But It Wasn't a Happy Birthday

Not for Sally. 

To the rest of the world walking by, she had everything: feathery eyelashes, luscious lips, a chic hairstyle that flowed seamlessly from generation to generation; shit, she'd been wearing the same style since 1985. 

How many years was that? 

Too many for Sally to count. 

Yeah, stability's nice, Sally thought to herself, and wasn't it kind -- yet also very disturbing -- of the old shopowner to throw her yet another birthday party, a reminder of yet another year behind glass. Another year of the shopowner baking her a cake and putting candles on it and asking her to blow out her candles as if to mock her.

"Blow em out, sweetie! Blow em out!!"

Then he'd laugh, and the frosting from the cake he hadn't quite swallowed yet would sometimes fly in her face.

But today, on this birthday, when that warm, sloppy sugar hit her cheek, Sally finally said to herself, ""This is it. This is the last year I've lived on display. This is the year I'm going to live BEYOND the glass."

And so, Sally made a wish. . . 

Excuse me, ma'am. . . 

And so, Sally made a wish. . . 

Ma'am? Excuse me. . . What are you doing?

Ummm. . . talking.

To whom? The mannequin?

Nooo. That's just silly. I wasn't talking TO the mannequin; I was talking as if I were the mannequin talking if she happened to be talking to herself but inside her own head. I don't know how long you were standing there -- so I don't know how caught up you are on the story -- but the whole thing is inspired by the 1987 retail romance hit, Mannequin, starring Kim Cattrall and Andrew McCarthy, you know, the weasly guy from Weekend at Bernie's.

*silent judgment*

Have you seen it? Not Weekend at Bernie's, I think everyone's seen that. But Mannequin? It's pretty eye-opening. You should check it out. I bet you can get it on Netflix or whatever these days. So what you're seeing here -- again, I don't know how long you've been standing there, so I don't know how caught up you are on the story -- has that whole Mannequin thing going on, but more like an Eat, Pray, Love vibe where the woman finds HERSELF. I'm assuming that was the theme of Eat, Pray, Love, right? I've never seen it, but I kiiinda feel like I'm on this Eat, Pray, Love vibe myself right now. Now Mannequin 2? I've seen that, and uhhh, I just don't have the time to get into that right now.

So yeah. 

Anyways.

​. . . 

And so, Sally made a wish. . . .

That this year she would finally come ALIVE.

​That this year, she'd no longer dress up the way everyone else wanted her to be.