "Are you sure? Where would I look for her now? Don't you know
she's an only child?" Shamira drank her power drink in a quirky and
panicky mode."I shouldn't have sent her here. Her mother would call the police and file charges against me."
     Madame Eskire elbowed forward. "I'll tell you a good idea. Why
not fit a dress you like in the fitting room over there. You can have the shoes or the slacks. Choose antything appropriate." She winked.
     "That would be a good idea. So I can take my mind off this mess."
      Shamira got in the third fitting room to the left wing of the
counter.
      "Now my son, you can hibernate for months." Madame Shamira
chortled to herself.
     


     "
    

Dolly Mia

The day I turned 18, I could never get over the euphoria of neighbors, senior high school

friends, and co workers of my beloved mom and dad, who took the time out to celebrate

with me. No, I didn't have an extravagant debut party for I was, by nature, a very simple

person who was content with the bare essentials in life.

The DOLL HOUSE at our backyard was actually, believe it or not, the venue for my

18th birthday. Yes, I had the privilege of owning a life-sized doll house that could raise the eye-

brows of the affluent parents of a rich kid in Beverly Hills.

My family wasn't materially preoccupied.Rather, my parents were true blue Christians

who raised me and my brother in upheld values. In the neighborhood circuit in ITALY, our

family was known as "the family that prays together,thus, stays together."

The subsequent title made us all proud, especially my dearly devoted mom who was

sometimes self-righteous. Once, my brother called her "Hypocrite and fanatic." and he got grounded for weeks.

Well, to begin with, I once cherished a DOLL that resided in the Doll House. And I

christened her MIA.

How did I come upon Mia? Well, I spotted the creature at a doll show in Milan. There

were numerous dolls on display at the show and they came as far as Greenland. It was sort

of an exhibition of the "the most authentic, ingenious, and glamorous dolls of the planet." The

top prize I could not vividly recall,though my mom told me it was close to half a million dollars.

MIA, by the way, was a doll package from Russia. She wasn't the least bit attractive but she carried an irresistible aura that I could not withhold. Therefore, I got her and bought her.

She wasn't that costly. At that particular time, she was the only one I could afford.

I had MIA when I was five. She used to be my pet doll and showered her with all

the attention I could muster.But soon, I 'd grown tired of her constant presence and decided

to buy other dolls-newer,fresher, and lovelier. That's when all the trouble crept up, I guess.

I never thought of Mia again after I had new dolls. I had set her aside and even forgot

where I kept her for the meantime because I was darn too busy with my more precious dolls.

That's when the bigger trouble built up. In fact, it grew into a RAGE, an uncontained rage that

went on, simmering here and there,at the Doll House.

On the eve of my 18th birthday, the pent up rage metamorphosed into a

concrete being-rushing, enveloping, and spreading into the privacy of my quarters.

After the guests had left, and my mother had cleaned the clutter in the

doll house, and my brother had gone out with his equally sick and wacko buddies,

I SAW AN IMAGE in the staircase. It was an image that caused the plate of cheesecake

to slip away from my firm grip. And I had blood all over my feet because of the shattered porcelain.

"ISABELLA, darling, are you gonna sleep in your doll house so we can lock

up the living room for now?", my dad queried in a cordial manner from over his window on

the second floor of our main house. He waved at me momentarily and let go in a few

seconds.

'Yes, Daddy!" I half-wailed and half-hummed. "Jonas shall join me later."

"Oh, your brother will sleep over his friend's house, he told me a while ago.",my

dad suggested and slowly closed his window."Good night sweetie pie!".

"Night Daddy..."

I didn't believe in ghost stuff and even if I saw one, I had to touch the thing to be able

to absorb its entity. Otherwise, it was just another product of a weird imagination or as what

my Jonas coined,"a fucked up hallucination".

But some beliefs crumble at certain,odd times particularly when you're a debutant

and preparing for your freshman year of college and mapping out your future together

with your boyfriend.

And why of all why's would a mad creature in a box appear before me at hand, as if

ready to condemn me and pounce on me any minute?

What, in nature's name, did she want?

WHAT DID SHE WANT FROM ME?

Why stare at me with dead eyes which seemed to originate from a graveyard?

"ISABELLA...ISABELLA...why...why did you leave me?" The abandoned doll in the brown

box pursued me unrelentlessly down the stairs.

I stepped back in a quirky way, evading her every gaze.

And boy, where did her voice come from? It reverberated like a whirlpool of cold

whispers.

"I'm sorry,but I don't know you. I never knew you."

"MIA...have you forgotten? I was your favorite doll.We were like sisters."she pleaded

mercifully.

"I've had so many dolls before...you were one among them...I'm sorry I can't recall."

Isabella was now losing her confident manner and about to relapse from the unexpected

encounter with a talking doll. She must have gulped too much punch during her party.

"Isabella, why did you throw me away?"

The life-size doll came forward, urging to touch a hem of my purple dress.

"Stay away from me, you freak! Tomorrow, when this is all over, I'm going to laugh

at myself for this stupid mistake!" I sliced my words in a commanding way.

"Of course, you won't do that. You won't wake up. You shall join me in my misery."

Mia unruffled a cloth that contained a wide and long ROPE.

I was left in total wonder and didn't know if I wanted to prick her wax hands first

or her legs. "Stop your drama and let me sleep now. Have some respect please, it's

my birthday..."

Mia tightened the rope and lurched further toward me."It shall also be your last...

let's make your 18th year memorable Isabella."

"You dumb jerk!" I belched and moments later, I began to choke and felt the

real immersion of the rope on my whole being. My neck was about to rip off.

"See Isabella, I told you it's real. Next time when you buy a toy, don't throw it like

trash. It deserves better than that." Mia knelt before me and caressed my weeping

face.

And that scene, dear readers, was the end of her. Before I forget, I am

now writing this memento of a dire event. We exchanged a deal. I'd let her live but

she would get stuck in a living doll.Nobody would know where she went.

And I became the new ISABELLA.

ORPHAN Afterthoughts

"Who was Jessica?" Esther lovingly asks Kate, one lazy afternoon."And why does Max talk about her all the time?"
Kate,caught off guard, balks at the unassuming query, and then finally decides to spill details surrounding it."She was my undelivered baby.Sad to say I had a miscarriage.So the doctor had to get rid of her..." Kate recalls in a half-melancholy and half-stressful way."But I believe she's in heaven now."
Esther, unsatisfied,digs for more dirty secrets in the family and brings out sensitive matters including the past womanizing of Kate's husband.
"HOW DARE YOU!"Kate spits.
"And what about your past drinking habits?". Esther insinuates mockingly.
This war-torn situation between the adoptive parent and the adopted-child is just one of the highlights of the highly-acclaimed thriller,"ORPHAN."The story revolves around two desperate parents who seek to adopt a surrogate ,youngest child to complete the family set-up. It is really Kate who can't get over her previous miscarriage-and constantly blames herself for it. She has neverending nighmares and paranoia about the accidental loss,thus,inflicting pain and guilt on her husband as well.
One fateful morning, the duo go to a private orphanage within the neighborhood, and unfortunately picks ESTHER. At first, the head nun, is unsure of what to say.Later on, she nods to the decision, proudly proclaiming: 'Esther is very advanced for her age. Very mature," then she pauses,"the only thing we can't make her undo is the tight collar around her neck. And she always wears long-sleeves...".
Toward the end of the movie,the audience is appalled to discover that the cover-up in Esther's mode of dressing is actually the evidences of her slash-wrists,slash-neck habitual ,suicidal attacks.
John,Kate's adoring and trustful husband innocently defends Esther before her already traumatized wife,Kate. The wife seemingly belives that there's something clearly wrong with Esther. "Look,"she invites,"these are the notes on children who kill. They're superficially charming, they're manipulative, and they have difficulty making friends!".
But the husband is stern."Oh,Esther is just a child.Leave her be!'.
In the climax of the movie,Esther screams at John."I AM NOT A CHILD! STOP TALKING TO ME LIKE A CHILD!".Deep in her privacy,she relishes on John's naked body and sexually fantacizes on her adoptive dad.
In the truest sense of the word, Esther is indeed, no longer a child. She's a midget or a self-proclaimed dwarf. Somehow her growth or stature is abnormal. She can't grow taller than a ten-year-old child. Born in 1973, she's 33 years old and a grown-up woman. These are facts from Searne, a mental hospital in Europe. Esther in an orphanage is just a camoflage. She is deranged and dangerous when freed! Somebody has to get help. Otherwise, the children, Max and her brother, will burn down and die unmercilessly on Esther's hands.
QUICK! And Kate outpaces her steps as she drives randomly toward their house,only to find her dead husband, lying in a pool of his own blood."OH JOHN!".
But where is Max? Where is her angel of a daughter-mute and deaf Max-is she still alive?
"LEAVE HER ALONE!" she bewails and runs after Esther like every dutiful mommy.
In the end, when Esther is almost drowning in a snow-laden lake, she gently prods her adoptive mother."Please mommy,don't let me die..."
Kate, who is now fully aware of Esther's persona, kicks Esther back into the water, "I'M NOT YOUR F__________G MOMMY!".
Now this is a film worthy of its merits,particularly on the term,PARADOX. According to the dictionary, paradox means simply a self-contradictory and false proposition. Furthermore it clings to any person, thing, or situation exhibiting an apparently contradictory nature.
In one scene, Kate patiently tutors Esther on basic piano playing.Esther pretends to commit minor mistakes. But in reality Esther is a genius in piano-playing. Kate becomes a witness to Esther playing a famous Mozart piece in a flawless way.
Kate shrugs,"But you said you couldn't play the piano!".
"I didn't want to hurt you. What with your deaf daughter you can never teach the beauty of sounds ...". What a bitch Esther truly is!