The search for socks

It was Wednesday, and Ms Garlic was talking about old bridges.

“The masonry deteriorates with time, due to icy winters and flood waters,” she said. “Every hundred years they need to be refurbished, or rebuilt which makes it difficult for them to accurately assess just how ancient a bridge is.”

The children of class four tried to listen and not get distracted. Apart from Ondine, who was reading her book.

“Oh no, we’re in homewares!” sighed Cecily.

“We must’ve gone too far” said Lizzy. She glanced around and was startled by a mannequin. “Oh my gosh!” she giggled, “I thought that was a real person.”

It was a real person, called Florence, who looked a lot like a mannequin. She was an alien from Io, the smallest of Jupiter’s largest moons.

“Why is there a mannequin here? Aren’t they for clothes and stuff?”

“She’s probably as lost as we are,” said Cecily.

Florence was not lost. She was a long way from home, but her friend Etta was coming to pick her up as soon as possible.

“Come on, people, we need to find socks for Cecily,” said Georgia.

“We’ve looked everywhere,” said Cecily.

“Maybe they don’t sell socks,” said Lizzy. “Do you think that mannequin is following us?”

“I, what?” said Cecily, baffled by the question. “No, of course not, don’t be silly!”

“Let’s ask someone where the socks are,” Georgia decided.

They walked for a while, hoping to find a sales person, but there was nobody around. It was like being in a maze, the shelves and rails of clothing were too tall to see over.

Florence made a move as soon as they were out of sight. She needed to get into position before Etta arrived.

“We might never find our way out,” cried Georgia.

“Let’s retrace our steps,” Cecily said in a soothing voice.

Lizzy searched for a sales person to ask for directions. She thought she saw one but it was just a mannequin. She looked twice. Was it the same mannequin?

“I’ve found them!” called Georgia, waving a pair of socks above her head. “How we missed this magnificent display of socks, I’ll never know.”

“That mannequin has followed us all the way over here,” hissed Lizzy, pointing at Florence.

“What?” Georgia whispered, laughing. “It must be a different one. Maybe they’re all dressed the same.”

“I don’t know about that,” said Lizzy, staring at Florence, who was keeping perfectly still. She was very good at that. Her exoskeleton looked wooden, which made it easy to remain motionless. It was also why the shop assistants had mistaken her for a mannequin and brought her in here in the first place .

Lizzy eyed the mannequin with fascination as Cecily paid for the socks.

“Maybe she’s running away,” she whispered to Georgia, delighted by this idea.

“What? No, I bet they’re just moving her to a different department” said Georgia, unwrapping a vego bar and taking a bite. “You said yourself that she looked out of place over there.”

“Who? Who is moving her? There’s nobody around, ” Lizzy pointed out, not taking no for an answer.

Georgia shrugged.

Lizzy laughed and let go of the idea. She put her arm around Georgia, and they caught up with Cecily.

Florence gave a sigh of relief and hurried towards the exit.

“Are we all ready to go?” asked Cecily, “I think they’re closing.”

“We can’t leave now, the mannequins are alive,” said Georgia, waving her arms around and giggling.

Cecily was reading her receipt, checking she had been given the right change.

“I think we need to hurry if we’re going to catch the bus,” she said.

Lizzy wanted one last look at the migrating mannequin, but couldn’t see Florence anywhere. A chill went down her spine, but she shook it off. They must be rearranging the displays. Someone must’ve moved her. It. Her.

Florence was hurrying towards the exit, hoping that Etta would manage to negotiate the space craft around the debris surrounding the planet. Florence’s space craft had been knocked into the atmosphere by a satellite before it collided with the blade of a wind turbine. She must’ve crash landed on the roof of the department store, because when she woke up some time later she was surrounded by mannequins, and someone had dressed her up in blue jeans and jumper.

As she passed through the front doors, an alarm went off. If she paused it was only for a fraction of a second. She kept on walking. It was a busy street, she needed to find somewhere secluded.

She turned left, and then right, she had no idea where she was going. Around another corner she found a nice little park, surrounded by a fence, with a gate that was locked. This was perfect. She climbed the fence and waited for Etta. Should be any time now.

“I swear it was her!” Lizzy was saying.

“Walking out the front door? How could it be the mannequin if it was walking out the front door?” said Georgia, rolling her eyes.

“We’re going to miss the bus,” said Cecily.

Lizzy was dragging them around corners, trying to catch up to Florence, who she’d seen set the alarm off. She knew there was something odd about that mannequin!

“We’re never going to catch up with her,” said Georgia, “And whether she’s a human being or a living dead mannequin, I think she wants to be left alone.”

They stood still for a minute. Lizzy nodded.

“Come on,” said Cecily.

“Let’s go to Cecily’s house and make popcorn!” said Georgia.

“Maybe it was one of those performance art people, who pretend to be sculptures. They can be really convincing,” suggested Lizzy as they walked to the bus stop.

“Oh, it’s starting to rain!” complained Cecily.

Etta didn’t land the space craft, that would be too dangerous. She hovered above the park, and dropped a very long rope ladder down for Florence to climb up.

“I’m so glad you’re safe,” said Etta, pressing a button. “We’ve been worried about you.”

“Thank you for coming to get me,” said Florence, relaxing into the seat.

“Let’s get out of here,” said Etta.

“Everyone get out your notebooks and answer the questions on page twelve,” said Ms Garlic.

Ondine wondered what it was like to live on Io.