Cleaner: Chapter Two - Part Four

DAHLIA 

 

I didn’t open the bag of clothes when I got home from shopping, I left it on the kitchen side and just went about my business as if it were a perfectly normal afternoon. I didn’t think about Melissa or my ridiculous charade with her.

I did some laps in the pool. I watched some TV in the lounge. I heated up one of the ready-cooked meals that Katherine had put in the deep freeze. After dinner I went upstairs to the studio I’d set up next door to the bedroom and sat in the bay window, sketching out an idea I'd had for a new dress design. It had ruffles at the front and a flouncy skirt that dropped only to the mid thigh.

When it was done I looked at it absently and then set it aside, reaching for a clean sheet of paper, and started work on another one. I sketched in the rough outline of the female figure lightly, then worked on the shape of the dress with slightly heavier strokes. A V-neck; quite a simple straight shape ending just below the knee. Short sleeves to the elbow. I went on sketching, filling in the detail; then I paused, looking at it.

The design was very basic; no flair in sight. It was similar to the garment I'd bought in town that afternoon. I hadn’t even realised I was doing it. I gazed at it for a long time, then I curled my lower lip into the gap between my teeth and held it there in my bite.

I blushed a little.

Then very carefully, I went back to working on the drawing, only this time I widened the hips of the figure that was meant to be me. I used the rubber to make alterations. I increased the size of the bust; added a little fold to the stomach. The arms grew thicker, the legs fatter. And as I drew I got that same tingling sensation I'd felt that morning except it was a little sharper now, in the privacy of my own thoughts.

The hair on the sketched figure was full and fair; wavy. I used the pencil to straighten it; to darken it; adding a fringe. Then I drew in black rings over each eye: the glasses.

And then the transformation was complete.

The sketch me had been turned into a duplicate of Melissa, wearing a bloated version of the dress I’d bought.

I pictured it in its bag on the kitchen side and wondered how it would feel to put it on.

Nobody would know if I went down and did it now. I wasn’t expecting any visitors.

But it didn’t... feel right... to do it by myself.

I frowned, feeling very odd and confused.

I got up and walked downstairs; went through into the kitchen. The bag was exactly where I’d left it next to the other purchase I'd made at the big industrial-scale shoe shop on Ockham trading estate.

It would be so easy to pull it out and slip it on. I could put the matching shoes on too and clean up the kitchen. I'd left it in a mess from my evening meal.

But I didn't do it. I left it in there.

Instead I went to the fridge and opened it. Even though I'd known Katherine was shopping for food for me, I’d also stopped into Ockham Tesco to buy enough extras to fill the fridge.

It wasn’t that long since I’d eaten but I felt uncannily peckish. I took out a loaf of bread, the butter, a packet of ham, some rocket, tomatoes and lettuce. Careful to cut straight I sliced two pieces of bread, hesitated, then cut two more.

I stood looking at them, wondering what I was doing, then made up two generous ham sandwiches. Not thinking too deeply about it I poured a pint of Coke from the bottle in the fridge and tipped a bag of salted McCoy’s onto the plate.

Then I took the plate and glass and walked through to the lounge.