25th Piece

This is the 23rd post to the book I was talking about in my "What My Blog Is" post.


After all the plucking, poking, pinching, and brushing they are finally finished with everything. They tell me to stand up “gently” and they will lead me to a full length mirror. The lady has her hands around my eyes very lightly, to not smear the makeup but so that I won’t see, and the man is holding my hand and leading me forward. We stop and the girl lifts her hands away. I still squeeze my eyes shut, I don’t want to see myself because I know no matter how hard they try I would never look how I am supposed to and will probably just be yelled at again for not being perfect. “Open your eyes dearie,” Darlene says softly “You look gorgeous,” I tentatively open my eyes and then grow still. There must be some mistake; instead of taking me to a mirror they are showing me a picture of someone else wearing the same dress. I lean in closer and the girl in the picture does the same. Slowly I start to see the resemblances between the girl and me. I turn toward the assistants and Darlene, well shuffle that is, and sit on the floor looking up at them. Darlene immediately sits next to me after the assistants cringe when I hit the floor. “What’s wrong doll?” She asks in concern, I close my eyes and breathe in, the last time I was dressed like this was during the accident. The heavy dress got in the way of saving my family. I let out a shaky breath and stand up again. “Don’t worry nothing is going to happen today,” I hear in my ear, I slowly nod my head and say as perkily as I can manage, “What are we waiting for? The party is about to begin right?” The trio smiles at me and with some extra fluffing and dabbing we head out.