His mind tumbling over itself in wonder and a little horror, Franklin found himself shelving the items. Each thing he picked up, he wondered what its curse was. This can opener, that broach. Some of them, Franklin could almost guess what they did. He imagined the doll would stalk anyone who bought it and kill them, these fancy running shoes would make whoever wore them super-fast, but they wouldn’t be able to stop running. He was considering a plain glass vase when Dian surprised him by calling his name. He almost dropped the vase.
“Whoop,” Dian said. “Careful, you would really regret dropping that.” Franklin quickly put it on the shelf. “I just came to see how you’re doing.”
“I’m uh,” Franklin stammered. “I’m ok.”
“Good, good.” Dian said. “Just don’t let your mind wander too much. Some of these things can, uh, play tricks on people who aren’t paying attention.”
“Ok,” Franklin said. He wasn’t sure exactly what she meant. “Are the gloves enough?”
Dian shrugged. “Should be plenty, but it doesn’t really matter. The stuff that wants to do something will.” She started walking away then stopped. “Have you seen the far left and back corner of the store?” Franklin shook his head. “That’s the taxidermy aisle. I’d strongly recommend you avoid it unless you need to go there. Let’s just say that the things in there are a lot more active than the rest of the store.”
“Why?” Franklin asked.
“Don’t know,” Dian said. “But I’ve always had the feeling that the animals were angry.”
“And what do they do?”
“Mostly stand there,” Dian said.
“I mean,” Franklin said.
“I know what you meant. They do different things, but more than a few of them have been known to attack.”
Franklin swallowed nervously. “Yikes.”
Dian waved vaguely and disappeared into the aisles.
For the rest of his shift Franklin kept himself busy and tried to focus on the simple tasks of putting things away, sweeping the floor, and greeting customers. He was careful not to bump into the shelves and he kept himself away from the far left of the store entirely. Every time he saw a customer pick up something he stopped to watch, but nothing else incredible happened. When his shift ended, he went to the back office and clocked out.
Walking towards the front of the store, Franklin chose to cut through the toy aisle. He figured it was better than the kitchen wares. Still sitting on the shelf was the Speak and Say. He stopped and read its warning card again. ‘do not pull string’ It reminded him.
Staring at the friendly animal faces on the toy and the cartoonish arrow, Franklin felt like it was calling to him. It begged him to pick it up and pull the string. He almost did, but shook his head. He picked it up, the smooth plastic soothing under his fingers.
“I mean, what’s the harm in buying it? As long as I don’t pull the string, right?”
He took the toy up to the register, feeling a little sheepish as he handed it to the cashier. He was afraid she was going to judge him or call him childish or something, but she just typed the price into the computer.
“$3.50,” She said.
Franklin had been going for his dad’s credit card, but when he heard the price he was a bit surprised. He fished in his pockets and pulled out two quarters and three crumpled notes, all the cash he had on him.
“Uh, here,” he said.
The cashier took the money with disinterest and pushed the toy towards him. Franklin mumbled a thank you and left the store.
The mall was all but deserted. Most of the stores had turned off their lights, their dark windows acting more like mirrors.
Franklin stood in the empty mall, staring at the toy, desperately wanting to pull the string. He was reaching for it when his phone buzzed. Franklin blinked and checked his phone. It was a text messaged from James.
‘you out?’
‘yeah,’ Franklin replied.
‘cool come get wiener’
Franklin rolled his eyes at James’ repeated gay joke. But he hoisted his stuff and hurried through the mall to the hotdog shop, open till midnight everyday but Sunday.
James was seated by the window looking out on the parking lot. Franklin joined him. Naturally the shop was mostly empty and Franklin was happy for the relative privacy, he was eager to tell James about his job’s unexpected quirk.
When he sat, James pushed a hotdog towards him.
“Here’s something to choke on,” James said.
“You know,” Franklin said. “You need some new material, or are you hinting at something?” James’ smile faltered.
“So, how was your first day at work?”
“It was incredible,” Franklin said. He tried to remain calm as he told James about what he saw and what Dian had told him.
“You’re kidding,” James said when Franklin was done. “Seriously, right?”
“You can find out for yourself,” Franklin said. He pulled out the Speak and Say, not sure why he had the sudden urge to show it off.
“Wow, dude,” James said. “I had one of these as a kid.”
“Same,” Franklin said.
“What does it do?” James asked. Franklin shrugged.
“The label just said not to pull the string.”
“Only one thing to do then,” James said. In a quick motion he pulled the toy towards himself and pulled the string.
The arrow started to spin and the mechanical voice said “The dog says...” At the same time James’ clothes vanished. His sparse body hair thickened in to an ochre colored coat of fur, his hands shrank into paws, his face pushed out into a sleek muzzle, his ears lengthened to points over his head, his tongue lolled out and in moments James had become a handsome golden husky.
“Woof!” James barked.
“Hey!” The woman behind the counter called. “No animals! Get out now or I’m calling the cops!” Franklin looked at James whose canine face had a shocked expression.
Franklin grabbed the toy from the table and his bag and they ran for the door. James beat Franklin to the door. He jumped up and pushed the door to the parking lot open with his fore legs. The golden dog dashed into the darkness. Franklin followed as quickly as he could.
“Hey, wait up!” Franklin called. He had already lost sight of the teen turned dog. He slowed to a walk. From his left he heard a bark. The specter of a dog was waiting by his car. He sighed and went over to the vehicle where he found James waiting.
“Well, now we know what it does,” he said. The husky tilted his head to one side.