Companion
Our front window featured two female mannequins. On the left side, we would dress the mannequin in leather gear and chaps and on the right side, we would dress her in something more befitting a 50’s housewife. We even had those pink slippers with feathers above the toes.
Every so often this deranged madman would stop and talk to the mannequins through the plate glass windows. To the leather goddess he’d scream and shout, “You fucking whore! You dirty, dirty bitch! Fucking bitchpig!” Then he’d turn to the faithful housewife, touch his hands ever so gently to the window and whisper lovingly, “Hello sweetie! I’ve been missing you. Did you miss me? You look sooo beautiful.”
Now, despite the fact that what he was doing was completely weird, we never bothered him or shooed him away. He was completely harmless. Or at least we thought so.
When we changed our mannequins’ clothing, we usually took them out of the window and into the back room because we had to pull their arms and legs off to put the clothes on, and it was cumbersome to leave their limbs lying on the floor while we served customers.
One day, one of my co-workers arrived at work early and decided to change the mannequins in the window while she had the chance. Of course, as fate would have it, lover boy walked past just as she was yanking his fair lady’s arms off.
He went nuts. I mean, he was ALL READY nuts, but he went nuttier. He was even frothing at the mouth. He started throwing himself bodily at the plate glass window, shrieking:
“What are you doing? You fucking animal! Look at what you’ve done to her! Don’t worry baby, I’m coming to save you!”
Terrified, my co-worker tried desperately to put the mannequin’s arms back on. In her hurry, she broke the finger off one of the hands. This, of course, sent our Romeo into a renewed frenzy.
Fortunately, two police officers happened to witness the whole thing and promptly carried Casanova away kicking and screaming.
We never saw him again after that but we still made sure to change our mannequins out of public view – just in case.