It was a cool October afternoon. MaryAnn walked along the sidewalk with a quick pace. She needed to get to her friends house to let out her dog Tobey. She had been house sitting for the week, and tonight was the last night that she had to let Tobey out to go to the bathroom. MaryAnn walked with the quickness that her little legs allowed. She was short, only about 4' 5". She was also on the heavier size for her height, but she was certainly not FAT. There was a breeze and leaves had just begun to litter the ground. She stopped for a second to catch her breath, meanwhile looking into the window of a downtown furrier. She always wanted fur like her grandmother. However, she knew that they were far outside of her budget. But she did like to look at them.
Inside the furrier a woman shopped around. She was 47 years old, though she looked many years younger. Wrinkle and blemish free, the only hint at her age was her hair which had turned a silver gray with time.
"Anything I can help you with dear?"
"Oh no, I think I'm fine." She was carrying a large heavy blanket. A California king sized golden island fox, lined underneath with white silk. In addition she was carrying a golden island fox fur coat, floor length, and wearing a mink stroller. "Actually darling," she said, "could you take these and box them up? My name is Millie Kay. I'm in your system. Charge the card."
"And the coat you're wearing ma'am?" The little old clerk asked, straining under the furs.
"Oh. No. That's mine. I own it."
"My apologies," the clerk said, scuttling off to finish the purchase.
Millie walked over to the window, looking at the girl outside. "Perfect," she said to herself.
...
Outside, MaryAnn hadn't even noticed the woman inside looking at her. She looked at her watch. I should be moving on. She thought to herself. Tobey needs to go out. After a few blocks the streets changed to suburban sidewalks and storefronts turned to yards. The suburb was expensive, and MaryAnn's friend wasn't even really a friend. It was her boss, and she was offering her some money to watch her Chihuahua. An expensive camaro pulled behind her. It followed her a few blocks before turning off. At the house, MaryAnn opened the door and Tobey came running wagging his little butt in excitement. "Hi, buddy. You hungry?" MaryAnn's friend had left her a note for everyday, telling her what Tobey needed in terms of food and medicine. Today's read:
"Happy Friday! "The last day of house sitting." I hope it wasn't too much trouble. An ounce of soft food and a potty will be fine for my little man. Here is your payment. Buy yourself some dinner." Below was a coupon for 10 dollars off at a McDonald's 4 person meal combo. Cheap bitch, thought MaryAnn. She let the dog out and measured out his food. She let him in, and gave him his food. "Bye buddy," she yelled leaving the house. By that time it had started raining. Figures. She thought.
...
Millie Kay sat in her 1977 camarro. She watched as the "window-girl" exited the house. She waited until the girl was on the street. Then she started the engine.
...
MaryAnn was startled at the engine starting. Just a car. The car pulled up next to her. The window rolled down and a beautiful older woman stuck her head out. "Sorry dear. I didn't mean to scare you."
"It's ok."
"Is there anything I can do for you, need a ride?"
"No thanks."
"Are you sure? It's raining. I feel bad. Where you going?"
Mama, I know you'd kill me. "OK!" The girl opened the door and got in the warm car. "Thank you," she said.
"No problem," the woman responded. "Would you like something to dry your hair?"
"Yes please."
"I saw you walking in the rain, I have a daughter about your age, so I was just drawn to you, you looked like you needed some help. My name is Millie."
"MaryAnn. Nice to meet you."
"A pleasure Mary. Your hair is so pretty."
"Thanks." Mary said blushing. Her hair was the prettiest thing about her everyone said. "So, who is your daughter?"
"Come again?" Asked Millie.
"Your daughter you said, she was 'my age'."
"Oh right. Her name is Amanda, today is actually her birthday. She'll be 26 today."
"Oh, she's a bit older than me then, I'm only 21."
"Ah."
"So, what are you doing out here? You don't look like you live here."
MaryAnn laughed, "No, I don't. I'm taking care of my boss's dog. She didn't pay me anything though, so I couldn't catch an Uber."
"You poor thing. Well I'll take you home... Unless..."
"Unless what?" asked MaryAnn.
"Well, like I said, it's my daughter's birthday, and I have so much to set up for her. If you wanted to, you could stay for a few hours and help me set up... but, only if you wanted to. You could have some cake and party food, I'd even pay you. Say, $200?"
$200 was a hard offer to pass up. Food and drink included. She looked at the time, she should be getting back. "OK. Yeah. That sounds nice." This deal was too good to pass up.
Millie's house was a large mansion in the hills just outside of town. The inside was furnished lavishly with silks and leathers. It looked like a house out of a magazine.
"Wow! Your house is incredible," said MaryAnn.
"You think?" said Millie carrying two boxes? "It's a bit of a mess right now because of the party, but, we call it home." MaryAnn looked around in awe. Lavish colours, expensive furnishings, were everywhere. A moose head hung above a massive fireplace, inside roared a massive fire. "I tell you what, if you could, maybe bring out the
"Yes, oh my goodness. Yes." Reaffirmed MaryAnn.
"I hope you can forgive the mess. With my little princesses party coming up, everything just needed to be perfect."
"Ah the mess is nothing. You should see my apartment." The mess truly was nothing. It was mostly party favors, and considering there was an upcoming party, the amount seemed reasonable.
"Well thank you for saying so dearie."
"Of course. Well, what can I do to help?
"Well, there's a mannequin in the broom closet, get him out, and put him right in the middle of the floor. Thank you so much."
"Right here?" The girl went over to a closet door.
"Yep. You get him out, I'll be right back."
The woman walked around a corner headed up a flight of stairs into a dark hallway. Doors were on either side of the hallway. She opened the first one to a specially designed closet. It was special because it was temperature controlled so as to keep the furs inside in pristine condition. There were dozens of furs inside in the form of coats, hats, mittens, gloves and blankets; all of them made of the most luxurious and expensive furs.
"Oh babies," the Millie spoke to her furs. "Mommy will be back soon, and we'll have fun. For now though, I only need one of you." The woman reached inside and pushed the furs aside revealing a shirt type garment. The outside was sheared mink, but the inside was the softest chinchilla imaginable. The shirt also came with a dress that was also mink and lined inside with chinchilla. "Ah, there we are," she said, "You are coming with me." After taking the garments out she closed and locked the fur closet.
She put the garments on top of her boxes that she got at the furrier. Picking up everything she took the pile of stuff and continued down the hallway to the end. There on the left was a pink door with glittery letters spelling out the word p.r.i.n.c.e.s.s on it with a little tiara. The woman opened the door and went inside. The room was well lit with a desk and a lamp and large dresser and a chest of drawers. However, the room was primarily taken up by a huge four poster bed from which hung expensive drapes and pink silk sheets.
Opening the furriers box, she removed a thick heavy golden island fox bedspread. "Oh god," she exclaimed rubbing the blanket on her face, "Amanda will simply adore you." Millie took the blanket out of the box and spread it out on the bed. It was so large that the blanket spilled over the edges of the bed and trailed out onto the ground. Millie smoothed out the blanket and made it even on both sides. "Perfect," she said.
Downstairs, MaryAnn struggled with constructing the mannequin. The arms and legs attached easy enough, but she was still struggling with attaching the head to the neck. Millie Kay rounded the corner at the bottom of the stairs. She was carrying what looked like a furry shirt as well as one of the boxes she took in from the car. She placed both on the table.
"I'm so sorry Miss. Millie. I tried to put the mannequin together. I just couldn't figure out how to put the head on."
"That's ok. Here help me with this." Millie opened her box revealing a floor length golden island fox fur coat. The women pulled the mannequin's arms behind it, and slipped the coat on.
"Wow!" exclaimed MaryAnn, "that's one heck of a coat." Millie smoothed out the shoulders of the coat saying, "isn't it? I hope she likes it."
"So what else do you need for me to do?"
"Actually, we need to prepare one other gift. But I'll need your help with that."
"Alright. What is it?"
"Well, It's a bit embarrassing."
"Ok?"
"You see, I bought my daughter this fur outfit, but I'm not sure it'll fit. She's about your size so I was wondering if you would help me see if it fits?"
"No problem."
"Well see, that isn't all. The outfit is meant to be tight so you won't be able to wear your shirt underneath, and fur, it's fragile, and so contact with any fabric could potentially damage it."
