having your clothes on and being dressed. Sheâs dressed: black chemise, red shoes, red beads, and fingernails red as fire. And her cast-off clothes will be for getting dressed, too. In Goose Rock you put your clothes on.
She sits down at her dressing table.
âOh, Amanda, I forgot to take your coat. Just hang it on the bedpost.â
I do, and she gets to work, licking an eyebrow pencil, leaning intently toward herself. I sort out the delicate dresses, feeling like a chowhouse dish beside china. These arenât for meâa yellow crepe scoop-necked shimmy, a lavender square-cut shift.
âAt least try the red one.â
I untangle it and find buttons smaller than baby teeth, a straight skirt, a flounce to let you walk. Can you see me headed up the dirt road to school in this?
But sheâs saying to try it onâ
âNo, you ninny, you have to take your clothes off first!â
I feel more naked standing here in my slip than bathing in the kitchen at home. I try to hurry, but the dress sticks at my shoulders, my hipbones. Finally I get it on, pull it straight.
Aunt Laura watches from the mirror.
âNot bad,â she says. âCome let me see.â
She tilts her head and studies me. Her red mouth curls.
âI used to look just like you.â
âYou did not.â That pops out before I can stop it.
âI did too. I was tall and skinny, what they call a carpenterâs dream.â
âPardon?â
âFlat as a board. And I slumped to apologize for taking up space.â
âYour face never looked like mine.â
âNo, yours is stronger. And your eyes are like amber. The dress isnât right but the color is. Amandaââ
I hate being inspected by someone so pretty. âWhat?â
âDid you ever have a doll?â
âI had Beverly.â
âAnd clothes for her.â
âAll that Mama had time to make.â
âNo matter what you put on her she looked the same, right?â
I nod. I didnât come over here to talk about dolls.
âBut people arenât like that. They change. The doll is all on the outside.â
I wait for her to get to the point.
âSo the outside has to be perfect. But what people have on the inside changes how they look. Of course, hairstyle helps and makeupââ
âWhat youâre saying is Iâm not pretty but Iâm nice.â
She laughs.
âYouâre stubborn, Iâll say that. Like Mother and me and Rena.â
âIs that bad?â
âIâd say itâs good, the world being what it is. But thatâs another story. Iâm ready. You get your clothes on and letâs see what we can see.â
21
I feel so lucky to be going out with Aunt Laura. I donât know whereâmaybe a play or a concert. You canât even go to a picture show in Goose Rock. Besides, I want to see something on a stage. I want to sit in the dark and see somethingâ
âAmanda!â
âWhat?â
âThis is the streetcar stop.â
âSorry.â
âYou were a million miles away. Homesick, Iâll bet.â
I donât say anything.
âYou canât tell me you donât miss Duck Roost.â
The Number Eight car rattles up and we get in. We have to sit in front, right behind the driver.
âItâs Goose Rock. And no, I donât. I miss Willie sometimes and maybe Helen.â
âAnd your little place by the hearth?â
âYou missed Mama pretty bad when she started courting Daddy.â
âTrust Mother to bring that up.â
âItâs all right to miss people.â
âNot for me, Amanda. Iâve got to have them.â
âBut Mamaâs still your sister.â
âSheâs no more mine than a toy thatâs rolled out of reach.
Cress is my sister now.â
âUncle Cress?â
âAnd brother and father and mother, and babies and Holy Confessor.â
âBut Omie and
Jodi Picoult
Horace McCoy
Naomi Ragen
Michael Slade
Brenda Rothert
Nicole Sobon
Tony. Zhang
Viola Rivard
Robert J. Mrazek
Jennifer Ryder