Based on The Twilight Zone, Season 1: Episode 34:

The After Hours
by Michael Romani

There before our amazed and waiting wondering eyes
The scene opens on a department store high rise
A young lady is wandering, appears listless and bored
Through the fashionable side of the department store
She is uncertain of what she's exactly looking for
She catches the elevator to the ninth floor

It is a golden thimble ride to the ninth floor
Express elevator to an emptiness hard to ignore
The odds are that she'll find what she's looking for -
What she's looking for and maybe a whole lot more
The request made is a vague sort of very simple
She's looking to buy her mother a golden thimble

The fourteen karats gold is quietly distinctive
Gift wrapped and splendid; simple yet exquisite
The exchange is terse, cold and grows unfriendly
The confrontation with the sales lady is laced with envy
The static in the air is harsh and nobody's business
But even a drunk blind man could hardly miss this

Hurriedly she races to escape to the elevator door
She's in a sudden rush to get off the ninth floor
Disgruntled she complains and begins to grumble
The disinterested liftman rolls his eyes and mumbles
The complaint department he says is on the third floor
Trick is, she is told, is that there no such ninth floor

The store management finds itself in a mild uproar
Regarding the odd woman's insistence on a ninth floor
In a startling turn of events, she finds the mannequin
That waited on her and falls into confusion again
How did this mannequin serve her on the ninth floor
This is simply too odd for her to choose to ignore

Falling into a deep faint she wakes up long after hours
Alone, her sad expression turns into a frightened glower
The exit is locked; she's been left stuck inside
As her panic builds, she begins to lose all kind of pride
Searching, desperately hoping, seeking and stumbling
She finds the remnants of her vain sanity crumbling

The mannequins call out to her for her memory
Of who she is and who she will always be
Onto the elevator she backs as the voices grow louder
Walked back in she shrinks a little as the mannequins crowd her
Gathering around to support and help her slipped concentration
She finds she is a mannequin who found the world a fascination

Marsha only wanted a moment more to be partly real
Having had forgotten the terms of the deal
She has had ever so much fun
In her moments of feeling as though she was someone
And now a wooden lady hides behind her painted face
Magically, mysteriously returned to her Twilight place

(c) September 12, 2017  Michael Romani
All Rights Reserved