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Barbie had gone and was not coming back. There was no point in assuming otherwise; he would never see her again. Ken lay in bed in what had been Barbie’s Dream House and now was his Mojo Dojo Casa House. He would never get up. He would lie there forever, becoming heavier and heavier as he sank into his depression, his thoughts black with despair. She would never be his; he would always be alone. He only got up occasionally to the mini-fridge to drink a Brewksi Beer. This kind of beer had no liquid in it as dolls could not drink liquid and Ken was a doll. But the air within the bottle contained essence of hops so when Ken inhaled it he was as intoxicated as if he had drunk actual beer. He had a bottle and then went back to bed, pulling the covers up around him.
Outside he heard Allan calling him. “Ken! It’s Allan!”
“Go away,” Ken said. “I don’t want to see you.”
“I’m coming in.”
“No!”
But Allan came in. He stood before Ken, looking at him sorrowfully, reproaching him with his eyes. “There’s a dance tonight at President Barbie’s Pink House. I think you should go with me.”
“I don’t want to,” Ken said stubbornly.
“You’re going anyway. Get up. Take a shower. Put on some nice clothes. I’ll be back this evening to take you there.”
“You’re crazy.”
“Yeah, maybe. You’re still coming, whether you want to or not. I’ll be damned if I let you lie one more evening alone. Aren’t I your best friend?”
“I don’t have any friends,” Ken said.
“Sure you don’t. Get up.” Allan pulled the covers off Ken.
“Hey!”
“I mean it. I’ll be back.” Allan went out.
Reluctantly Ken got up and took a shower. He put on black pants and a black shirt. A thin gold chain went around his neck. Barbie had given it to him in a rare moment of tenderness. He had another Brewski Beer. He sat at his table, trembling. I don’t want to go out, he thought.
But that evening Allan showed up as promised. He took hold of Ken by the arm and they went outside. They walked to President Barbie’s Pink House. Other dolls were streaming inside. “Hi, Ken!” they shouted. He did not answer. Allan and Ken went inside. Music was blaring. President Barbie was operating the CD player.
Ken noticed Doctor Barbie talking to a few of her friends in the corner. She was attractive, he thought. He liked her long red hair. He went up to her. “Wanna dance?”
“Sure,” she said brightly. Unknown to Ken, he was considered a major catch. He was the handsomest of the Kens and the sweetest in nature. They went out to the middle of the dance floor, faced each other, and began to dance. Surprised by his growing enthusiasm, Ken dipped her a couple of times and spun her around. She was laughing, delighted. He was amazed at how beautiful she was with her green eyes, her fair skin, and her red hair streaming down past her shoulders. She was wearing a beautiful pale green gown to match her eyes. He lifted her onto his shoulders and carried her around the room. Everyone cheered.
Doctor Barbie and Ken went outside. They sat outside on a bench to talk, where the music no longer drowned out the sound of their voices. Ken said, “I’ve been so lonely since Barbie left.”
“I’m lonely too,” Doctor Barbie said softly. Her eyes met his. She took hold of his hand and held it.
He sang her a song:
Doctor Barbie every night is on call,
She helps me out even though I’m a doll.
She’s great with medicine, surgery, and tender loving care,
She’ll even whisper kind words and gently stroke your hair.
She’s Doctor Barbie, yes, she’s my kind of girl,
I love her so much, let’s give this a whirl.
Ken squeezed her hand affectionately. “Do you mind if I stay over tonight with you?”
“Not at all,” Doctor Barbie said to his surprise.
“Well, fancy that.” He smiled, and she smiled back. He leaned forward as if to kiss her. He half expected Doctor Barbie to freeze as Barbie always had, but instead she leaned forward and met his lips with her own. Her lips were cool but they became burning hot as they kissed. It was Ken’s first kiss. He felt hot all over and a little trembly.
They went to Doctor Barbie’s Dream House. Once there Ken took off his shirt and pants and got into her bed, dressed only in his underwear. She took off her dress, and he saw her pale breasts for the first time. She put on a pink nightgown and got into bed beside him. He put his arms around her, and she reciprocated, leaning her head against his shoulder. He had never been that close to a woman before. They caressed each other and kissed some more. As dolls that was all they could do. Ken felt vaguely unsatisfied as if there was something else he was supposed to be doing, but he could not imagine what that might be. Still all in all it was very pleasant. He kissed her breasts, one and then the other, and caressed her throat with his lips. She stroked his chest and his abs and put her arms around his strong back. She reached into his underwear and stroked his hips. She kissed him hard and bit into his mouth. He was bleeding slightly but felt good. They fell asleep, holding each other in their arms.
The next morning Ken got up early and went out. He wanted to get his surfboard to show Doctor Barbie how athletic he was. He put on his striped shorts and shirt.
The other Barbies and Kens were gathering outside by the ocean. The waves shone a pristine blue and green in the sunlight. Allan saw Ken with the surfboard. “Oh, no, Ken!”
As Doctor Barbie approached, Ken went running with the surfboard into the ocean. The waves struck him hard and threw him back toward the beach with indifference. Ken landed hard on his back and knocked himself out. He woke up being taken on a stretcher to the medical station where Doctor Barbie examined him with the x-ray machine. “You have a concussion,” she said.
“My back hurts,” Ken said, wincing.
“Nothing is broken. You probably just sprained it. Here.” She took out a hypodermic needle and injected his arm with something. “I gave you some pain medication. You can have more in six hours.” She gave him a needle and put some more pain medication into a bag for him to take with him. “Inject it in this part of your arm. Now go home and rest.” Dolls could not take pills as they would not dissolve in their stomachs. They needed to have medicine injected directly into their bloodstream. Yes, dolls do have blood. Didn’t you know that?
Ken went home and got into bed. His back hurt terribly and his head didn’t feel so good either. After awhile the medicine kicked in and relaxed him and numbed the pain. After four hours he felt that he needed some more so he took another dose. Doctor Barbie came over in a while to see how he was feeling.
“I just want to sleep,” Ken said. He was very drowsy.
“Come see me when you’re feeling better.”
“Okay.” He was worried she would discover how fast he was using up the medication. So that night he went over to the medical station after everyone else was in bed and asleep. He found the medical station open, for no one ever worried about theft in BarbieLand. Inside there was a cabinet. He opened it without difficulty and found it full of medicine. He read the labels and decided to take a couple of different kinds: depressants to help with pain and to relax him, stimulants to wake him up and sharpen his mind. He put handfuls of these into a large plastic bag and took them home with him. Even though he’d just had the pain medicine three hours before, he took another dose. He was asleep within 15 minutes.
The next morning he was pretty drowsy so he took one of the stimulants and shot it into his arm. Within 10 minutes he felt the adrenaline running through him. Yes, even dolls have hormones. He ran outside. Running he encountered Allan walking on the beach. “Hey, Allan, let’s run!” he shouted.
Allan began to run but could not keep up with him. Soon he had dropped behind. “How is it you are running so fast?” he complained.
“You’re weak, old friend. You have to do exercises like me.” Ken dropped to the ground and began doing sit-ups. He did 100 sit-ups.
“Ken!” Allan was astonished. “I thought you hurt your back.”
“I did. It’s better now.” Ken jumped up and did 50 deep knee bends. “Come on, let’s run some more.”
“You run, I’ve had enough.” Allan watched him.
After awhile Ken dropped down, exhausted. “I need to get home. My back hurts. Help me, Allan.”
Allan put his arm around Ken’s waist and helped him home.
Ken went inside. “I’m going to rest for a while.” Unknown to Allan, Ken took one of the downers. He slept the rest of that afternoon. In the evening he took the uppers again. He went over to Doctor Barbie’s house. “Hey, Doctor B, are you ready for some lovemaking?”
“I guess?” she said. It was more of a question.
He came in, lifted her into his arms, and threw her on the bed, where he then joined her. Once again they caressed and kissed and hugged.
But there was something different about Ken this time, Doctor Barbie noticed. He wasn’t relaxed. He seemed agitated and stroked her hard, as though he could not get enough of her. “Are you all right?”
“Absolutely. Are you my girl? Can we be boyfriend and girlfriend?”
“I thought we already were,” she said.
“Good.” He hugged her so hard she thought she might break.
She slept finally but Ken could not sleep. He was still breathing hard. After awhile he got up and went home and took one of the depressants again. Only then could he sleep. He did not go back to Doctor Barbie’s that night. She woke up and found herself alone.
It was inevitable that eventually Doctor Barbie would notice Ken’s moodiness. He was either wound up higher than a kite with plenty of energy or so drowsy he could hardly keep his eyes open. “What’s the matter with you?” she asked him one day.
“What are you talking about? I feel fine. Let’s play volleyball.” He bounced the ball to her so hard it went way beyond her and past the next Dreamhouse. “Ha, ha, that’s funny! I’ll get it.” He ran over, got the ball, and served it back to her, being more careful this time.
“You’re either high or so down you can’t even look at me.” Many was the time she’d found him in his bed, unable to get up, still mourning Barbie.
“You’re imagining things.”
They played for a while. Then she said she had to rest. “Want to come over and cuddle?”
“No. I’m busy.”
Hurt, she went off by herself. She didn’t know that he had gone home to take another downer.
After this changing of moods went on for a while, Doctor Barbie began to get really worried about him. “Come over to the medical station,” she urged. “I want to give you a full check-up.”
“No. Leave me alone.”
They quarreled and it ended with his walking away. After that they did not speak to one another. Allan told Doctor Barbie that Ken’s behavior was strange. “One minute he wants to do 100 exercises, another time he’s so tired he can hardly stand up or won’t get out of bed, even to just sit outside with me.”
Doctor Barbie was walking outside one day when she found Ken standing, frozen in what seemed like terror, and sobbing. “What’s the matter, Ken?”
“Help me!” he cried.
“What’s wrong?”
“Can’t you see them? Those giant cats! With glittering evil eyes and fangs, opening their mouths to bite and holding their claws up to scratch. Hissing. They want to attack me! A whole bunch of them.”
She looked around. “There are no cats.”
He ran all the way home in a panic, Doctor Barbie following him. He ran inside to his bed, knelt down, and buried his face in the covers. “No!” he cried. “Please don’t kill me.”
Doctor Barbie put a gentle hand on his shoulder. “Ken, they’re not real. You’re having a hallucination.”
He was not mollified. “Help me, Doctor Barbie!”
“I’m here. It’s all right.”
He cried and shook until finally the hallucination stopped. He looked up, tearstained. “What happened?”
“You’re having a breakdown.” She gave him a gentle hug. “Ken, can you rest by yourself for a while? I need to go read my medical textbook. I need to try to find out what’s wrong with you.”
He nodded.
She went off. In her medical station she sat looking at a diagnosis. Bipolar disorder. Major shifting of moods, severe depression, agitation, high energy, psychosis. But it didn’t make any sense. His disorder had only started all of a sudden, after Barbie had left. Could bipolar disorder begin after a sad event like that?
Ken sat on the edge of his bed, miserable. He couldn’t stand having another hallucination; it had been terrifying. He hadn’t even been aware that he was afraid of cats. And he missed Barbie terribly. He liked Doctor Barbie, but she was no substitute for Barbie. I don’t want to live anymore, he thought, not without Barbie. He got up and shot needle after needle of the drugs into his arm. For good measure, he also drank several cans of Brewski Beer. Finally he collapsed.
When Doctor Barbie got back, she found Ken lying on the floor unconscious, medicine bottles, a hypodermic needle, and beer bottles scattered around him. “Oh, no, Ken!” She ran outside and saw Allan. “Allan, get a stretcher and some other Kens. Ken has tried to kill himself. We need to get him to my medical station right away.” Allan obeyed.
Soon they had Ken at the medical station. Doctor Barbie took a sample of his blood and examined it under a microscope. He had almost a fatal dosage of depressants and stimulants in his system. Quickly, she injected the antidote. Then she called Barbie at Gloria’s house on the phone. “Barbie, Ken has tried to kill himself. You have to get over here right away.” Doctor Barbie and the Kens took Ken over to the Barbie hospital and placed him in a private room. He lay unconscious.
A day later Barbie was there. She stood in the room by herself, watching Ken. He was very pale as he slept. A few hours later Ken opened his eyes. “Barbie!” He was overjoyed.
“You ought to be ashamed of yourself,” Barbie said severely. She was not going to let him get away with it, no matter how sorry she felt for him.
“Why?” He didn’t remember.
“How dare you try to kill yourself. Do you know how I would have felt if you’d succeeded? I would have blamed myself for the rest of my life.”
“I’m sorry,” he said. His voice trembled.
“This is just like when you were stalking me, when I begged you to leave me alone and you wouldn’t. Why can’t you leave me alone?” she shouted.
Tears went down his cheeks.
“That won’t work,” Barbie said. “I am done feeling sorry for you. Grow up!” With that she marched out.
Doctor Barbie came into the room.
“How much of that did you hear?” Ken said.
“I heard all of it, Ken.”
“She’s right,” Ken said. “I did it to get back at her. I did a terrible thing.”
“And now you have to get better,” Doctor Barbie said. “You will have to go cold turkey. Don’t worry. It will be hard, but I’ll help you.”
It was indeed hard. Ken trembled violently, he sweated profusely, he had sharp pains going through him like a knife, and he swore. Throughout it all Doctor Barbie held onto his hand and soothed him. A few days later the symptoms faded away. He was off the drugs.
Barbie came back to see how he was. “I’m sorry I got angry at you,” she said. “I was very upset.” Doctor Barbie was out of the room. Barbie patted his arm. “I’m glad you’re feeling better. But we can’t be together. We were never meant to be together.” She gave his hand a gentle squeeze. “Goodbye, Ken. We won’t be seeing each other again.” With that, she went out.
Ken began to cry. Doctor Barbie came back in and put her arms around him. “I love you,” she said. “Don’t you know that?”
No one had ever said that they loved him before. He sank into her embrace and cried.