Obsession is an unhealthy thing that affects a good portion of the world's population. We see something from afar that draws us nearer, making us think about it. Forcing some of us to have going a stream of thought about it that grows stronger and stronger the more you try to stop thinking about it. Eventually, you give yourself over to it, a subject that it has free reign to twist and turn as it sees fit. Until finally, the obsession causes your mind to snap.
The sun shone bright through the car windshield, causing me to squint and my mom to drop her sun visor. She and I were enjoying a nice, warm summer's day out and about, exploring all the yard sales and garage sales this town had to offer. We lived in a small town, so nearly every yard sale was right next to each other. We'd recently walked away from one place where the entire neighborhood had a sale going out front for nearly two straight blocks.
After a few hours of looking through all the yard sales this town had to offer, we both decided we were exhausted and agreed, one more.
We went to this small white house that had a few cheap, white folding tables up with varying things on it, including a stack of t-shirts. Of course the shirts were the first things I went to. I wasn't necessarily into fashion, in fact I was the kind of girl to rock a shirt and a pair of jeans over anything fancy and tight. The reason I went to look through the shirts was because I'm a massive fan of this character called 'Hello Jenny'.
Hello Jenny is a Japanese, white dog that a guy with a long and hard to pronounce name, created to help his sick daughter feel better nearly forty years ago. The dog has since created massive fan groups that collect as much rare merchandise as possible. One of the rarest items is a 'Hello Jenny' t-shirt. That's the biggest reason I'd go with my mom to basically any place that sells people's old belongings. Yard sales and thrift stores mainly.
I knew I'd be happy having any piece of merch from 'Hello Jenny', but a shirt would be my jackpot. There's that reason, and there was something, some kind of unexplainable force that drew me over to the pile of shirts. I sifted through a couple different shirts until about five shirts in, I found something that nearly made me freak out with excitement. You guessed it, a 'Hello Jenny' shirt. This one was white with her posing in the back seat of a car with her dog friends driving.
I grabbed the shirt and ran up to my mom, begging her to buy it for me.
"How much is it?" she asked, picking up a book and flipping through its musty, yellow pages.
"Five dollars." I replied.
"I dunno, that's kinda expensive." she sat the book back down and pick up a picture book.
"But mom," I started. "This shirt could be worth a fortune online!"
She rolled her eyes before agreeing to buy it. I thanked her, jumping up and down with excitement.
Not too long after I got home, I threw the shirt in the washer. I'm sure the previous owners might have washed it before they put it out, but you can never be too careful.
When the shirt was done in the dryer, I ironed it carefully and grabbed a frame that one of my bigger 'Helping Sirens' boy band poster was in and dumped out the poster. I can just tack it back up on the wall. I folded up my shirt delicately so that it would fit in the frame, and I replaced the glass and hung it up on my wall, just over my television.
Met with exhaustion from the rough day I've had out in the sun, I decided to sit down on my chair and turn on my tv. I hope there's something good on to watch.
I must have fallen asleep, for when I awoke the television was turned off. What was it that woke me up? My room was dimly lit by the colored LED lights I had placed around nearly every corner of my room around the ceiling.
I heard a faint ringing sound, like a doorbell ringing but constant. At first, I was convinced that I was hallucinating the sound. After all, I had just been awoken from a deep sleep. What drew me away from that theory was that as I got up from my chair, the sound grew slightly louder. Loud enough I could tell the exact direction it was coming from. Above my television. There's only one thing it could be coming from, but that was impossible.
Without realizing it, my arms had already reached up to the frame and brought it down slowly to the ground. When I took it out of its frame, the noise stopped.
I looked down at the shirt, mesmerized by the clean, bright white color. How the thick black outline remained perfectly intact, even with its age. I had to wear it.
I took off the shirt I was wearing and carefully slipped on the shirt. The shirt smelled of the delightful flowery smell of being freshly pulled from the dryer. The shirt fit perfectly. It felt so soft and snug to my body, I didn't want to take it off.
"So, your daughter has been missing since last night?" asked the officer, standing outside our house.
"Yes. She spent the entire day cleaning and obsessing over this shirt she bought yesterday."
"Is it the same shirt that you found on the ground beside her bed?" he asked.
"It is. It just doesn't make any sense to me why it would be there. And where did my daughter go?"
The sun shone bright through the car windshield, causing me to squint and my mom to drop her sun visor. She and I were enjoying a nice, warm summer's day out and about, exploring all the yard sales and garage sales this town had to offer. We lived in a small town, so nearly every yard sale was right next to each other. We'd recently walked away from one place where the entire neighborhood had a sale going out front for nearly two straight blocks.
After a few hours of looking through all the yard sales this town had to offer, we both decided we were exhausted and agreed, one more.
We went to this small white house that had a few cheap, white folding tables up with varying things on it, including a stack of t-shirts. Of course the shirts were the first things I went to. I wasn't necessarily into fashion, in fact I was the kind of girl to rock a shirt and a pair of jeans over anything fancy and tight. The reason I went to look through the shirts was because I'm a massive fan of this character called 'Hello Jenny'.
Hello Jenny is a Japanese, white dog that a guy with a long and hard to pronounce name, created to help his sick daughter feel better nearly forty years ago. The dog has since created massive fan groups that collect as much rare merchandise as possible. One of the rarest items is a 'Hello Jenny' t-shirt. That's the biggest reason I'd go with my mom to basically any place that sells people's old belongings. Yard sales and thrift stores mainly.
I knew I'd be happy having any piece of merch from 'Hello Jenny', but a shirt would be my jackpot. There's that reason, and there was something, some kind of unexplainable force that drew me over to the pile of shirts. I sifted through a couple different shirts until about five shirts in, I found something that nearly made me freak out with excitement. You guessed it, a 'Hello Jenny' shirt. This one was white with her posing in the back seat of a car with her dog friends driving.
I grabbed the shirt and ran up to my mom, begging her to buy it for me.
"How much is it?" she asked, picking up a book and flipping through its musty, yellow pages.
"Five dollars." I replied.
"I dunno, that's kinda expensive." she sat the book back down and pick up a picture book.
"But mom," I started. "This shirt could be worth a fortune online!"
She rolled her eyes before agreeing to buy it. I thanked her, jumping up and down with excitement.
Not too long after I got home, I threw the shirt in the washer. I'm sure the previous owners might have washed it before they put it out, but you can never be too careful.
When the shirt was done in the dryer, I ironed it carefully and grabbed a frame that one of my bigger 'Helping Sirens' boy band poster was in and dumped out the poster. I can just tack it back up on the wall. I folded up my shirt delicately so that it would fit in the frame, and I replaced the glass and hung it up on my wall, just over my television.
Met with exhaustion from the rough day I've had out in the sun, I decided to sit down on my chair and turn on my tv. I hope there's something good on to watch.
I must have fallen asleep, for when I awoke the television was turned off. What was it that woke me up? My room was dimly lit by the colored LED lights I had placed around nearly every corner of my room around the ceiling.
I heard a faint ringing sound, like a doorbell ringing but constant. At first, I was convinced that I was hallucinating the sound. After all, I had just been awoken from a deep sleep. What drew me away from that theory was that as I got up from my chair, the sound grew slightly louder. Loud enough I could tell the exact direction it was coming from. Above my television. There's only one thing it could be coming from, but that was impossible.
Without realizing it, my arms had already reached up to the frame and brought it down slowly to the ground. When I took it out of its frame, the noise stopped.
I looked down at the shirt, mesmerized by the clean, bright white color. How the thick black outline remained perfectly intact, even with its age. I had to wear it.
I took off the shirt I was wearing and carefully slipped on the shirt. The shirt smelled of the delightful flowery smell of being freshly pulled from the dryer. The shirt fit perfectly. It felt so soft and snug to my body, I didn't want to take it off.
"So, your daughter has been missing since last night?" asked the officer, standing outside our house.
"Yes. She spent the entire day cleaning and obsessing over this shirt she bought yesterday."
"Is it the same shirt that you found on the ground beside her bed?" he asked.
"It is. It just doesn't make any sense to me why it would be there. And where did my daughter go?"
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