Page 87 of Dreams of Falling
I looked at the two older women, then moved past Ceecee and into the house. I ran upstairs to my room, dropped the cigar box on the dresser, and pulled off my clothes, leaving them on the floor next to my suitcase. Impatiently, I removed the plastic cover and slid the dressover my head, fumbling with the zipper as I walked back across the room to the door, eager to have this over with.
As I walked in front of the cheval mirror in the corner, I stopped, my hand involuntarily moving to my mouth. The woman reflected in the glass was the woman in the photographs, the woman smiling and laughing with her friends on a trip to Myrtle Beach. I stepped closer, studying the stranger staring back at me. Except she wasn’t a stranger. I recognized the eyes and the hair, the silver hoop earrings I’d put on this morning, and the pale pink lipstick.
Yet I didn’t recognizeher. That woman was beautiful. Intelligent and self-assured. The kind of woman I’d always wanted to be and for a long time had pretended I was. She couldn’t be me. But, somehow, she was.
“Hurry up,” Ceecee called from downstairs. “We’re dying to see you in the dress!”
I reluctantly backed away from the mirror, as if afraid the woman would escape and I’d never find her again. “Coming,” I called, then headed toward the stairs.
The three women stood in the foyer, watching me walk down the graceful stairs, the stained-glass window in the stairwell shining a prism of rainbow-hued light around me.
“Oh.” The sound came from Ceecee, and I wasn’t sure whether it was a sigh of happiness or distress. Bitty reached for her hand and held it tight.
“You are stunning,” Bitty said, smiling widely. “Simply stunning.”
“I couldn’t have said it better myself,” Mabry said. She moved behind me and began tugging on the dress in various places to see if it gaped or might be too tight. “It’s a perfect fit,” she announced. “I wouldn’t change a thing. I wouldn’t even get rid of the crinoline. It accentuates your tiny waist, and it’ll look gorgeous when you dance.”
I wanted to roll my eyes, but the memory of what I’d looked like in the upstairs mirror stopped me. This would be my first and only chance to live my girlhood fantasy, to play Cinderella before the clock struck twelve and I had to rush back to the life I’d salvaged from the wreckage of ill-advised fantasies.
“You look so much like her,” Ceecee was saying, her voice wobbling. “Just like she looked that night at the Ocean Forest, remember, Bitty?”
“Of course,” Bitty said. “How could I ever forget? Margaret always said that was the happiest night of her life.”
“Why is that?” Mabry asked.
Bitty and Ceecee exchanged a glance. Then Bitty said, “Because that was the night she met the love of her life.”
“My grandfather?” I asked.
The doorbell rang, and we all turned toward the front door. Mabry crossed the foyer and peeked out of the glass sidelight. She faced us and in a loud whisper said, “It’s Jackson Porter.”
“I hope he brought back the brownie plate,” Bitty grumbled as Mabry opened the door.
“Hello, Jackson,” Mabry said, standing in the doorway and blocking his view inside. “Can I help you?”
I couldn’t see his face, but I could imagine his confusion at seeing Mabry and having her interrogate him. “I’m right here, Jackson,” I said, winding my way around the two older women. “Were you looking for me?”
He didn’t say anything right away, his gaze taking in the dress, traveling down to my bare feet, then to my neck, settling a little too long on my chest before quickly moving back up to my face.
“If I knew how to whistle, and thought you’d appreciate it, I would,” he said, making me laugh. “You look beautiful. What’s the occasion?”
“She’s going to the Shag Festival tomorrow with Bennett,” Mabry said.
He looked genuinely disappointed. “That’s why I stopped by. I was driving home and thought I’d say hello, invite you to the festival tomorrow.”
“Sorry, she’s already got a date.” Mabry actually made to close the door. I shot her an angry glance as I stopped the door with my hand.
“But if you’re there, too,” I said, “I’m sure Bennett won’t mind if I dance with you.”
I felt Mabry’s gaze boring into the side of my head.
“Terrific,” Jackson said, sending me his quarterback smile. I felt a small ripple roll through my veins. “I’ll see you there.”
“Not if I see you first,” I said, and want to slap myself for saying something so stupid and incomprehensibly immature—something the sixteen-year-old me would have said—but I didn’t get the chance, because Mabry had already closed the door in his face.
twenty-nine
Ceecee
