Premium Repair Service

“Oh, excuse me, ma’am, I…”

“Don’t mind her, she’s just a dummy.”

“Mr. Tomalson, I usually don’t make house calls but you are a premium customer.” The service man look at the naked mannequin standing on the Mannequin Disk 2000. Its hands were on its hips and one legs was posed with its knee forward. It was very life-like because it was probably the subject of the device’s last successful use. He was here to service the Disk. “Um, I can’t really service the Disk with her standing on it.”

“So? Move her.”

“She’s naked.”

“She’s plastic. Surly someone like you has encountered hundreds of mannequins before.”

“Most people clear off the Disk before I arrive.”

“Well, I’m not most people. Besides, she’ll enjoy being manhandled. Grope her tits and ass and I’ll throw in an extra fifty.”

“Um, that wouldn’t be very professional. What if people found out I was being indecent with my customers’ goods?”

“I’ll keep it secret. She won’t mind at all. Having heard this conversation, she’s more likely to do something vindictive to you now if don’t fondle the dummy.”

“As you say, Sir.” He grabbed the mannequin without regard to where he grabbed it. “Where should I put it?”

“If it will take you more than today to fix the machine, I’d rather you put her away in that closet.”

“The closet?”

“Yes.”

With a shrug, the man put the mannequin in the walk-in closet. He tried not to be surprised when he found five other mannequins standing in the walk-in closet. One seemed dressed for a gala or cotillion. Another wore lingerie. The third was dressed to visit a country club or attend a spring luncheon fundraiser. The rest were unclothed just like the sixth one he had just delivered to the closet. He noticed they were attached to mannequin stands and there were a few unused doll stands in the walk-in closet as well. He put the naked mannequin on one of the empty stands.

“Now, you know.” The homeowner said as the repair man stepped out of the closet.

“Not my business, Sir.”

“It could be.”

“What could be?”

“The mannequins in that closet are all very dear to me. And as long as the Disk doesn’t work, I have no choice but to leave them in the state they are in.”

“You could bring them to my shop. We could restore them easily.”

“You misunderstand. I have no choice but to leave them in the state they’re in. Otherwise, I’d have eight women to keep happy at once.”

“There’s only six mannequins in the closet.”

“One’s in the pool house. And the last one, my actual wife, will be home in a few hours. If she doesn’t get a turn as a mannequin there will be hell to pay. And if I have hell to pay, imagine what you’ll have.”

“I’ll get the Disk fixed before she returns.”

“That isn’t strictly necessary. You could easily pad your bill saying you need a part and returning in a couple days.”

“You said something about hell.”

“Claudia has her own Mannequin Disk 1000 in her bedroom. She just feels she shouldn’t have to use the previous model given how rich we are.”

“So, those women in the closet.”

“There are no women in the closet.”

“Those mannequins in the closet. You really don’t need me to restore them. You just choose not to.”

“Claudia would want to kill anyone finding out she has an older model anything that she uses. Shallow, I know. I’m not allowed to tell these other ladies she has it.”

“Your wife knows about the other mannequins?”

The man sighed. “My wife and I have an arrangement. She likes to spend extended periods of time as a mannequin. I find not having a significant other for extended periods of time off putting. After the first couple months she was using the mannequin disk, she capitulated. She told me when she’s a mannequin, she’s not a person and thus not anyone’s wife. That means I’m not married and I can do as I please. But, when she is my wife, I’m not allowed to have a mistress.”

The repairman’s face lit up. “And when these women are mannequins, they aren’t your mistresses.”

“Exactly.”

“How did you find eight women willing to spend so much time not being your lover?”

“Wealth.”

“That’s what I would have thought even if you’d said something else.”

“Great. We understand each other. Or at least you understand me. So, how long can you make it take to fix this?”

“Are you sure you want me to take my time? What if your wife comes home and sets the other disk for a month?”

“True. I had promised myself I wouldn’t add a fourth mannequin to my collection and I now have seven. Well, first, you should look at the broken disk and see how long the repair will take.”

“I could do that. Or we could step into the hallway so I give you another option.”

“The hallway?”

“You might not want these mannequins to know what I’m going to say.”

“I’m already more interested.” They stepped into the hallway.

The repairman said, “I’d like to tell you about an experimental model sitting outside in my truck.”

“Experimental how?”

“Well, it is a pre-release model so I’m sure your wife will like that.”

“She will. But if I give her that, I don’t think she would let me use the 2000 model on my mannequins.”

“You could tell them you bought it as a back up. You never really had an issue here. But, I would emphasize the word experimental to set expectations for your wife. There could be bugs, for example. What if your wife used the new disk and there was a glitch that caused her to be stuck for like eight months?”

“Mannequin Disk would sell a product with a bug like that?”

“Well, no, they don’t want the prototype I have sold to the general public.”

“Intriguing but not really helpful.”

“No? Does Mrs. Tomalson associate herself with the general public?”

A smile broadened across Mr. Tomalson’s face. “You do understand me.”

“I would never presume.”

“How much?”

“I have two prices in mind. The prototype has a DNA scanner. Now, you might not think that matters. But with it, it can be programmed to react to specific people standing on it. I could make the prototype glitch the first time it’s used and that wouldn’t cost you much. Or, if I had a strand of your wife’s hair, perhaps from a brush that happened to be sitting on that vanity I saw in the bedroom, I could make it glitch whenever she uses it or randomly only when she uses it.”

“I suspect I’m going to be paying more than I originally thought.”

“I’ll waive the fifty dollars you offered for manhandling that first mannequin if you go with the second option. Are you interested in the second option?”

“Let me get my checkbook.”

“No, no,” the repairman said. He took out his phone and tapped out some text. He showed the phone to his client. “Transfer that amount into the account shown.”

“You have an account in the Cayman Islands?”

“Over the years, having this account has been necessary in order to provide Premium Repair Service.”

“Go get the prototype. The money will be there before you return to this bedroom.”

The repairman had returned to the bedroom and put the prototype down where the wife’s Mannequin Disk had been. Receipt of the payment was confirmed. Mr. Tomalson handed the man a brush with hairs on it. The repairman placed the hairs on the prototype and entered a bunch of codes into the machine via a keyboard he attached to an expansion port. A few minutes later he said, “How long should she be locked out when she uses it?”

“Can it be random? Like between three and six months each time? I don’t want to her to figure out the lockout is always the same duration.”

“Does it ever work correctly?”

“Maybe thirty percent of the time. But not the first time, of course.”

“Sure, give me a bit.”

An alert sounded on the home owner’s phone.

“She’s home.”

“Perfect.” The repairman put the keyboard in his workbag and said loudly, “I’ll test the machine myself.” He stepped onto the machine and tapped the control button. He turned into a mannequin.

“Claudia, in here,” her husband called as he heard her on the stairs.

“What is it?” She said. “Who’s that?”

“This is the man from Premium Repair Services to fix the Mannequin Disk.”

“Is he done? I guess it worked on him.”

“He didn’t repair the MD 2000.”

“Send him away, then. I won’t use the 1000.”

“No, no. Look at the disk he’s on. It’s an advanced prototype of the next model.”

“Advanced prototype?”

“No one has one of these. It’s the only prototype of the next model in this country, he said.”

The mannequin on the disk shimmered and turned back into a person. “Good day, Ma’am. Yes, these won’t be available for at least another six months according to the marketing info I was given.”

“And we can buy it?”

“Mr. Tomalson already transferred the payment to my account. Premium Repair Service has its perks.”

“Can I try it?”

“Sure. The interface is just like the 2000 series model.” He held out his hand to help her step onto the disk.

“That says five minutes, right?”

“That was the time I just spent doing the demonstration test.”

“Okay.” She tapped the activation button. She felt the normal transition from living being to mannequin.

The repairman took a photo of the control display. He picked up the 2000 model and motioned for her husband to follow him out. He made a show of saying, “Let me just take this 2000 model back to my shop. Will you want to keep it or should I just resell it for you once it’s fixed?”

“I’ll let you know.” The man said, following the repairman out of the room.

When they were heading down the stairs, the man of the house said, “What did you photograph?”

“Look.”

The display said: Lockout. Restoration disallowed. There was a five month countdown next to that.

“It worked!”

“It did. If you tried to manually restore her, it would not work until after the date shown.”

“What if she were placed on the 1000 or 2000 model?”

“The lockout is coded into the conversion. All Mannequin Disks since the 1000 will tell you she can’t be restored until five months from now. Any prior model will say it doesn’t know how to restore her at all.”

The homeowner laughed. “Can I pour you a drink?”

“Sure, I’m off duty as of now.”

“I think I need to spend an hour out of the bedroom.”

“That would be wise. When you see her still a mannequin, it would be easy to assume after the five minute test, she set it for some other duration.”

“Exactly. Cheers.”

They drank.

“That whiskey was more expensive than I care to guess,” the repairman said. He finish he tumbler.

“It’s a good day. Why not splurge?” The man finished his drink. “Why do they have such a feature in those products?”

“As I understand it, for people like you. There are all sorts of menus only found in those Disks only accessible from the developer firmware.”

“She’s really stuck that long? You could have set it for ten years and there’d be nothing to do about it.”

“Well, no, anyone who purchased my Platinum Repair Service could have her restored at any time, no additional fee. They made sure it was reversible, with effort.”

“How much is the up charge from Premium to Platinum?”

“Let me show a figure on my phone. The same Cayman account is always ready for a payment.”