Элизабет Чандлер - Don't Tell

When I put on the dress, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry; a sleeping bag would have been as flattering. I gathered the waist with my fingers, trying to shorten the dress and give it some shape, then padded down the hall toward Aunt Jule’s room to find something I could tie around me as a belt. I hoped she was in a better mood.

“Good Lord!” she exclaimed before I could say a word.

“Are you trying to be nominated for wallflower of the year?”

“I thought a belt might help.”

She clucked and came toward me. “It’s going to need more than that,” she said, grasping the fabric, lifting the dress up from my shoulders. “Perhaps your date can bring football pads.”

“I think he plays basketball.”

“Then we’ll have to use his shoes.”

I laughed, glad to know she was back to her old self.

With her hands still on my shoulders, she turned me around, then shook her head. “I don’t know why Holly thought her dress would fit you. Let’s see what I’ve got I may have to do some fast sewing.”

I followed her into the walk-in closet, a pleasantly chaotic room, where Nora, Holly, and I used to play. Aunt Jule suddenly seized on something. “This is it! Perfect. Halter tops never go out of style, not when you have pretty shoulders.”

She pulled out a rather slinky red dress.

“Wow.”

“ I was pretty wow,” she said, “back in the days when I could fit in this. Now you can be.”

“I don’t know,” I said, touching the stretchy red fabric.

She marched me out of the closet and turned me toward the mirror. “Lauren, look at yourself. Do you really want to go to a prom looking like you’re playing dress-ups?”

I shook my head.

“So give it a try. Don’t be prim.”

“I’m not prim,” I argued. “I just don’t want to call attention to myself, and red does.”

“So does a dress several sizes too big.”

“True.”

“How about shoes?” Aunt Jule asked.

“Holly brought me several pairs.”

“Do they fit as well as her dress?”

“I haven’t tried them yet.”

Aunt Jule disappeared inside the closet. Box lids started flying. “Here we are.”

She emerged holding up a pair of red heels. “Okay,” she said, noting the expression on my face, “so they’re retro.

Trust me, when guys see you in these, they’ll be falling all over you.”

“Or I’ll be falling all over them. How can you stand in heels that tall and skinny? I’ve got four-inchers, but they’re not on pinpoints.”

“Try them,” she said.

I did, walking back and forth in my room, then up and down the porch, my heels clicking loudly, my bathrobe blowing in the breeze of arriving storms.

At eight-fifteen I was dressed and surveyed myself in the mirror once more. The red gown was the most sophisticated thing I’d ever worn. The slits up its sides did more than provide a view of my legs, they were necessary if I wanted to walk rather than hop like the Easter Bunny.

I picked up the little evening bag Aunt Jule had lent me and headed downstairs. When I reached the lower hall, I heard Frank, Holly, and Aunt Jule talking. I assumed the guys hadn’t arrived yet. Relaxing a little, I entered the river room and strode toward the fireplace, where Holly was posing.

Frank glanced over his shoulder, then turned around and whistled at me.

“Really, Frank.” Aunt Jule said, but this once he had succeeded in pleasing her.

Holly looked at me with surprise. “Where did you get that dress?”

“It’s your mom’s.”

“I lent you mine,” she said.

“It was beautiful, but it didn’t fit.”

“Surely, Holly,” Aunt Jule interjected, “a girl into details, as you are, would have noticed that you and Lauren are built very differently.”

I heard the put-down in my godmother’s voice and wished she’d act more like a mother and less like a goading sister.

“Holly, you look incredible,” I said. She was wearing a silk dress that perfectly matched her sapphire eyes. Her long black hair swept down over thin straps and a low-cut back. “I want a picture of you for my room at school.”

“Perhaps one of you gals together,” Frank suggested.

“No,” Holly said. “With our dates and individually.”

I didn’t argue. It was her prom, we should do what she wanted. I backed up and sat down on a hassock. With the height of my shoes and the low seat, my knees shot up. So did the tight skirt, its slit climbing three quarters of the way up my leg.

“I don’t know about these shoes, Aunt Jule,” I said. “You could use them for hole punchers.”

A deep laugh sounded behind me. I jumped.

“Nick! I didn’t know you were here.”

“I came in from the porch,” he said.

He looked terrific and surprisingly at ease in his tux.

“Why didn’t you say something?”

His green eyes held mine for a moment, shining softly. “I couldn’t think of anything.”

“That’s rather unusual for you, Nick,” Aunt Jule remarked.

Frank agreed with a grunt.

Nick smiled and sat in the chair behind me. “Enjoy it while it lasts.” His eyes dropped down to my legs.

I pulled on my dress, then self-consciously rested my hand on my calf. Nick watched Holly pose but kept stealing glances at my legs. I couldn’t stand it, the funny, fluttety feelings I was getting whenever he looked at me. I turned to face him. “This is nothing new,” I said quietly. “You’ve seen both my legs before.”

He leaned closer. “Then why are you covering them up?”

“Okay, next beauty,” Frank announced.

I looked up and discovered Holly glaring at us. I couldn’t blame her.

“It’s not my prom, Frank,” I said. “I don’t want any pictures of me.” What I really didn’t want was to draw attention away from Holly.

“Well, your godmother might. Jule?”

“Yes, definitely,” she said.

I stood up reluctantly.

While Frank was taking my picture, Nora walked in and sat on the floor next to Nick.

“Hey, Nora girl,” Frank greeted her.

She didn’t respond.

“Frank, I want one of Lauren and me together,” Aunt Jule said. “She looks so grown-up, so very beautiful.”

Nora turned her head. Her eyes studied every detail of me, making me uneasy.

“And then how about some pictures of Aunt Jule with Nora, and Aunt Jule with Holly,” I suggested.

“No, we have plenty of us already,” my godmother replied, standing next to me, putting her arm around me. “You look absolutely stunning, love. You’ll be the belle of the ball.”

I stole a look at Holly, who, luckily, didn’t seem to be listening. She and Nick were going down a checklist for the yearbook’s coverage of the prom.

Aunt Jule and I smiled at Frank’s command, then she suddenly bent her head close to mine, studying the chain around my neck. “You’re wearing it!” she exclaimed. “The heart I gave you when you were a baby. I didn’t know you still had it.”

Holly glanced up.

“Look, girls,” Aunt Jule said, lifting the pendant with one finger. “It’s the little heart I gave Lauren. Do you remember it?”

Nora shook her head no.

“I think so,” Holly said. “Is it gold?”

“Silver,” Aunt Jule replied.

“I don’t remember,” Nora said.

“Of course you do,” Aunt Jule insisted. “Lauren wore it all the time. She’d get a white mark on her little suntanned neck. Sondra took it from you, Lauren,” Aunt Jule recalled. “I was so afraid she had gotten rid of it. Where did you find it?”

“Don’t tell,” Nora said.

“In the boathouse.”

“Don’t tell! It’s a secret!” Nora cried out.

Aunt Jule and Holly turned to her, both of them frowning.