Ted's Dolls Interlude 6: Winter Break, Part 2

If you haven't read any of the Ted's Dolls stories before, you should start with Ted's Dolls 1: Jane before reading this one. This interlude grew so large it has been divided into two parts.

“You don’t know where she is?” Mrs. Scarborough said.

“No, I’m sorry. I don’t.” Ted said. They were seated in the Scarborough’s living room. Ted had contacted Emily’s parents to ask them what they might know about her magical heritage before Emily had gone missing. He could tell as soon as he arrived that neither of them had a magical lineage.

“Then what brings you here, son,” Emily father said.

“I was hoping you could tell me more about Emily. I’m not sure how to ask this but was she adopted?”

“What?”

“No, she’s our daughter.”

“Why would you ask that?”

“Did Emily ever tell you about magic?”

“You mean those sex dolls?”

“Wait, you’re Ted,” Mrs. Scarborough said. “Brett, he’s the student who makes the dolls.”

“So this is your fault?” Brett Scarborough said. “I warned you about him, Rhonda.”

“What’s my fault?”

“If you hadn’t taught her magic, she wouldn’t have disappeared.”

“I fail to see how that makes any sense.”

“Of course not. Your heathen mind turned away from God a long time ago, I’m sure.” He stood up.

“Brett, stop it.”

“Don’t you side with the Devil, you Jezebel.”

“That’s enough,” Ted said. Brett froze in his tracks as he was about to attack Ted.

“What have done to him?”

“Nothing that will harm him. He’s turning into a doll.”

“I apologize. He usually isn’t like this. I think Emily going missing has affected him more than I thought.”

“Why did he call you a Jezebel?”

“I don’t know.” She knew. Ted could see it on her face.

“If Emily isn’t adopted, why isn’t she Brett’s offspring?”

“What are you accusing me of?”

“That’s not a denial.”

“Get out.”

“You don’t want me to restore Emily’s father.”

“I…”

“Though, I’m guessing Emily’s father isn’t turning into a doll, is he?”

“No. Probably not. He isn’t here.”

“Brett can’t hear us for the next two minutes. If you want to tell me something without him knowing it, speak quickly.”

“I had an affair. We had been trying to have a child for almost a year. When I got pregnant he was so happy. I couldn’t tell him. Though, I guess he suspected and said nothing all this time.”

“I can’t help you with your marital issues. I need to know who Emily’s ancestors are. Give me a name.”

“I can give you an address. She still lives nearby.”

He entered the name and address into his phone. “She?”

“You’ll have to ask her to explain.”

“Brett will turn back to normal sundown tomorrow. I suggest you pleasure yourself with the doll. If you pleasure him enough, it might mellow him out a bit.”

“How do I pleasure a doll?”

“Suck its dick. Fuck its dick. Repeat. I’ll leave you to it.”

* * *

As Ted approached the house, he saw a woman in her forties sitting on a porch swing. She waved at him and patted the seat next to her on the swing.

“You’re Ted?” She said.

“Rhonda called you?”

“Yes. You’re an Ionescu. I’m honored to welcome a member of your house to my home.” It was a formal greeting among wizards.

“I am pleased to accept your welcome, but I know not what house I am entering,” Ted replied, modifying the formal response to the circumstances.

“Oh, forgive me. I am Kate Leskovich of the Leskovich family.”

“I have heard the family name, but again, I am woefully unaware of your calling.”

“Our family has a tradition of transformation. Usually focused of self-modification. Unlike your lineage, we cannot affect others with magic but we can transform ourselves in various ways.”

“You know about Emily Scarborough.”

“Yes. How is my daughter?”

“Can you explain that first?”

“I am always a woman. My body sometimes is not. I was good friends with Rhonda and it pained me that her husband could not get her pregnant. I helped her.”

“Emily awoke about a month ago. She turned herself into a doll.”

“That is an Ionescu specialty. One a Leskovich could easily duplicate in themselves. I could never tell if she had the spark and Rhonda’s husband didn’t like when I was around. He thought I was a witch.”

“Aren’t you?”

“Technically no. But he’s rather fire and brimstone in his piety.”

“I witnessed this. The thing is, Emily has turned other people into dolls.”

“Really?”

“I am aware of several different people she’s transformed into dolls, four of them at nearly the same time.”

“That shouldn’t be possible.”

“I believe she was able to do it because she didn’t know she shouldn’t be able to do it. She’s had no formal training. No one was there telling her repeatedly, ‘You are a Leskovich. You can transform no one but yourself,’ since she was little.”

“You sounded exactly like my Uncle Ernst when I was a child. ‘You can be anything. But you can’t change others.’”

“From my research, the limitations imposed by the families are to protect bloodlines from thinning. A family can be great at creating only fire or merely good at creating fire and ice or merely okay at creating fire, ice, and lightning. By drumming it into young wizards they can’t do something, their subconscious stops them from trying to do anything that would thin the ancestral power.”

“Fascinating. So all this time I could have been able to do what you can do and you could do what I can do except that we were trained to restrain ourselves.”

“Basically. Emily doesn’t know better. So she is able to affect the world in ways her lineage would forbid.”

“And she dilutes the line by doing so.”

“I’m not so sure of that either. For weaker members of a family, this might be a concern. But for strong wizards, these limitations are unnecessary shackles. Emily is very strong. She suffered backlash only once or twice and never again.”

“Incredible. Where is she now?”

“I fear she has been captured by mentalist wizard.”

“No.” For the first time, Kate expressed a lot of emotion, distress. “How?”

“Have you heard of Stockton Perry?”

“Should I have? Is Perry one of the family names?”

“Not at all. Stockton Perry is an investor. A billionaire. He took an interest in Emily’s roommate and my friend Jane. I believe he kidnapped Jane to add her to his collection of unique things. Jane is unique because she is a model for a line of mannequins who enjoys being a mannequin, thanks to me.”

“Emily had turned Jane into a doll before Jane went missing. Being a collector, I believe Perry decided having a wizard who does transformations would be useful to collect as well. He apparently already has a mentalist in his collection.”

“Collection? Do you mean he’s going to leave this Jane girl as a doll forever?”

“Probably. Although if as I suspect he also kidnapped Emily, he probably wants her to turn Jane into a proper mannequin so she is properly represented in his collection.”

“That’s not any better.”

“Especially not for Emily. Who knows what a mentalist would do to her?”

“We’ve got to stop him.”

“I hope to do that. Unfortunately, I don’t know where my friends are, if they’re together or not, or how to find this out.”

“We need a seer. I know a member of the Pauluva family. He’ll help me. Let’s go inside and write down everything you know. I’ll contact Leslie to get him started getting information about Stockton Perry. You should go back to doing whatever you normally do.”

“Why?”

“If this Mr. Perry is a billionaire, it costs him nothing to have your followed. If he finds out you’re talking to various people in various magic families, he’ll know you’re coming for him. The more normal you act, the less guarded he’ll be. And the less you know, the less his mentalist can read from you. The girls were kidnapped on campus, right? So the mentalist has been there.”

“Yes, he has. You are properly cautious. I like that.”

“Can I ask you a question?”

“Sure.”

“Is your grandmother still alive?”

“Yes.”

“And her sister?”

“Still a statue.”

“How did you know I knew?”

“I’m guessing you’re a lot older than I first thought.”

“You would not be wrong.”

Ted opened his phone. “Hello, Nana.

“Yes, Nana. I call more often than Dad. I have a question. Have you ever met Kate Leskovich?

“Yes, she’s still alive. Hold on.” He handed the phone to Kate.

“Gertie? It’s Katerine.

“Yes, Leskovich. Bertrand’s daughter.

“It is so good to hear your voice. Be sure to say hello to Tilly for me...”

* * *

Ted had promised Tilly that he’d see her by year’s end. He thanked Katerine for reminding him. Libby had wanted to see Nana so he brought her along. It was New Year’s Eve and Nana had insisted they stay overnight. In the car, Libby asked Ted, “Why is Paris in so many parts?”

“Don’t you know the song about the twelve days of Christmas?”

“Yes. That’s not what I meant. Why did she have you take her apart?”

“Her friends did that. But why did she have it done to her? She likes being a doll.”

“I don’t think I’d want to be a doll.”

“You play with dolls all the time.”

“Yes. But I’m not the doll.”

“Is Cat ever your doll?”

“Sometimes. It’s a little weird though. I can’t talk about it with my friends. None of them have dolls that are real people.”

“Well, that’s because you come from a magic family.”

“I know. Sometimes I wish we were normal.”

“We are normal.”

“No, we’re a magic family.”

“And I’m sure there’s some word you could put in front of every one of your friend’s family that would make them stand out as different. Being different is normal. Do you know what makes your family really unusual?”

“What?”

“You have a Mom and Dad who haven’t been divorced and remarried creating a blended family. I’m sure you have friends with step-siblings. It’s rather rare and you should appreciate it.”

“I do. I guess. It’s all I know.”

“Just like being from a magic family is all you know. We should ask Nana about this. Her family when she was your age is probably also different from your family.”

“I never thought of that.” Libby was quiet for a moment. “Still doesn’t explain why Paris wants to be a doll.”

“Didn’t say it would. You can ask her in week or so.”

As soon as the car stopped, Libby ran to the farmhouse door. Nana opened it and scooped Libby up as she threw herself into a hug.

“We saw each other less than a week ago, Libby.”

“I know. I just don’t get to run to you. You usually come to my house.”

“You should ask your father to visit me more often.”

“Are you trying to use me to guilt your son?”

“That’s what grandparents do.”

“Okay.”

“Hi, Teddy.”

Teddy hugged and kissed his grandmother. “You look great Nana. Somehow you seemed more frail Christmas Eve. Was that also a performance for Dad.”

“Stop saying all my secrets aloud.”

“I want to say high to Aunt Tilly,” Libby said.

“Go to the garden. Teddy and I will walk at a normal pace.”

“Okay,” Libby said, racing out to the garden.

“You have to start her lessons.”

“So soon?”

“I suspect she’s much farther along mentally than Cat or even you were.”

“Probably. Dad will not be happy.”

“When is you father ever happy when magic is the subject?” She said.

“True.”

“I’ve spoken to Leslie. He confirmed your missing friends are with Stockton Perry and he identified the mentalist who tampered with them.”

“Who?”

“Later. After Libby has gone to bed I’ll give you all the details. He thinks there’s a decent chance Emily will rescue them both without your help.”

“Really?”

“Well, there’s also too high a chance she gets killed doing it. But I don’t want to get into the details while Libby might overhear.”

When they reached the garden statue of Nana’s sister, Libby was saying, “Why don’t you want to be a person? When I’m old enough, I’m going to change you back so you can answer. But I promise to turn you back into a statue if you ask.”

“That’s very mature, Libby,” Ted said.

“I know. Libby, you’re so smart. Libby, you’re so kind. Libby, we can’t fool you with anything, can we? Should I be making more mistakes?”

“No, Libby,” Nana said. “Why would you do that?”

“So people don’t expect me to figure stuff out, to have solutions, to exceed expectations.”

“You don’t like when people are proud of what you do?”

“I am and I’m not. My friends are always telling me about getting in trouble and getting punishments and then after a short lecture they get treats. If I don’t get in trouble, does that mean I’m missing out on treats?”

“Libby, I will make sure you get lots of treats whether or not you make a mistake,” Nana said. “Just don’t make mistakes on purpose. You shouldn’t be ashamed that you know things other people don’t or that you understand things faster than other people do. Everyone is different. Don’t you have a friend who perhaps can draw things better than you?”

“Nora Duncan. She’s so good.”

“See. There are things you don’t excel at. That’s okay. You focus on your strengths and Nora can focus on hers. Maybe someday the two of you will work on something and her artistic ability combined with your abilities will allow the two of you together to do more than the two of you separately.”

“I never thought of that.”

“And neither have the kids at school who might be jealous of you.”

* * *

Ted and Libby left Nana’s house early on New Year’s Day. It was day seven for reassembling Paris. Currently, she was just the bottom half of a mannequin, waist to feet. Ted had put a green pair of slacks on her and the shoes she had been wearing when he transformed her at school. The rest of her torso was in the seventh and last big box. Ted got a red Christmas sweater to put on her torso before his mother could complain that adding her top made her topless.

When there were only two boxes left, only her head was missing. Speculation about the contents of the extra box was all wrong. The eleventh box contained her cell phone. Ted charged it and put it in her hand. On the sixth, Ted took Paris’ head out of the twelfth box and placed it atop the mannequin.

“Are you going to restore her now?” Libby said.

“No, not until Cat restores herself. We need to get all these decorations off the tree first.”

“Okay.”

“Was anyone here when Cat did this?”

“No, she did it over night before you came home.”

“Who took her clothes away?”

“What clothes?”

“She couldn’t transform her clothes so they must have fallen off since there aren’t any clothes in the branches.”

“OF course. I’ll go get her bathrobe,” Mom said.

“She hasn’t transformed yet because she didn’t want us to see her without clothes, Libby.”

“Why? I’ve seen her without clothes when she turns into one of my dolls.”

“Yes. But that’s in the bedrooms. Not in the living room. We don’t parade around the living room without clothes, do we?”

“No. we don’t.”

Mom returned with the robe.

“Perhaps we should just go out and come back in an hour or so. It’s rather sunny for a Saturday in Winter,” Dad said.

Ted adjusted Paris’ pose and cradled the folded bathrobe in her arms. “Cat, Paris has your bathrobe. It’s 11:13.”

They went out for a drive. They returned with warm pretzels.

Cat greeted them at the door in a Christmas sweater, dark blue skirt, and blue stockings. “Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, Teddy.”

“Happy Happy to you. How long did the transformation take?”

“Only twenty minutes. It took longer to turn into a tree.”

“How much do you practice on other people?”

“Not much. Mom and Dad are too busy and I’m not allowed to change Libby. She’s like you, I think.”

“She is. How about you change Paris back?”

“Can I?”

“Can you?”

“Of course.”

An hour later, Paris was still a mannequin.

“I don’t understand. I can’t get the image to lock in my mind.”

“You need to stop changing yourself and start changing others. Don’t you have any friends you could experiment on?”

“I can’t tell them about magic. They’d think I’m a freak.”

“Are any of your friends inclined to want to be turned into a doll?”

“Sarah and Michael.”

“Then you can practice.”

“How did you explain to them you would be missing until today? You have school on Monday. You missed all the New Year’s Eve parties.”

“No one invited me. I think they already think I’m weird.”

“Hiding in your room as a mannequin can’t help that. Now you have two reasons to make friends.”

“I think that’s enough, Theodore,” Mom said.

“Okay.”

“I want another pretzel. Hungry, Cat? You can’t do magic when you’re hungry,” Dad said.

Everyone followed him into the kitchen.

Libby entered the kitchen a moment after everyone else. She picked up a pretzel and left. She returned a moment later without the pretzel.

“What did you do with that pretzel, Honey?” Mom said.

“I gave it to Paris. I didn’t want her to miss out.”

“That’s very thoughtful, Libby.”

“I’m going to my room to play with the Tiddles.”

“The Tiddles?” Dad said.

“The dolls I brought her,” Ted said.

“Okay.”

“Have another pretzel, Cat.”

“I ate a power bar while you were out. I was starved after spending two weeks as a tree.”

“One power bar is probably not enough.”

“Is three enough?”

Ted laughed.

“This pretzel is delicious. What’s funny?” Paris said. She walked into the room and gave Ted a kiss before sitting next to him.

“What?”

“Why is everyone staring at me?” Paris said.

“How did you change back?”

“You changed me back, didn’t you? Arthur called you into the kitchen and you did it. I don’t know where the pretzel came from.”

“Why didn’t you tell us you changed her back, Teddy?” Dad said.

“I didn’t want her to miss out on the pretzels.”

* * *

Paris asked to put Libby to bed that night. After Libby had brushed her teeth and was in bed, Paris sat in a chair near Libby’s bed. There was a book on the chair. “Do you want me to read this?”

“No,” Libby said. “I’ve already read it. But Mom insisted I put a book there.”

Paris chuckled. “Okay, can I ask you a question?”

“Sure.”

“Why didn’t you tell anyone you restored me earlier today?”

“I don’t know,” Libby said. “They get uptight about Cat using her magic. It’s no big deal.”

“It is a big deal. You need to tell someone who knows magic. Magic is very dangerous. You don’t want anyone to get hurt because you didn’t know something, do you?”

“Okay. I’ll tell Teddy tomorrow,” Libby said. “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“Why do you ask Teddy to turn you into a doll? Why does anyone do it?”

“Why does anyone do anything? Usually because it makes them happy.”

“You were happy with your head in a box since before Christmas?”

“Yes. I don’t want to be doll all the time. But sometimes spending time carefree helps make normal life better. Have you been a doll?”

“Cat isn’t allowed to do magic to me. And Teddy told me he wouldn’t do it until I was older.”

“You’ve already done it to yourself, haven’t you?”

“How did you know?”

“I guessed. And you didn’t find being a doll very different from not being a doll aside from not being able to move, did you?”

“Exactly. That’s why I don’t understand why people do it.”

“It’s because you are so young. At your age, most of what you do is for fun. As you get older, you have to do things that aren’t fun. That’s when being a doll helps. It relieves me from the stress of being an adult.”

“So if I had more worries, I’d understand why people become dolls.”

“At least you’d understand why some people become dolls. I can only speak for myself. I’m sure other people have other reasons.”

“You can’t tell anyone I turned myself into a doll. Not even Teddy.”

“I won’t tell. But if Teddy asks me, I won’t lie to him. He probably won’t ask me, of course.”

“That’s fair. Thanks for explaining to me.”

“You would have figured it out eventually. Now, I should go. I’m a terrible at putting you to bed since I’m sure I’ve left a lot to think about.”

“It’s okay. I usually think a lot.”

Paris stood up and kissed Libby on the forehead. “And that’s a good thing. Good night, Libby.”

“Good night, Paris.”

Paris turned out the light and closed the door as she left the room. Libby stared at the ceiling for a moment thinking about what Paris said. She must have missed something the last time, she thought. She turned herself into a doll to see if she could figure it out.

Paris returned to Ted’s room and found him already in bed. She got into bed with him. “Libby is such a wonderful child.”

“She’s precocious. I suspect I’m going to be teaching her magic years earlier than I taught Cat. She restored you, didn’t she?”

“I’m not at liberty to say,” Paris said with a grin.

“She doesn’t want us to know.”

Paris only shook her head.

“I’ll tell her I figured it out. She wasn’t very subtle.”

“Not really. She’s very curious why people would want to be dolls.”

“She didn’t bug you about that, did she?”

“She asked about that. She didn’t bug me at all.” Paris said. “Do you think these other wizards can help you with Jane and Emily?”

“I hope so. I was also thinking I might ask Mr. Pauluva about looking for your brother.”

“I haven’t had any luck finding Randall. First thing I did after taking a bite from that pretzel was look at my phone for messages from or about him. Nothing. It’s like he fell off the planet. Any help would be wonderful.”

“I was expecting you to be a bit randier after a couple weeks boxed up.”

“I might have fallen asleep while boxed. I remember Trish and Whitney talking as they were boxing me. They saved my head for last and it perched nearby as each of my parts went into the boxes. Whitney says, ‘You know, Paris, if box twelve is your head, you’re going to spend over two weeks basically in a sensory deprivation tank.’ Trish says, ‘You think that will drive her crazy?’ Whit says, ‘Who could tell?’ And they laughed. They still wrapped my head in the box. I was actually nervous as a mannequin. Dolls don’t get nervous.

“But time passed and I was fine. I zoned out a bit and the next thing I knew you were unboxing box one. Feeling you touching my parts each day and assembling me. I was anything but senseless. But I wasn’t turned on. It wasn’t until you dressed me up that I felt anything like pleasure. Then once my head was attached, you waited for Cat to change back and all the touching there faded. By the time I was me again, there wasn’t any randiness to be felt.”

“How about now?” Ted said, pulling her into a kiss.

“Now would be a fine time for randiness.”

* * *

“Hey, Rob, how’s it going?” Richard said into the phone. His fingers twirled around a few of Jemma’s curls.

“I wanted to know if you and Emily could stop by for dinner. Earl and Rhana are hosting dinner this Friday. Whitney and Burke will be there too.”

“Sounds great. Except I’m not seeing Emily any more.”

“What?”

“We broke up.”

“You could show up stag. It won’t be a problem.”

“I could bring Jemma.” He put his hand over the mouthpiece of the phone. He pulled her head off his cock and said, “Want to meet some of my friends for dinner?”

She just nodded and pulled his cock back into her mouth.

“Jemma?”

“Sophomore at school. I met her the Tuesday of exams. We’ve spent the last few weeks together.”

“Have you heard from Emily at all? No one can get her to call them.”

“No idea. Haven’t seen her since Thursday before Christmas. She didn’t even say goodbye to me.”

“Did she find out about Jemma?”

“Find out what? I don’t think they’ve met.”

“When did you break up with Emily?”

“I told you, Thursday.”

“But you met Jemma Tuesday.”

“Yeah.”

“And you didn’t break up with Emily for two days.”

“I didn’t know Jemma and I would start dating on Tuesday.”

“I’m still confused.”

“Ah.., Ah… I’ve got go. Text me what time of Friday.”

The phone disconnected before Rob could say, “Okay.”

Rob made another call. “Ted?”

“Hey Rob.”

“A bunch of poker players are having dinner at Rhana and Earl’s with out girlfriend and thought you and Paris might like to attend.”

“Sure. When?”

“Friday, the twelfth around seven.”

“Sure we’ll be there.”

“Have you spoken to Emily.”

“You didn’t invite Richard did you?”

“Well. Yeah. I just got off the phone with him. He was acting weird.”

“Yeah. I don’t know how to say this but she was kidnapped like Jane was.”

“She was? Is that why no one can reach her?”

“’Fraid so. Richard wanted to go to the dinner?”

“Yeah, he wanted to introduce us to Jemma. He’s apparently already moved on. Why isn’t he concerned about Emily?”

“Magic.”

“I think you need to join us early and explain what’s going on.”

“That might be a good idea. Or it might put you all in grave danger. I’ll think about it and text you later.”

“If I don’t hear from you, I’m calling you again tomorrow.”

“That’s fine. Take care.”