They were six dresses in before Clara stepped out wearing a soft yellow floor-length dress. It hugged her body, dipping low in the front to show just a little bit of cleavage and cinching her small waist with a band of ruby-colored jewels. The back of the dress was breathtaking, fabric plunging to her lower back just above the band of rubies. Right under the band, the dress gathered and tumbled to the floor in a short, sweeping train. Jesse stood stock still, staring at her customer.
“Oh Clara,” she breathed. “This is the one.”
“Is it?” Clara asked.
Jesse replied by turning Clara around to face the full-length mirror. Clara didn’t recognize herself. The soft yellow of the dress was a perfect contrast to her dark brown hair. The band of rubies sparkled around her waist. She thought it was silly, but it made her feel like a princess. She fingered the jewels one by one as she listened to Jessie explain how the dress oozed understated elegance. Clara turned around to look at the train, wondering how she would walk around with it. Jesse sensed her uncertainty.
“Look,” she said, picking up the end of the train and turning the material inside out. She hooked her fingers around an elastic band sewn into the fabric. “It’s a wristband, see? You hook it around your wrist and then you won’t trip as you walk in your dress.”
Clara nodded feeling much better. She turned to look at herself again.
Jesse handed her a pair of strappy sandals. “We’ll need to alter it just slightly. The length needs to be taken up a bit.” She pulled a small box out of her pocket and flipped the lid while Clara fastened her shoes. “Stand straight up,” Jesse ordered and knelt down to secure pins around the hem of the dress. She glanced every now and again at Clara and smiled. This was her favorite part about her job, when a girl who thought she couldn’t afford a pretty dress for prom finally found it and felt like the luckiest girl in the world.
“Hair definitely up,” Jesse said standing up again. “You have a beautiful neck and need to show it off.”
Clara nodded.
“And soft make-up,” Jesse went on. “Don’t overpower the dress. Let the dress do all the talking. And no jewelry. You don’t need it with that band of jewels around your waist. Not even earrings.”
“No, I have to wear earrings,” Clara said.
“No you don’t.”
“Yes, I do,” Clara insisted gently. “They’re from a good friend who died recently.”
“I see,” Jesse said. “Well, not to sound completely heartless, but do they match?”
Clara grinned. “It doesn’t matter.”
***
“Okay, Clara. You go first this time,” Beatrice said.
Clara sat beside her sister outside among the honeysuckle vines. They grew faster and fuller this year, overtaking the flowerbeds and choking out the few perennials that attempted a comeback. The vines were more fragrant, attracting an assortment of bugs that flew around Beatrice and Clara. Beatrice swatted at them and told them she and her sister weren’t going anywhere and that the bugs would have to learn to share. Clara grinned. She plucked a flower and held it to her mouth.
“I wish for a fun prom night,” she said and sucked the end of the flower.
“And romantic, too, right?” Beatrice asked. “Is Evan picking you up?”
“Yes,” Clara replied.
“Are you nervous?”
“Yes,” Clara admitted.
“Well, you shouldn’t be, Clara. You have the prettiest dress in the world, and you’ll be the prettiest girl there.” Beatrice said it with such certainty that Clara didn’t object. “I wish for Angela to stay my best friend for life,” Beatrice said sucking down the nectar of the flower she just plucked.
“I wish for a good senior year,” Clara said and tasted the sweetness on her tongue.
“I wish for acting lessons when Mom can afford them,” Beatrice said and drained her flower.
“I don’t know that you need acting lessons, Bea,” Clara pointed out. “You’re pretty good.”
“One can always improve upon their craft, Clara,” Beatrice explained, and Clara nodded with complete understanding.
Clara paused considering her last wish. She thought it may be too personal for Beatrice to hear, but she wanted to make her wish in the honeysuckle grove, believing that if she said it out loud surrounded by the magical flowers then it was certain to come true.
“I wish to stay in love forever,” she said finally, and sucked down the nectar.
“Oh, you will, Clare-Bear,” Beatrice said. “You and Evan will get married.”
Clara grinned. “We’ll see,” she said and fell back into the yellow flowers, crushing the sweet sugar all around her.
Chapter 22
Clara was unsure if she could ask her mother for help getting ready for prom after she told her mother she hated her. She didn’t know how that worked, if parents truly loved unconditionally. Past experiences convinced her that Ellen didn’t, and she thought she should feel ashamed to even ask her mother for help. It was ballsy, and Clara knew it.
But she asked anyway, and her mother agreed excitedly. Perhaps she took Clara’s request as a sort of truce, and it only made Clara feel worse. She secretly wished Ellen had said no, slammed the door in her face, and left her on her own. She thought she deserved it. She also thought she should apologize, but she didn’t know how. Or maybe for Ellen it didn’t matter. Being asked to spend time with her daughter whenever she could was apology enough.
Ellen wanted to make a fun night of it. She popped popcorn and cracked open Dr. Peppers and shoved Madonna’s Greatest Hits into the CD player. Beatrice danced around Ellen’s room singing Lucky Star and trying not to spill her soda while Ellen rolled Clara’s hair with steam curlers.
“God, you have the prettiest hair, Clara,” Ellen said. She wasn’t trying to flatter. She really meant it.
Clara smiled shyly. She let her mother do her make-up as the curlers set, making sure to tell her that Jesse suggested something light and natural.
“Well, I’m not an idiot, Clara,” Ellen replied. “The dress is the statement tonight.”
Beatrice ate the entire bowl of popcorn as she watched her mother work. Ellen finished the make-up, then removed the curlers from Clara’s hair.
“Jesse said I should wear it up,” Clara said to her mother.