The Boutique

by. Aqila Iza

I have been running this boutique for months now since my mother passed away, I was never a business woman myself but here is the thing, this boutique is a legacy that passed on from generation to another over a hundred years, it was my grandma's, her mother's and so on. Which means I don't really run the business, but the business runs in our blood.

We produced the best dresses and purses only as far as I could remember, besides people already knew our reputation. But I was told that the boutique used to be in a haberdashery business, yes it was established by my great great great grandfather and I don't even know what year it was, the only reason why it turned into a boutique is because we lost a lot of man in our family due to the first and second world war including my grandpa and my grand uncle, so the ladies took it over and turned it into a boutique.

It is amazing how this place still standing until today after all of those bombings.

Speaking of my mother, she is the person who introduced me to this whole business. As a kid I used to help my mother running this place every weekend, I probably have spent hundreds of hours here due to my lack of social skills. I don't really have any friends, but I do love playing with the mannequins, making a pose for them, decide what dress, purse, or hats they would wear for display and thinking about what would our clients might finds out about the style, mom always let me to do so because she said I have a good taste just like her which I can't deny.

I also design my own dress with my mother. When I was 16 she already thought me how to run the business, how to deal with customers, convince people, and other things regarding this place. Now that she is gone, I'm her successor.

The boutique itself is not quite big, one story building with a basement that we use as a storage for our stuffs like mannequins, sewing machines, and other essentials that we need to run this place. The shop is open from 10 am to 10 pm Monday to Friday every week even in Christmas and new year's eve.

But thanks to Mary I'm not alone, she had worked for my mother for the last 3 years, she is the most tidy and diligent assistant my mother ever had. Five feet and nine inches tall, black hair, brown eyes, tall legs, she really wanted to be a model as far as I could remember, I believe she could be a model and sometimes I used her as a real life mannequin to try out our new dress and she really enjoyed it, I told her that one day I'll make her dreams come true.

Our costumers mostly came from a high classes people like miss Sharon, she is one of my favourite. I believe she is in her mid-30s or something but she looks younger than she is, her husband is a businessman kind of something but he died in a plane crash several years ago which means a lot of his wealth is inherited to miss Sharon since they didn't have any child, and she haven't married to anyone ever since. I guess this is her way to enjoy her life now, spending her money on our pricey and best dresses and purses.

She is a very friendly and polite woman with class and her taste in fashion is just impeccable. Her smooth tan coloured skin covered by fur coat every time she enters the boutique, I wish I have her skin.

But she hadn't really come back to the boutique for a while.

I gave Mary a bundle of leather and she turned it into a leather purse, a small sized brownish leather purse with gold accent that Mary designed, it's really soft and comfortable to be carried around. I got to say Mary really have a talent. She asked me whether she should put the purse on the mannequin to be displayed.

I said "no, not yet. You'll display the purse on your own mannequin, Mary I'll make one for you, you deserve your own, we need more mannequin anyway, look at that mannequin beside the mirror, the arm is about to fall off, I might replace it soon."

then she said "great ! should I choose my own dress recommendation to go with the purse for the display ?"

"Sure, Mary why not"

What a busy day without Mary's hand, I told her to take a break for a few days since she worked really hard for the past few days, so I have to handle all of the customer and order by myself. People really do loves Mary's design of the leather purse, we only made six of them and we are already having thirty people on the waiting list for the product. I'm just a little concern about Mary.

I texted her the night before she was gone for vacation.

"...you should go somewhere Mary, find yourself a peace, and a man..."

"I don't know, what about the shop ?"

"I can handle it myself, relax. When was the last time you breathe real air instead of our boutique's air freshener ? "

"Really ?"

"Yep, lose yourself girl, enjoy the vacation and make sure you never come back"

"Ha ha ha all right, thanks"

And she did, she never came back.

After 3 weeks of her disappearance, Mary was announced as a missing person by the police. They've been looking for her for days and they haven't found any clue, yet.

I sat in my boutique, waiting for news of Mary's whereabouts. I got really anxious.

I've told Mary it was about time until I replace that mannequin, the arm finally fell off, so I went to the basement to get the new mannequin. This new mannequin really is pretty, unusual. This one is Mary's mannequin actually, the one that I promised her that day. I think I might take care of this one just a little bit than usual. I put the purse and the dress Mary wanted to be displayed on her own mannequin, she is going to love it, poor Mary.

It took a few days for them to finally found the truth, she hasn't really gone anywhere, she was here all the time. The police came into the boutique, they asked me when was the last time I saw her, what we were talking about that day, and else.

They searched the place, looking for something suspicious perhaps.

One of them stood next to the Mary's new mannequin that held the leather purse, he examined the mannequin by trying to move the arm.

"DON'T TOUCH THAT !" I said.

"don't sweat it ma'am, just doing our job" he said.

The arm fell off.

He was shocked when his eyes caught something really white popped out of the torn mannequin's arm that he dropped.

A bone.

They took me to the police station for further investigation, they put me in a room while waiting for their forensics inquiry, face to face with a police officer until one of them walked into the room.

"it's a human, sir.

Well, at least Mary became a model she ever wanted, holding her own purse, wearing her own dress, they just have to put the arm back together and she'll be back in business. I put her in the basement all these time, ancient Egypt technique of mummifying really is amazing.

I'm glad Mary didn't ask me what kind of leather she used to make the purse, and the police also missed it, thank you miss Sharon, you really are my favourite customer.

And thank you Mary for your brilliant leather purse design, they love it.