Knock-Out

Assignment: While you were knocked out by a baseball, you had one of the best and weirdest dreams of your life. Being your piece with “I was in…” and use the following three idioms in your piece: “out of commission, out of tune, out of turn”.

I was in a joint store, the first ever H&M and American Apparel to be opened in Great Britain. It was a newly established vicinity downtown: all one wall was windows letting in never-ending amounts of sunlight and spattered through the rest of the rooms were accessories and articles of clothing that any person would be itching to have. The colours from the fabrics and ribbons exploded in my eyes under the bright light as I peered around the modern furniture and decor. I had just won the lottery (7 million pounds) and was thinking of buying myself a couple new things from the elaborate store. In my honour they had closed the majority of the mall so I was able to walk through with my friends without bumping into busy, grumpy shoppers who shoved past us in their attempt to get the majority of their summer vacation shopping completed. I picked out a few cardigans and a really lovely dress (with quite the elaborate colouring and an exposed back) and made my way to the till but I found it was out of commission. I approached the portly sales manager who was singing daftly under her breath, swinging a rubber chicken round in circles with her thickly diamond-ringed fingers.

“Excuse me ma’am, but is there any way that I can pay for my cardigans?”

The woman jumped at being addressed and as I watched (in some extreme degree of fascination) her face elongated, her hair grew longer and darker, swirling itself into an elaborate knot at the top of her head and she donned a pair of big, innocent eyes. She looked as if she had just walked right out of Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

Audrey? I asked myself.

“That dress will look simply divine on you, dear.” She smiled at me, batting her luxuriously long eye-lashes and giving me a smirk that suggested I should just wear itrather than my hoodie and shorts.

I started openly at her, my mouth seemingly unable to close while she took my items from me. She approached the cash registers and lazily wriggled her fingers over the items.

“I hope you don’t mind,” She said sweetly to me, “I took the money off your lottery credit.”

“Th-thank you very much.” I stammered, a little confused at how she had magically allowed me to pay for my items without taking my card.

“There,” she said gleefully, peering down at my narrow figure, “much better.”

I had (again as if by magic) been put into the auburn dress, the hem brushing against my bare feet and fabric gently touching the very bottom of my back. It was a lovely shape: an extremely narrow strap wound its way around my neck to rejoin with the other side as if it wasn’t sewn together and the folds of the dress hugged my body in all the right places, falling innocently to the floor, swishing as I turned to look in a mirror.

I gazed at myself in the glass and heard a click. I looked up.

She was no longer there.

I trundled back to the dressing room, past all the exotic colours and shapes of clothing, shocked into a degree of silence where a few of my friends were standing, trying on various pieces of clothing. They looked up as I came into the room and started to marvel at the dress.

I blushed, waving off their compliments and offered to purchase their things with my lottery money. After all, what is fun without friends to experience it with?

As we walked out of the store and down the mall, I began to think. The greenery of the potted plants made dappled patterns on the floor from where the sun shone through them. Waltzing underneath was like walking through the jungle, but seemed somewhat unreal as I moved with the swishing of my dress.

“I think I know what I want to do with the 5 of my 7 million.” I muttered absently to myself, passing under a tangled mass of vines that grew above my head.

“What’s that?” One of my friends asked, while the others chatted amiably to each other a little ahead of us, making their way over a short palm tree that seemed to have been dislodged from its standing place in a pile of plotted dirt.

“I really want to support a charity doing missions.” I replied back, thinking how I would be able to donate it anonymously.

“That is a good idea. Do you know which one?” He gazed ahead of us, eyes twinkling in the sunlight.

“I’m not really sure.” We kept walking and suddenly a sound met my ears. It was a beautiful noise that registered on my radar as familiar. “Wait.. do you hear music?”

I looked up, drawn back into the world from my stupor at the sound. The trees were glinting around us and things seemed at rest, welling in the music and growing stronger from it.

“Yeah… it seems to be coming from the main stage. Shall we go investigate?”

I smiled as I called out to our friends in front of us, giving indication as to where we were headed. We changed course, moving in a less linear direction to the supposed source of the noise.

My companion began to hum under his breath, somewhat out of tune, but something rather melodic at the same time as he made his way under a rather large tree.

“Are you alright, Arlyn? You look a little… off.” He said while glancing back at me over his shoulder.

I smiled and he laughed as we started running to catch up with the others. The beams from the sun through the skylights shone down on my friend’s hair casting sparkly images to come off of him. It was rather mesmerizing.

The music got louder as we approached the main stage and I stopped in my tracks when I saw who was standing on it. Stars were practicing some of their music while Matt Theissan and Tegan Quin stood off to one side, peering into each other’s eyes while holding hands.

My friend turned to whisper confusedly to me. “Isn’t Tegan.. well doesn’t she swing the other way?”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought!” I was watching them too, and they turned suddenly they turned to see my friends and I gather around the stage.

“We’ve decided to get married!” Matt blurted out somewhat out of turn, beaming to the ten of us.

I looked at my friend and started to giggle.

I came back to consciousness. Rats.