Charlie

“Wow, you’ve lost weight,” were the first words out of my sister’s mouth when she got out of her car.

“Yeah, I guess I’ve been putting in some more work than usual trying to fix this place up.” I told her. I also felt more exhausted than I otherwise would have, but I chalked all of that up to the nature of my job, working on maintaining the house, and all the crazy things that had happened in general.

“Wait, so you’re telling me that it looked worse beforehand?” she asked incredulously.

“Hey, if you don’t like it, you can always leave,” I told her.

“Hey, hey, don’t take it like that, it’s just… I thought it looked better in the photos,” she said.

“Yeah, I don’t know what Gramps was thinking, but I have a feeling that he ripped me off if he didn’t know what this place looked like beforehand,” I said. I had been wanting to speak to him in person, but the right time just never seemed to arrive.

“Oh, but it is big,” she said. “Why not rent out part of it?”

“You’re right, I think I should throw you out and start using part of the rooms as an Airbnb, you know, get someone who would actually pay for things,” I said as she tried to elbow me in the ribs. ‘So, how is work going then?”

“I mean, like I said, I have this project that I am getting paid for,” she said. “But, it’s going to take me some time to get it done and while I got an advance, I’m not getting the full payment ‘til it’s finished.”

“Right,” I said.

We walked inside. “This place looks a whole lot better on the inside than the outside.”

“Yeah, I’ve been working on fixing it up, mostly from the inside out,” I told her. There was a good reason for that - it was because Charlotte could help with the interior, but not the exterior of the house.

“Have you thought about flipping it? With the way house prices keep going up, if you manage to polish it up enough…” she began to say.

“And where would I live after that?”

“Just buy some other place. This one is way too big for you anyway - the heating costs must be through the roof!”

“Actually, utilities are way cheaper out here than back home, and I only need to heat or cool a few rooms occasionally, the weather’s actually much nicer here than back home actually. I don’t know if it’s because the lake is close nearby or whatever, but I haven’t had problems on that front,” I told her.

“Mmhmm,” Suzy said, examining the rest of the place. “So I can take any room I want, right?”

“Yeah, just clean it up yourself,” I said. “A lot of the rooms are just barely clean though, you’ll still have to dust them and replace the sheets, you know.” I then glanced at her. “Hey - is it true that Dad was going to charge you rent for staying there?”

“Well yeah, do you think I was making it up?”

“I just mean- I find it hard to believe that he’d ask you of all people, and… I mean, you could’ve asked Mom,” I said. Mom had a rather softer spot than Dad on many issues, and I didn’t think she would’ve charged Suzy rent.

“Well, Mom said that ‘if that’s what your father wants, it’s just like that I guess’ and that it was time for me to ‘grow up,’” she said. “Hey- what’s with that smirk?”

“Oh, nothing, I was just thinking of something else,” I told her. In truth, confirmation that she really was losing her ‘favored child’ status was quite gratifying, despite how petty it seemed.

“So, where is she then?”

“Where’s who?”

“Your new girlfriend, that’s who.”

“Oh, she isn’t here.”

“I can see that, so where is she? I mean, I haven’t even spoken to her - I guess I can meet her in person then.”

“Oh… I uh, we’ll see about that,” I told her.

She looked very confused by my ambivalent answer. “Why is it such a big deal that I meet her?”

“It isn’t.”

“You seem pretty nervous about it though.”

“It’s just that, it’s complicated.”

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“Right…” she said, trailing off. “For what it’s worth though, and I was just throwing this out there, I’m glad you found someone else. I, well, Josephine just rubbed me the wrong way. I know Mom thought you two were the perfect couple but just so you know, I never really liked her…”

“Right,” I said and sighed. I didn’t know if that was how Suzy really felt or if she was just trying to cheer me up, but I didn’t want to think about Josephine a second longer than I had to. “Uh, listen, I need to get to sleep. I’m on a nocturnal schedule currently, and I do need to get to work tonight.” I had woken up at this time specifically just to see my sister in. “Right, so those are the taps that are actually working, and those are the two bathrooms that are clean enough to use.”

Once I was done pointing this stuff out, I went to sleep.

Charlotte and I had agonized over whether or not we were going to tell Suzy about her, and if so, how we were going to do that without giving Suzy a panic attack. Was this the right time? I mean, it had only been a few weeks… but my family was still going to ask questions. My mother had sent me several texts insisting that I bring Charlotte over for Thanksgiving, and I had no idea how I was going to get out of that one.

Whatever. I would leave those problems for future me.

I woke up later, and then took a look at my watch. It was ten minutes before my alarm went off. Well, no point in dawdling like that in bed, I might as well get a head start on the day.

I got up and got dressed, and went to go tell Suzy that I was leaving. She was typing away on her laptop, seemingly fixated on whatever she was doing with a focus I had never seen from her before - though this all went out the window the moment she saw me.

“Uh, hey, before you go - I wanted to ask you something,” she said.

“This better not be for more money.”

“Okay, stop joking - what’s the deal with the doll?”

A chill went down my spine. “Doll?”

“Yeah,” she said. “I was looking through the house, just taking a walk to clear my head, when I went to… that room. And I saw that doll you have that’s nearly as big as a person.” She then took a deep breath, seemingly unwilling to actually say what she was going to say next, as if it was quite unpleasant for her and the words were getting stuck in her mouth. “Is that girl…. your girlfriend?”

I nearly swallowed a lung. “Why would you say that?”

“It’s just that, alright, this is going to sound crazy, but back when I was in university, I was in this café, you know, just hanging out, when someone sat near the table next to me,” she began to explain. There was a weird pressure behind her words, as if she was trying to get everything out as quickly as possible. “And that guy was wearing a VR mask, you know, like the ones they sell, and I wouldn’t have thought too much about it, but this guy orders two plates of food, of the same thing, and doesn’t eat the other order. Instead, he’s offering it out into the air as if there’s someone sitting opposite to him, but there isn’t. I wouldn’t have normally cared, but it was a slow day and I had nothing better to do, so I just walked over and asked him what the deal was when this continued for a whole fifteen minutes. Turned out that he had a virtual girlfriend, not a real one, which he was communicating with through a VR app he made himself. And this was him taking her out on a ‘date.” She then sighed. “And he said this without any shame whatsoever. In a public place. Now, it wasn’t hurting me so I don’t really care no matter how weird I found it. But… I mean, I’ve heard of other things. Of people buying actual dolls and dating them-”

“Okay, I’ll stop you right there,” I told her. “That doll was there before I had even moved in.”

Suzy looked like she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “Seriously? You’re for real?”

“Of course.”

“Dead serious? You actually found that when you moved in?”

“Yes, do you think I have the spare cash lying around to buy something like that?” I asked her. I didn’t know how exactly how much a doll like that would cost, but I was sure it would run you over a thousand dollars at minimum.

“Whoa,” she said. “So, it was just lying around there?”

“Yeah, it was just there,” I said. “I texted grandpa once and asked him about it, and he said he had no idea about a doll. I don’t think he actually ever took a step in here though, or maybe he just never went to that room.”

“That is actually creepy,” Suzy said. “If it was me, I would’ve hightailed it out of here the moment that I saw that.” She chuckled. “You’re a lot braver than I thought then, you used to be terrified whenever we watched a scary movie.”

“I was not.”

“Yes you were, it was soooo easy to spook you after you saw one for days,” she said. “But me? If I saw that doll in a house like this when I moved in, I would’ve just moved right on out.” She then sighed. “So, your actual girlfriend is real though, right? An actual, breathing, living girl?”

“Yes,” I said. Well the ‘living and breathing’ part was a bit of a stretch but still somewhat true.

“Right, right, I was just kind of worried,” Suzy said. “I mean, I thought that maybe you were depressed, living in this house by yourself, and then decided that you needed someone to share it with and then maybe purchased a life-sized doll because you thought real people were dumb or whatever.”

“Real people are dumb, but that’s besides the point,” I said. “Thanks for having so much faith in me though sis.”

“Hey, I didn’t mean anything by it - I just, can you blame me for worrying?” she asked. “And, why didn’t you get rid of it yet? I mean, if I wouldn’t have left when I saw it the first time, I definitely would’ve just thrown it out.”

I shuddered as I thought of what might’ve happened if Suzy had walked into the house before I had. If she had really thrown Charlotte out when she had first walked in, Charlotte would’ve been rotting in a dumpster somewhere completely aware of what was going on but unable to do anything about it. And I would’ve never met her - or fallen in love with her. Which meant that no one would be coming to try to rescue her in that scenario and bring her back into the house either.

“You alright? You look a bit pale.”

“Um, no, I’m fine,” I said. “I don’t want to throw it out, because it’s clear someone paid good money for it.”

“Oh, you wanna sell it is that it? Did you post anything online? Any offers?”

“I don’t want to do that immediately, I thought I’d just leave it lying around for now,” I told her. “I mean, that was probably the only thing in good condition in this house that I found when I first came in - there’s still this piano that I need to figure out how to throw away.”

“Alrighty, whatever you want,” she said. “And-”

“I’m getting late for work, I’ll see you in the morning,” I said, interrupting. her as I really did need to head out.

“No, no, don’t do that,” she said. “I’ll probably be sleeping in until around ten, so just go to sleep, okay?”

Did she plan to stay up till two in the morning? Well, knowing her, that might actually be true.