Body Building for Dummies

Jean Pierre was a self-made man but he wasn't perfect; his eagerness to develop his personality had led to a string of errors that he now regretted. 

He had often been told that he was heartless. That bothered him: if he didn't have a heart, were other organs missing?

He knew that he had a brain as he was capable of thinking such thoughts, but doubts raised by that statement remained.

He had religiously followed the instructions in “Body Building For Dummies”, step by step.

Although this was a dummy run in regard to his metamorphosis,
it was important that he got things right.

He checked again the list of required parts and found that he had indeed discarded some items that he felt redundant – for instance, what was the use of a funny bone? How could a calcified connecting tissue be humorous? That was out for a start.

Other bits that were described as vital, didn't seem to fit. His mission seemed that it was deemed to failure.

He didn't want people to think he was a dummy but he could not deny his humble origins as, until recently, he had been an inanimate mannequin in the Parisian fashion house Franks & Steyne.

On a dark and stormy night, a sudden and very powerful bolt of lightning that came through an open window hit him and jerked him into life. 

Even though prior to that, he had been soulless, he had, subconsciously, absorbed all that went on around him, and, one day, an item on the radio caught his attention.

It related to a German scientist who had developed a secret technique of imparting life to non-living matter.

Having heard that such a feat was possible he had set out to make himself human, a state that he had nearly achieved.

Listening to the radio became a regular occupation but the more he listened the less optimistic he become. 

The bulletins were full of bad news; conflicts everywhere, everlasting pandemics, global economic crises and alarming climate change, to name but a few.

He came to the conclusion that being a dummy was perhaps the best solution for a peaceful existence.

 Luigi Pagano 2022