The Interesting Experience of Anthony and Ross

Anthony and Ross have been best friends all throughout their school careers, grammar school, high school, college, you name it and they were there together. Anthony was the star and head captain of his high school’s lacrosse team, while Ross was the high tough wrestler. They both always had a smile on their faces and their classmates and teachers adored them both. Once the time came around for high school graduation and applying for college both Anthony and Ross decided to apply to a very elite University in Brooklyn New York where they both wanted to study and purse engineering. This is where Anthony and Ross discover something they have never been exposed to before.

            College started September 6^th for both the grown college men, both studying engineering while still maintaining their sports titles of captain of the lacrosse team and all-star wrestler. As college went on Anthony and Ross only had one class together and that class was American Culture. They did not mind it at all; they actually found it pretty interesting. They had a project that they had to complete by the second to last week of the semester in which they had to go to an old dusty basement in an old apartment building where a man by the man of Scott Jones once lived who adored mannequins that Master Bedii used to create. When Anthony and Ross found out what they had to do they were a little terrified that they had to go to some random old basement in order to write a paper for their American Culture class, but they sucked it up and did it anyways.

            On October 25^th right around Halloween, Anthony and Ross both decided to go to the old basement and get this project started. They brought along with them a camera, note pad, pen and wore old clothes in case they got dirty. Anthony and Ross got lost on the way to the old apartment because it was so run down and sat further back from the street so it was hard to notice. Finally, Ross pulled over in front of the old apartment it was around 7:30pm. When they walked up to the front door, they unlocked the old beat up wooden door with the key their professor provided them with and stood at the door step for a few seconds starring at the stairs leading to the dark quiet basement. Anthony whispered to Ross “You go first,” Ross replied, “Uhhhh bahhh uhhhh okayyyy,” with a long straight face as if he just saw a ghost. Ross crept down the stairs slowly and once he got to the bottom he flicked on the light which flickered a few times before actually staying on, and took a peek around. Ross shouted to Anthony who was shaking scared in his boots at the tops of the stairs that the basement was not bad at all, and that he can come on down. Anthony walked slowly down the steps and was shocked at what he saw, if not 100 then at least 200 tall mannequins that looked exactly like real people. Ross was in the corner amazed. Anthony said to Ross, “Dude, let’s get out of here, this is way too creepy!” Ross replied, “Relax man we need this for class and this really is not too bad. Let’s just examine these mannequins, figure out why they’re here then we will leave.” Anthony replied, “Okay, but hurry this is weird!” They both started to look around at each mannequin and all of them had such different features to them. Some represented culture and heritage while others were dressed in modern business attire and others as Turkish people. There were two mannequins in particular that Anthony was examining, it was of two Indians, a father who was tall with a very straight and serious look on his face and his son holding his hand looking up at his father as if something was not right. They both wore a feathered skirt around there waist, topless and each had a headband around their head with feathers pointing up from the back. Anthony thought these mannequins looked somewhat lost as if they were hunting for food and could not find any. He wondered why the artist would make such mannequins such as the Indian father and son. “How do you think these got here?” Ross asked. “I don’t know but this one is kind of cute” Anthony said with a joking chuckle. Ross found a little note on the ground that read “These were once Master Bedii’s Mannequins; I can no longer care for them, keep them safe down here and please don’t rough handle them.” “Who is Master Bedii?” Ross said. Anthony pulled out his iPhone and tried googling Master Bedii but no service was available. Both Anthony and Ross decided they would take a few pictures of some of the mannequins and type up a brief report on what they saw as well as add in the note they found and try to see if any of their classmates have heard of Master Bedii. They knew they would get an A+ with all the helpful information they acquired.

            As they drove away Anthony said, “Hey I guess that was not too bad, kind of interesting actually.” Ross replied, “Yeah, you’re right even though you were scared.” They both laughed then headed to a coffee shop so they could organize their final findings for their project. Anthony said, “I wonder if mannequins were ever an “American Culture” is that why our professor sent us?” Ross replied, “Good question, we can bring that up in our findings as well.”

            The due date finally arrived, right before the end of the semester; December 4^th finally was here for Anthony and Ross. They were relieved to finally be handing in this project. As they presented, their classmates were amazed with the mannequins in the photos and learned so much about this apartment basement and Master Bedii himself. The boys ended up receiving an A+ just like they hoped and there professor even let them keep the keys to the apartment basement where the mannequins stand alone in case they ever want to go back down into the basement and explore the mannequins more. The boys laughed, handed the keys back and said, “We will pass but thanks for the offer.”

            Both Anthony and Ross never went back to the old basement ever again. Three years later Anthony and Ross both graduated and successfully became engineers as they wanted, but also, believe it or not they started their own hobby of making their own mannequins themselves. They opened a museum in Brooklyn N.Y. and it was really a success and interest that attracts a lot of people.