“I am silly, huh? I’m also stranded in your house with no clothes and no money, and I’d like to stick around for a while, if that’s okay with you.”
“Neat-o! Let’s find you something to wear. And let’s go have an ice cream. I’m tired of being cooped up in my bedroom. It’s almost dinnertime, and I’ve been in my pajamas for three days!”
Maggie begged for the bathroom and a toothbrush and met Lizzie in Irene’s room when she was finished using the toilet and scrubbing her face with the cold cream she found in the cabinet. Lizzie was already dressed and had laid out an outfit on the bed, complete with a bra with cone shaped cups that looked more suited to Wonder Woman than a pretty seventeen-year-old like Irene. Maggie looked at it doubtfully. The panties laying beside it would cover her belly button.
“I think you should pull your hair up in a ponytail. It won’t look quite so babyish that way. And here’s a hair ribbon that will match your sweater.” Lizzie seemed so pleased with herself that Maggie decided not to complain about the underwear, or the comment that her long hair was “babyish.”
“While you get dressed, I will run downstairs and take care of Nana. She can give us some of her grocery money, and we’ll have dinner at “The Malt.”
Lizzie buzzed out of the room, and Maggie proceeded to pull the borrowed clothes on. She pulled on the bra and panties, feeling like she’d stepped into a commercial for synchronized swimming. She chortled at her bullet shaped breasts, outlined perfectly by the fitted blue sweater Lizzie had picked. The blue polka dot pants were high waisted; they had to be to cover those giant undies. They looked like capris....or cropped equestrian pants. She slid her feet into the white flats and dutifully pulled her hair into a high ponytail, tying the ribbon around the elastic band.
Twirling in front of Irene’s mirror, she wondered if she would dare leave the house this way. She picked through the makeup on Irene’s vanity, finding an eyelash curler, an eyebrow pencil, and a round tin of eyeshadow that slightly resembled what she used in 2011. There was a little brush and a rectangular pan of something that said “Maybelline.” She stared at it, puzzled. She decided to leave it alone. Instead, she lined her eyes with the black eyeliner pencil and dabbed on a little shadow. She applied some red lipstick, which seemed to be the only shade Irene had.
She supposed she would do. It was then that Maggie realized not only did she not have her glasses here in 1958, but she didn’t seem to need them. She spun around, focusing her eyes on every corner of the room and then swinging back to her befuddled reflection in the mirror. Crystal clear, all of it. It didn’t make any sense. But at least she wouldn’t go stumbling around while she was here, squinting and bumping into things.
“I’ve got two dollars! We’re going to eat like kings! We even have enough for a show!” Lizzie burst into the room waving the money around in her hand and dancing around. “Nana gave it to me! She thinks I am meeting Eileen and Lucy. I decided not to tell her about you until tomorrow. Don’t worry. I’ll sneak you in tonight. She doesn’t come upstairs after bedtime unless I screech like a banshee, which I sometimes do. Seeing ghosts isn’t always the funnest talent.” Lizzie slipped her hand into Maggie’s and proceeded to pull her out the door and down the stairs, never even pausing for air.
“You can ride Irene’s bike. She never rides it anymore, not since Daddy bought her a car. You do know how to ride a bike, don’t you?” Lizzie walked to the garage and opened the door, flipping on the light to brighten the interior. Within seconds, Maggie had assured Lizzie that she did indeed know how to ride a bike, and they were off down the street, heading downtown for supper in 1958.
It was a good thing Lizzie was with her because although the general layout was the same and she recognized some of the homes, the spaces between the homes was larger, and much was missing from the landscape. Main Street was decidedly different. Although many of the buildings were the same, the businesses they housed had almost all changed. There was a huge drugstore, a J.C Penney and Co. department store, a jeweler that had a giant cartoonish picture of a diamond and “Watch Repair” emblazoned below. There was a barber shop with the twirly red and blue striped pole and men in hats going in and out of the establishment. There was a furniture store that didn’t exist in modern day Honeyville, either. It had televisions and toasters in the windows with a banner that shouted that they now carried the “Crosley Automatic -- the world’s first fully automatic television with five electronic wonders at your fingertips.” A bank on the corner of Main and Center Street, with a massive clock jutting out from the sign declared it “A great time to save.”
There was a courthouse with stately pillars that must have been torn down before Maggie ever arrived in Honeyville. It sat next to Honeyville High which looked old even in 1958. No wonder they were building a new one. Maggie wondered if she would have a chance to go see it, and if the construction was finished. It had just been completed in the summer of 1958 when Billy and Johnny fell from the balcony. Maggie pushed those thoughts away.