StandStill Amazing though it seemed, he hadn't sneezed once. Not even a twitch, a little shrug of the nose acknowledging any discomfort growing there. He just stood there, immobile as ever; Looking too damned sexy for his own good in that brand new tux, hair perfect, face set in stone. She frowned inwardly, lest her own expression change. She had purposefully worn her strongest perfume in response to his casual remark about having severe allergies. She got to work that night with barely enough time to dress in the $2500 gown, $300 shoes and $12,000 worth of jewelry chosen for tonight's display. As she headed for the window, she mumbled something about peeing and headed for the bathroom where she drenched herself with Ambrosia, a fabulous fragrance available only in quart size. After nearly gagging while doing her business, she dashed to the window and assumed her pose, which tonight was standing next to a mahogany table set with fine crystal, elegantly gesturing towards the window. As she glanced over at Kyle, looking annoyingly handsome as he prepared to carve the tasty looking plastic roast set upon the table, she wondered if she had put on enough perfume. One sniff and her watering eyes were proof enough of that. She sighed silently as she concentrated on looking like a dummy, and plotted her next move. Sheila had never worked as a live mannequin before, nor had she ever given it much thought. She would slow down while walking by the display windows to gawk, like most people did. She would stop sometimes and wait to see if the elegantly dressed statues betrayed their humanity. A slight twitch, an itch, a flick of an eyelid, or...a sneeze. She stayed longer if she thought the man was handsome, but none ever caught her attention like Kyle. He was exactly the man she was crazy about, looks-wise at least. He was tall, athletically built, and handsome of course; the agency they worked for would hire nothing less. But his eyes, a luminescent green, sparked with a verdant fire when he smiled, which he did often. She was taken with him the moment she laid eyes on him in the window. Then after she started working for the agency, she got to meet him. And hated him instantly. Well, that's not entirely true. It took a few hours listening to him prattle on about himself at a bar with some of the other mannequins to make her want to strangle him. Strangling him would, in addition to bringing her boundless joy, also condemn her to life in prison, so she had opted for the next best thing: public humiliation. Which is how she found herself standing motionless in a store window for four hours doused in foul-smelling perfume. Slamming the door to her apartment shut, Sheila grabbed a beer from the kitchen and plunked down on the couch to plot her next attack. She pored over the roughly drawn plans for the next few nights' displays'; sketches she had sweet-talked out of the set designer. "there's got to be a way to set things up earlier", she thought frowning, studying the wrinkled papers. Suddenly her eyes lit upon the skiing display, and her lips stretched into an evil grin. "Gotcha..." "Okay, people, lets get all this junk OUT OF THE WAY!!", whined Helmut, as he shooed at a pile of boxes containing fake snow. In addition to being in charge of annoying everyone, Helmut was also the lighting designer. People ran left and right and within minutes everything was ready to go. Sheila, looking lovely in a ridiculously overpriced ski suit, slid one last glance at the large fan camouflaged nicely and aimed at herself and Kyle. Satisfied that her sneakiness had gone undetected she moved into position and waited for the fun to begin. Earlier that evening Sheila had arrived before most of the crew and had gone to the window, which was in darkness awaiting it's final setup. Undoing the cover of the industrial size fan designed to mimic the winter wind, she had attached a large container of black pepper to the upper framing around the blades. After carefully removing the tape blocking the myriad holes she had poked in the bottom of the can, she replaced the fan cover and headed off to get dressed. "Okay, folks, cue lights!" called James, the stores' window director. A blaze of light like a dozen suns beamed at points deemed worthy enough to illuminate. Two such points were the faces of Kyle and Sheila. " Okay, cue snow"; magically small pieces of white plastic began to drift downward. "Okay cue wind and open curtain!" The fan and the curtain started their respective jobs simultaneously and Sheila held her breath. Kyle stood there, regally smiling as he pointed one gloved hand at some imaginary vista beyond the window, blissfully unaware that the faint yet constant vibration of the fan was causing the pepper container to begin to lose it's contents. Slowly, yet with gaining speed, the pepper began to shake it's way out of the can and was immediately propelled forward by the whirring blades. Sheila allowed herself one small breath, enough to detect the growing scent of pepper in the air and promptly held her breath again. Slowly she let her eyes drift until she was focused on Kyle. She was instantly rewarded. The lips that had spoken at length about the virtues of their owner were now clenched in a tight thin line. The verdant eyes, now a vague reddish hue, were losing their battle to remain dry. And the NOSE; the very model of breathtaking Roman architecture, was widening at the tips of the nostrils, twitching with all the energy of an adolescent rabbit. The whole thing was so amazing to watch that Sheila forgot to hold her breath. Absently she could feel the pepper working it's magic on her delicate nostrils as well, but she paid it no mind. All she could do was watch, fascinated, as Kyle struggled titanically to contain the growing explosion in his nose. It was like slow-motion. The lips began to lose their stalwart grimness and started to quiver, working their way up towards the base of his nose. Kyle's outstretched hand began to shake, almost desperate with the need to bring it to his maddeningly tickling nostrils. Suddenly a noise like a strangled hiccup escaped from his weakening lips, and Sheila knew it was close. He managed to hold himself somewhat steady for a full minute. Two minutes. Halfway through the third minute a lone tear parted from his irritated left eye and wound its way slowly down his cheek, leaving a silvery trail in it's wake. The tear slid down the side of his nose, and dropped delicately down alongside his reddening nose. That was the proverbial last straw. Kyle's left eye suddenly squeezed shut and his nostrils opened wide. The floodgates were released. His mouth yawned wide and a noise pushed it's way to the surface, a continuous sound that rose in pitch as it grew in duration. Through her watering eyes, Sheila watched spellbound as the noise reached the pinnacle of human hearing and Kyle's eyes flew open wide. Rearing back his head he dropped his ski poles and released the sneeze. Despite herself Sheila jumped, the sound was that startling. Such a sneeze she had never witnessed, nor, she thought, would she ever again. The first sneeze was followed by dozens more, proving that Kyle's disclosure about severe allergies was true. Sheila watched as many as she could, despite her own nearly incessant sneezing, and kept watching until they crew dragged him off to the locker room for a shower. Sheila blew her nose and smiled. The image of his face in the nanosecond before he released the first sneeze was forever frozen in her mind. An almost angelic quality had settled on his face then, an expression of nature's ecstasy for life. It was the essence of a sneeze; the blissfully painful agony of the anticipation of the inevitable. It was perfect. The End