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 Posted: Thu Jan 21, 2010 10:28 am
He hadn't believed it was actually there until he had seen it with his own eyes. Downtown, right on the shore by the lake where the circus usually set up when it was in town, there was a giant dollhouse. There was no way the thing could have been mistaken for a regular house because even if you thought it was normal for a house to have elaborately carved purple eaves, or garish plastic bushes, your disbelief probably didn't suspend above the human-sized dolls lounging on the porch. Mr. and Mrs. Dolly, as they were dubbed in the pamphlet Ford grabbed on the way inside, had flown in from Dubai, and this was their 45th stop on a year long tour of the globe. If he had been a more adventurous lad, Ford might have been jealous.
He stopped right inside the front door, bottlenecked by a group of chattering tourists. At least the alcove provided a mind-numbing amount of crap to look at, with its lime green sequin-studded paint and twin stucco-covered chihuahua statues.
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Posted: Thu Jan 21, 2010 11:03 am
Europa's problem hadn't been believing it, but instead gathering the bravery to go inside. The dolls seemed a lot like the kind people set up around Halloween to jump out at you. She had stood at the bottom of the steps for a long time, simply staring, and then when she finally made it up the bizarre plastic steps she found herself beside what she could only assume was another Sloth spawn.
"...creepy, isn't it?" she asked, peering over heads to see the rest of the house. Being tall had its good points, "I used to have one like this, but much less huge."
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Posted: Thu Jan 21, 2010 11:52 am
Ford nodded, turning his head briefly to look at the girl who now stood beside him before continuing to examine a nearby gingham-covered light switch. She certainly didn't look like one of the tourists who still stood grouped in front of the door, giggling every once and a while as they compared pictures on the tiny screens of their cameras. "Yeah. I mean, not that I had a dollhouse ever, but this is still pretty impressive. Creepy." He nodded. "I wouldn't want to sleep here. Not that I'd be allowed to anyway."
"Hey, um..." he muttered, suddenly addressing the tourists. "Can we get by, thanks?" He inched forward, gathering his wings and tail in closer to his body as he shuffled through the minuscule opening the gigglers provided.
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Posted: Thu Jan 21, 2010 11:57 am
Europa was not so polite. She followed after the boy with her wings still slightly extended and gave an offended huff when a giggler shot her a dirty glance. Screw you, chicky! Get out of her way!
"I wonder if the bathroom works," she said offhandedly, starting up the stairs. That's where doll house bathrooms always were, of course.
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Posted: Thu Jan 21, 2010 12:05 pm
"I didn't see..." Ford trailed after the girl, wondering if in fact it was a good idea to be using the bathroom in a portable house that didn't appear to have a sewage truck stationed outside. Or was she kidding? "Yeah, I wonder." What the hell. Just give in to it. He was supposed to be meeting new people, after all, and this one had spoken to him all by herself.
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Posted: Thu Jan 21, 2010 12:07 pm
The fixtures were all plastic, and there was a huge naked doll propped up on the toilet. Europa blamed pranksters.
"Nope. I guess that makes sense." She trailed out of the room and moved to the bedroom, plopping down on the bed. OW. Hard ******** plastic. Stupid ********, Daddy wouldn't like that she was thinking those words.
"This place is lame."
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Posted: Thu Jan 21, 2010 12:14 pm
"Mm." He nodded. "At least we didn't have to pay." Ford took a seat in a large rocking chair that took up most of one corner. It was just as uncomfortable as he deduced the bed had been, so there was no chance of him falling asleep and waking up hours later without his wallet.
"You'd think something that'd been to Dubai would be more interesting." He scratched at an itchy tail feather and watched as it fluttered to the floor. "Do you know anything better to do around here?"
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Posted: Thu Jan 21, 2010 12:20 pm
Europa just blinked.
"Not really. I only came here to see the house," she shrugged, "I'm sure there's something, though."
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Posted: Thu Jan 21, 2010 12:28 pm
"Yeah, me too." Well, they should get on that then. Ford stood up once more and crossed the room to the closet. Inside, stacked to about waist height, were hundreds of little red bean bags, most likely used for juggling. Several plopped out onto the floor before Ford could get the door closed again. Okay...
He picked one up and tossed it in the air a few times. "I'm going to go check out the rest of this place, at least."
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Posted: Thu Jan 21, 2010 12:33 pm
The bean bags piqued Europa's interest. Why the Hell were they here at all, let along stuffed in a closet?
"Oh, man. I'll go check the kitchen." So down she ran, ignoring all else in the house, to open every single kitchen cabinet and drawer.
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Posted: Thu Jan 21, 2010 12:54 pm
Ford followed more slowly, partially because he wanted to take the back staircase down (seriously, who had a back staircase?) but also so he could spend some time looking at the rooms he passed through on the way.
The first was a second bedroom filled with stuffed animals. A little girl doll sat on the bed, holding a teddy bear in her plastic hands. A smiling soccer mom posed for a picture next to the pair.
Next up was a cramped area containing a bright, non-working washer and dryer made of wood and painted cherry red. Ford found it sort of depressing that even in the Dolly's fantastical world of dog statues and bean bags, they still had to do laundry.
Ford couldn't immediately discern what the last room before the stairs was supposed to be. It boasted a wall covered in what looked like tinfoil, and row upon row of lego chairs, surely the most uncomfortable chairs in the entire house. It was only when a middle-aged balding man pointed at the foil and yelled, "I'M THE KING OF THE WORLD!" did Ford realize it was supposed to be a movie theater. Well, then. He supposed the dolls deserved the black spot of laundry day if it meant they had their own live-in theater.
He jogged down the stairs and entered the kitchen, watching Europa search the joint. "Find anything good?"
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Posted: Thu Jan 21, 2010 1:06 pm
Europa looked disappointed. Most of her haul had been fake food that was glued to the cabinets. She dangled a plastic mouse by the tail.
"Not really. There were some roaches too."
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Posted: Thu Jan 21, 2010 1:49 pm
"There's a fake movie theater upstairs," Ford said. "We could go stare at the foil wall for a while." He shrugged. "You can take this if you want." He held up the bean bag.
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Posted: Thu Jan 21, 2010 1:52 pm
Europa took the beanbag and shrugged, nodding.
"Maybe it'll move."
Doubtful, but still. Why not, right?
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