Melancholia

Remnants 14 - Beautiful Garden Gnome

As Janice was walking down the pavement, she saw a red gnome cap lying on the floor. Tiny it was, and very cute too. She picked it up and examined it, it was made of soft fabric, like a handkerchief.

Wondering how'd it look on her, she wore it. Suddenly, she shrank, and her clothes changed. A red dress formed on her, with white sleeves, a red on her chest, and the bottom red too, reaching to her feet. Her jeans slowly disappeared as her dress appeared, her shirt following suit. Her hair curled into a brown bob, becoming shorter than before. Her sport shoes turned into brown bar shoes, a brown vest appeared around her chest. A white apron formed in front of the wide dress, aligning with the vest.

As she shrunk, she found the world around her growing, her height around just that of a tulip. The gnome hat, once she shrunk, fit her head perfectly. She looked at her newly formed dress, that had colours that looked like they were painted. She looked around, and she saw that she was in a garden, one that was just by the side of the pavement.

In her mind suddenly appeared her voice, saying "Pose and don't move, pose!"

So she did, and posed like she always did, with a victory gesture in her left hand. After a while the voice continued, "5, 4, 3, 2, 1, freeze!"

Suddenly, she found herself unable to move. Her body turned into porcelain, her hair, her clothing and her hat too. Once skin, flesh and cloth, now all porcelain. She was stuck in the pose she did, immobile.

"Why can't I move? Have I become a garden gnome?" she thought. She tried moving her limbs as much as she world but they didn't respond. "Hello?" she tried to say, but to no avail. All she could see was the garden, and a big mushroom in front of her, in the midst of the tall grass. "A caterpillar should be sitting there, smoking a hookah," she thought.

Suddenly from amongst the grass, came out a green frog, also porcelain, but mobile, unlike her. The frog looked around, as if it was looking for somebody. Upon seeing Janice, she, the frog, said, "Unfreeze!"

And all of a sudden, Janice regained mobility, even though she was still porcelain.

"What happened?" asked Janice.

"What's your name, darling?"

"Umm... Janice. What happened to me just now? I couldn't move a bit."

"Well, Janice, did you happen to wear a gnome cap just now?"

"Yeah, I did. Why?"

"That's a transformation cap. Anyone, or any animal that wears it will be transformed into a garden gnome."

"Why... Why was there that cap in the middle of the pavement?"

"We don't know either, it just popped up one day, and so everyday we come and check, to take it away if there is one. Yet today, you were faster than me."

"I feel weird. My body is so hard and brittle yet I can still move it."

"Yes, I'm afraid so. If you fall down from a high place, or in general, receive a high amount of damage, you'll break and die."

"What!" Janice cried out in shock, her hands covering her mouth. "Is there any way to reverse me back?"

"I'm afraid there's none. There's now only two ways you can go."

"Two ways? So I'll be a garden gnome forever?"

"Wait, hear me out. There are two ways this could go down, ribbit! One is that you remain like this, as one of us, living, mobile porcelain garden gnomes. The other way is that you turn into immobile porcelain garden gnomes."

"Will I still be living, thinking if I'm immobile?"

"I don't know, they wouldn't say. Because they can't talk."

"I see..."

"What do you want to be?"

"Could I go see my friends and family?"

"No, you can't. You've to live with us gnomes. We can't have you going around and telling people about living gnomes."

"Well, if I can't see my old friends and family, what is the point of living? I'll become an inanimate gnome."

"Alright, if that's your wish. Do keep in mind that this is a one way permanent transformation."

"Permanent? I don't care anymore. I'll be a happy, lovely little gnome."

"Alright, I'll say some words and a procedure will go on in your mind."

"You'll first have to think, 'I want to freeze, turn into a garden gnome.' Then, you'll have to pose within 5 seconds. Then, a you'll freeze, be petrified and turn into an ordinary garden gnome. Forever."

"Alright then, sounds like what I did just now," Janice said, while beginning to think, "I want to freeze, turn into a garden gnome."

Suddenly appeared in her mind again, "Pose and don't move, pose!"

So she posed once more, for her final pose she decided to pose her most favorite pose.

"5, 4, 3, 2, 1, freeze!"

In a blink of an eye, Janice was unable to move once more, permanently a garden gnome.

"I'm a beautiful garden gnome," she thought to herself. "I'll be like this forever, unable to move."

While thinking that, she felt her mind changing, but she accepted the changes.

"I'm a beautiful garden gnome," she thought. "A beautiful garden gnome."

With her mind changed, she had accepted her fate as a garden gnome completely, and was now happy and in bliss. Forever.