It was about a year ago when the cold November rains started. I was working at a department store in a medium sized city somewhere in the Eastern United States.
On those days, when it was cold and rainy, it always meant few customers. Sometimes none. We’d pass the time getting a headstart on inventory or some other mundane tasks. One day I was asked to dress the mannequin in the side window with the new line of clothes that had just come in.
The side window faced a small parking area that itself was surrounded by trees. It was usually vacant or nearly so and there was just one single door leading from it into the store. Most of the merchandise in that part of the store was lame stuff that few people ever bought. This was a desolate, lonely part of the store that we had started calling “the outskirts.”
I always got a strange feeling in the outskirts and tried not to spend much time there. There was never anyone around over there and it gave me the willy’s. This day was no different. I climbed up in the window with the new outfit next to the mannequin and looked out onto the parking area. Not a car in sight.
The rain slid down the outside of the window blurring my view. I took the hat off the mannequin and tossed it onto a box. I started to remove a necklace that was around the neck of the lone mannequin in the window. It was a female dummy that looked like it had been there for decades, whom everyone called “Claire”, supposedly because she resembled a manager by that name who used to work there.
As I removed the necklace, I stared into Claire’s eyes for no particular reason. Then, taking but a millisecond, I swear the old gal blinked. I was startled but afterwards the eyes looked as fake and still as ever. I put the necklace in the box with the hat and stepped back a bit. Slightly unnerved I softly said out loud “Did you just blink?” There was no reply of course.
I looked over her body taking mental note of the positions of her hands and every detail just in case she moved. After a minute of this I felt ridiculous and chalked the whole thing up to some kind of illusion caused by eye fatigue.
I finished undressing her and put the clothes in the box with the other stuff and picked up the new skirt I was supposed to put on her. Then out of the corner of my eye, I swear I saw the toes on her left foot wiggle. Just a little. I hadn’t been looking directly at them this time so again I thought it had to be an optical illusion.
I got her skirt and shoes on and now all I had to do was slip a sweater over her head and put her arms in the sleeves. Then I could get away from this creepy dummy and away from the outskirts.
I slipped the sweater over her head and put one arm into one of the sleeves. I then got the other one in and straightened the wrinkles out of the garment. I felt a bit of relief. Then just before leaving I gave old Claire one last look into her eyes just to prove to myself that I wasn’t a silly coward. I looked for several seconds without blinking. Nothing.
I was just about to look away, grab the box, and head back to my usual station when Claire blinked again. This time it was undeniable. This was no optical illusion or eye strain.
I was so startled I let out a small “oh”. The hairs on my neck stood on end and goosebumps flared up on my arms. I hurriedly got down out of the window in a panic, grabbed the box, and ran back to where I knew there were fellow employees gathered.
Gina, a short middle aged coworker, saw me coming. “I see you met Claire.” she said.
“Yeah”, I replied not wanting to have to explain.
She smiled and crossed her arms. “Did you see her move? Some of us have seen her move.”
I thought this must be some kind of joke but I nodded.
Gina laughed out loud and said: “Good old Claire. Scares the crap out of everybody. They named her after a manager who worked here about 25 years ago. You’re probably too young to remember but it was all over the news. One day Claire came in for work went over there into the outskirts and just disappeared. Nobody could find her. They searched the whole building and she was just gone. The police talked to her relatives and friends and even they couldn’t find her. I was working here back then and knew her. No one believes me but I know what happened to Claire. You see back then there was no mannequin in the side window. After that day there always was.”