Lunch at 2pm

This week, Chuck has us picking out a photo from weird photos nobody ever uses as a prompt to write a story to.  There's 50 of them, and I found #37 perfect.... :D

I had been preparing for this day for almost a week. 

All the signs spoke to me and him in the same way… and he could get time off work – just like I could – and so I had prepared us a late lunch at my place…

…okay…

Our place.

There were two of us here and we were in love… not that our owners would know.

Owners?  You know, humans… like you.

I had prepared a nice meal for him and made sure there was enough time left over to clean up.  But first I had to get prettied up in a lovely frock – as my owner had been an inventor of sorts and mounted me on a mannequin; leaving her body nude.

What a bloody pervert!

So, I looked around his girlfriend’s wardrobe and found a lovely summer dress right at the back she didn’t wear anymore.  It was a lovely Indian Silk with gorgeous little poppies all over it.  I liked her in it, but then, she let herself go and now she doesn’t fit into it – but she likes it enough to keep it.  So, I put it on and buttoned it up the front, leaving just one or two buttons undone to show a little fun stuff for my man.  He likes that kinda thing, you know.

Now, it was time to collect him from the bedroom… yeah, he doesn’t have a body like I do.

He’s the same model as me… big and bulky… square and curved screened.  But I love him and he loves me.

I placed him on the Formica table and plugged him into the outlet, adjusted the Rabbit Ears on top and tuned him into the same static station I was going to be on.

Sitting down, I grabbed the tray on the counter.

It’s filled with all the gear I’d need to clean his parts.   
This is something our owners just don’t do.

And yet, the wonder how it all gets done.

I reach up to my own on/off switch and turn it gently to the left… hearing a loud click from within my electronics.  Then, there’s static, both my mannequin hands reach up and fumble with my Rabbit Ears, twisting, turning and manipulating and then… I see him.

My man sitting across from me.

We’re on the same static station… well, to you… but to us, we can see each other’s faces.

He’s hot.  I love the perfection of his retro-ness… he’s sexy to me; as I am to him.

Reaching down to the tray, I pick up a microfiber cloth and wipe it over his screen, over his knobs and tiny, rectangular front speaker box… and I know he appreciates it. 

After an hour, our lunch is complete. 

We both clean; as I’ve cleaned and maintained him; as I have myself… and I have put him back where I found him, right in the middle of the square of dust in the bedroom… so the owners don’t know he’s been moved.  I remove the dress and place it back where it was before – exactly where it was and sit where I used to.

Night falls and the owners come home late. 

The house is in darkness and they open the front door, holding it open as they push and pull and grunt their way in with a large, thin, rectangular box…

“Let’s set it up in the bedroom… it’s piece of crap that one anyway.” He said.

“Well, it still works, so what are you going to do with it?” she asks.

“Dump it.”

She stands in the doorway to the bedroom, “I’d give it away if I was you, or put the new one out in the lounge and get rid of the creepy one you insist on keeping.”

He looks at me, “Hey, I made this one, it’s a work of art.” He smiles at me, proud that I’m his.  Behind him, I see his girlfriend make the throw up face – fingers being poked in her mouth, her eyes rolled back.  She quickly composes herself before he turns back around to face her… this is hilarious, “Okay… we’ll get rid of the one in the bedroom.”

“Why don’t we give it away to an old folk’s home?”

My man is gone!  I’m so heartbroken, I could just short circuit and blow up at the same time…

I feel like starting a house fire just to piss my owner off, but then, I’d die too.

Instead, I started stuffing up… I would work some days, and not others… I waited until it started to get cold and stopped working.  And then, waited until it got too hot and switched on for ten minutes, then off… then back on again.

Boy!  Did that frustrate him!  She nearly threw me out the door!  Then, they got rid of me. 

He put me in the back of his truck and took me to a retro store where they sold old homewares to people who wanted old things in their houses. 

“How very unique…” the lady smiled.

“It screws up all the time.” He grumbled, “I got a new television.”

“Okay… we’ll fix her up, good as new and put her with the other one over there on the shelf you sold to me.” Two guys picked me up carefully and moved me into the back room where another guy opened the back and looked at everything as she came out, “Well?”

“Annie, there’s nothing wrong with this one.  If anything, it’s the cleanest unit I’ve seen next to last one you bought from that dude.” He plugged me in and turned the on/off knob and I worked beautifully.  This guy was nice, “Well, I’d sell this one with the other one on the shelf over there seeing that one won’t work… they might work as a pair… you know like Tweedle-Dum and Tweedle-Dee… twins?”

Annie smiled, “Yeah, two for the price of one.”

I didn’t want to know of this other tv… it could get stuffed!  He carried me out to him with another guy and placed me next to him – stood me next to him – and I dared to look over to see who they were lining me up with on this blind bloody date… when… no, it couldn’t be! 

I couldn’t believe my screen!