Mannequin Challenge

Mannequin Challenge

Cassie got all excited about the Mannequin Challenge – she was a teenager, but there wasn’t much to do in her small town, and this seemed like an exciting thing to come along, for everyone to participate in. The idea was simple – everyone would meet downtown, party for a while, get ready, and then a siren would sound, and everyone would be entirely still for as long as they could. It was a kind of internet sensation, and a social phenomenon at the same time, so that especially appealed to her. They would try to beat the world’s record for both participation – in percent of residents actually doing it – and, in length of time, though that would be harder; one generally remained frozen for the length of the song “Black Beatles,” but there was some town in Georgia that claimed they’d held perfectly still for over six minutes; Cassie didn’t think they could do that in her hometown, Alamogordo, New Mexico. She figured they’d be lucky to hit five.

Cassie was only vaguely aware of the meaning of the Mannequin Challenge – in fact, though it seemed to mean something to people nationwide, it meant virtually nothing to her, or to any of her friends. The siren blew, you were absolutely still, you saw how long you could stay absolutely still, and that would tend to shock people who came upon the scene. It would be as if they had happened upon downtown Alamogordo at the very moment everyone was frozen still, as if the ice age had descended suddenly, or the wildest of movies had come true. It sounded really fun to her, so she solicited all her friends to come to the downtown on Saturday morning, at about eleven, for this event. The siren was scheduled to go off at noon. Preparations were in full swing. It was the talk of her high school.

Of course, she had many other things going on that Saturday, as she did most Saturdays. She had a dance class early in the morning, and she had this boy, Seth, who liked her, and who wanted her to come with him to get a new phone, one that could track anything, he said. Seth was a little geeky, she thought, but cute, so she led him on, but she didn’t think she would go out to that phone store with him on Saturday morning. A whole crowd of people that she knew well were involved in the Mannequin Challenge, and the preparations were drawing everyone in. She had a friend, Makayla, who was dressing up as a cactus, and she had plans to play music, even in a cactus costume. Why? Because that’s how she wanted to spend a few minutes, absolutely still, in downtown Alamogordo, taped for posterity on the social media channels. Another friend, Jonas, was a fire-thrower. He knew how to juggle those sticks that were on fire, so that he wouldn’t get burned, and it was all very impressive.

What had upset the situation, really, was that her mother knew a guy in their church, by the name of Frank, who had committed suicide on Tuesday; it was now Friday, and people were still talking about it. Her mom had been very upset about this, and it caused an upheaval in her church, Cassie could tell, because her mom had been on the phone non-stop with a lot of the people from the church. It was a church where everyone knew everyone very well, and Cassie had grown up in it; she’d of course known Frank, at least a little. She had that kind of familiarity you have with anyone you see every week for many years. She didn’t know much about him; he was a tow-truck operator, maybe, or something, and his wife went there to the church as well. If he had kids, Cassie didn’t know them, but she wasn’t sure, and judging from her mom’s phone calls, maybe there was a girlfriend. So now every time Cassie went to her mom for some supplies, to help with the preparations for the Mannequin Challenge, her mom was busy, and didn’t even want to talk about it. Her mom had no time for the Mannequin Challenge. She was going to the service on Saturday morning, and she wasn’t sure she could even give Cassie a ride to dance class that morning, though she would try to find her one.

At school Cassie ran into Shelby, an old friend of hers, who also went to the same church, though less regularly, and she was a total wreck. Cassie promised she would spend some time with Shelby, and they would talk about whatever it was that was going on. Cassie was also trying to figure out if this boy, Liam, would be at the challenge. All the while Seth kept texting her, trying to get her to go to the phone store. Forget the phone store, she thought to herself, but she was nice to Seth, and kept just putting him off. She thought she was just too busy. Meanwhile, she asked all her friends about Liam. Liam, it seemed, knew everybody. He could be doing anything. But it was extremely important to Cassie that Liam go to the challenge. She kind of had a thing for Liam, and she was afraid of making it too obvious, but she really wanted to know if he’d be there.

When she finally got to talk to Shelby, after school, it turned out that Shelby was upset about Frank too. Shelby knew Frank a little better than Cassie did, it seemed, and it hurt her that people were saying mean things about him. The big problem at the church was that it was assumed that Frank would go to Hell, since he had committed suicide. It could be a judgmental community sometimes, and they didn’t take kindly to those who had fallen away. People didn’t know so much about the girlfriend, Shelby said, but she knew a little, and she thought people were being too mean about Frank. They were hurt that he’d just killed himself. It was possible, she said, that they didn’t know the whole story.

Cassie tried to make Shelby feel better by getting her more involved in the Mannequin Challenge. It would be fun, she said, to all dress up, get ready, and sit absolutely still, somewhere in the downtown, for a few minutes or at least as long as we can, everyone together, the whole town. Cassie was sure this would be the most fun she’d had in a long while. Shelby said she had to go to the memorial service for Frank, which would be that Saturday morning at 9:30. Shelby wasn’t sure she’d make it downtown by 11, but she said it sure would be fun and she would try. Cassie could see that she’d been crying. In fact, as she looked at Shelby, it looked to her as if Shelby had been crying for days. Why would a teenage girl be so upset about a tow-truck driver? Shelby, she knew, had had some other issues in her life. Her mom had got divorced. Her older brother was always in trouble. Sometimes, when she talked to Shelby, she got drawn into Shelby’s problems.

That night, there was a gathering at Makayla’s house to get ready for the Mannequin Challenge. At dinner Cassie’s mom said she could go, and her mom would even give her a ride. In the morning, her mom said, she couldn’t give her a ride to the dance class. But she could go to the Mannequin Challenge herself, since downtown was an easy walk. She didn’t have to go to the service, only her mom would. At Makayla’s house, four girls prepared costumes and talked excitedly about the challenge. Makayla’s mother commented that in the state they were in, it would be almost impossible to sit absolutely still for three minutes, no matter what the situation. But they were up for the challenge. They speculated that the best possible situation was to be situated such that they watched something they liked, or wanted to look at. Cassie fantasized about Liam. If he was there, she resolved to be looking at him, when the siren was finished.

Saturday dawned bright and clear in Alamogordo; February was dry and cool, but not too cold. Cassie was brimming with excitement as she walked downtown. All her friends were there, and Makayla’s cactus costume was fantastic. Jonah was already throwing his sticks. It was almost noon and several food vendors were busy cooking delicious things and selling them. Cassie herself had wavered about what to wear; she considered wearing something plain, in respect to Frank, but in the end dressed in her usual, casual but fancy, tight jeans and alluring sweater. She was still hoping to see Liam, but still hadn’t learned much about his whereabouts. And all morning Seth had been texting her, telling her he’d bought the phone, and was walking downtown. Come on down, she texted back, I’ll be there. She was in the middle of a tremendous amount of excitement, talking to various friends, when Shelby arrived, breathless. Cassie went off to the side to talk to her; Shelby was upset, because apparently, the pastor, or whoever had run the memorial service, pretty much said that Frank was doomed. Hell was for people who committed suicide and other sins; the scriptures were clear. People at the service were cruel and thoughtless, though Shelby, and she was upset. Cassie thought of her mom for a moment; her mom was not that judgmental, she thought. But as Shelby and Cassie were talking, the siren went off.

Cassie remembered her promise to herself, that she would try to position herself so that she could see Liam, if he was there. During the siren, which was about fifteen seconds long, she quickly scanned the whole downtown, which of course was filled with people, many of whom she knew; some she knew well, and others, she simply was familiar with. There were also many people she’d never seen before, and didn’t recognize at all. Suddenly, across the downtown, she spotted him; he was with a group of friends. Cassie tried to arrange herself in a comfortable position, so that she could keep her gaze across the downtown fixed on Liam, and not be too uncomfortable to hold her pose for a few minutes. This required her not to be looking at Shelby, who was immediately beside her, or Makayla, who was nearby, but it gave her a better view of the entire downtown, and the center of it. She fixed herself in the best position she could, and fixed a glare across the downtown at Liam, who, as far as she could tell, was unaware of her, and not looking her way at all. A little to his right, she could see the Mayor, who was running the videocamera from a small elevated platform. He would occasionally scan the entire crowd, but mostly fixed his camera a little to the side of Cassie, where Makayla and many of the more entertaining performers were.

Around the downtown, people did their best to be absolutely still. Cassie could see a good many of them, and she could tell that pretty much everyone was following instructions; they were absolutely still. Probably downtown Alamogordo had never seen absolute stillness, so that alone made it exceptional. Cassie settled into being absolutely still, determined not to be the one that appeared to fidget on national camera, or on a viral social media post.

She had two big problems right away, though. Every second of absolute stillness seemed to take an hour; it was torture. And within half a minute, she had begun to process some of Shelby’s worries about the church and the people who had been so cruel in talking about Frank. It occurred to her that Shelby was relying on her for sanity, for calmness, for perspective, at a time when she, Shelby, was emotionally distraught. For whatever reason, Shelby was suffering a lot, and relying on Cassie. And Cassie had just turned her back on her. Now, the stillness had started. Cassie faced across the downtown; Shelby was out of her sight. Cassie suffered horribly, even in a few seconds, not knowing if Shelby was ok, and she couldn’t turn around.

Then, she had what she’d wanted, a clear view across the downtown, to over where there was an old shoe store, and where Liam was also being still, in a crowd of people. But suddenly, she clearly saw Liam cast a knowing glance at a nearby girl. He had someone with him! Cassie was even more upset. She could tell, even from this distance, way across the downtown, that they were more than just friends. She tried to focus on the girl – who was she? Did Cassie know her? Where did he know her from? Unfortunately, she could remember nothing; she could get no clues. She continued to watch, and they did it again. She began to be too upset to stand still.

And just then, another bizarre thing happened. A lone figure was walking, right into the crowd, head down, unaware that the entire crowd of poeple downtown was frozen still, now in their second minute. This was a young boy, holding his phone, and clearly reading it as he walked, but entirely oblivious to what was going on around him. He literally did not see the hundreds of people standing still, frozen, in the downtown area.

She looked closer at him – it was Seth! He was coming right toward her, and was now almost in the middle of the downtown. The Mayor saw her – he’d diverted the camera, and sent someone to come up to him, fast; he didn’t want this on the social media. The two of them, Seth, and the kid who patted him on the shoulder, alerting him that something was going on, were the only people to break the stillness in the entire crowd, that is, as long as you didn’t count the Mayor himself, who was visibly upset. They moved Seth away from the focus of the camera, and the crowd went another three minutes, more or less, with most people not noticing or not too bothered by Seth’s intrusion.

When it was over, Cassie turned around, and was relieved to find Shelby stable, calm, even enjoying herself. They talked for a while about what happened; perhaps she’d forgotten about the morning service, at least for the moment. Cassie found Seth later, and he apologized profusely. He thought the GPS app on the phone was a really fine thing, and was worried that she would be offended that he’d always know where she was, basically. He was kind of innocent, and geeky, and it didn’t really bother Cassie, so she forgave him. She recruited him to take Shelby out for ice cream, and cheer her up, as they all felt like they needed a little lift. In general, the whole Mannequin Challenge was a success, in terms of the town’s morale; people around them were cheerful, but Cassie was exhausted. Next time, she figured, she’d plan a little better for what it was really like to be absolutely still.

(3-17)