Paper Dress


I rustle my pale, dry fingers against my dress. My placid dress, no frills, no folds, no creases, no molds. Just plain and white. My fingers close in on the rough, papery white texture. I let go, and there are two scrunches at the sides of my dress. My plain white dress.
Danzie frantically hops over the moment she sees my dress.
“Oh, Ellen! What have you done! That’s paper silk—four thousand dollars—what am I going to do?” She kneels down in front of me, pats down the creases, and tries to straighten out the folds. “My goodness! What are we going to do with this? Oh, Ellen! I gotta call Deedee for this one! Oh…”
I shrug. My pointed shoulders lift for a second, and then they drop. It makes the dress rise and fall right along with it. I smile. I shrug another time, faster this time. The dress sort of spreads out as it falls this time.
“Stop,” she says distractedly. She’s punching in buttons on her caller device. While she’s waiting for an answer, her head tilted onto her shoulder to wedge the CD in between, she looks at the folds. The frowning folds. “She needs to take a look at this. How serious is this? What did you do, just grab the dress?”
I look at her blankly.
“I told you not to touch it!”
I shrug again. The dress moves again.
“I said, don’t do that!”
Her expression changes.
“Oh, yes. Hi, Deedee! It’s me, Danzie. Oh—um, not yet. Not yet. …Yes, about that. Do you have time? … Right, but… yes. There’s a problem. Her dress—Mhm, right. Okay. … Five minutes?... Okay. …Yeah, she has to be there by thirty. …Yep… Thanks! … Okay, bye.”
Her head snaps right back into place and she puts her CD in her butt pocket. I wonder how many things she has in there. She has her keys, her CD, her money, her ID card…
“Look at me!”
I look.
“Now, what did I tell you? Not to touch you dress. It’s really expensive, and it’s really important. And don’t do that when you go up there, okay? You can’t do anything. Just follow your script. No shrugging, no running, no crumpling. Okay? Exactly as it says in the script. Because if you don’t…” Her eyes flicker left and right for a split second.
“Then we’re all done for.”
Just then, a tall, sleek woman glides into the circle. Her clothes are a bizarre color and her skin is a mix between dark orange and light blue. Her make-up is dark and scary, but her eyes twinkle with a kindness. Her arms swing with charisma, and her shoes make ominous clank, clank! Sounds on the floor.
“Ahh, Deedee! You’re here already!”
Deedee waves nonchalantly. “Yes, I’m here. A bit earlier, but that’s what I like doing. Being early.” She walks quickly over to my direction, in fact—directly in my direction, and I am so overwhelmed and scared that I almost fleet away from her path. Then I realize it’s me she’s walking towards.
“Oh, honey. Are you scared of me? I hate when people do that. It’s fine. I’m not going to kill you. You’ve nothing to be afraid of.” Her purple lips curve into a nice U, and her shiny white teeth flash for a split second.
I shudder. But only silently.
“Let me see. Ooh! What is this? Paper silk! I haven’t seen this in quite a while!”
She leans over, kneeling, to gently touch the hem of my dress.
“Danzie, you’ve stepped up a level recently! Where did you get this? Not from Alba, I presume?”
“No, it wasn’t from Alba,” she says, peeking at my dress behind her shoulder. “It’s a new shop—at the corner of the square. I don’t quite remember the name…”
“Ahh, you should take me there sometime! The quality is better than I’d have expected.”
She looks up to the scrunches at the side of my dress.
Her eyes flicker to mine and then back to the dress. “What is this?”
“Oh,” says Danzie, popping up to stand up straight. She dusts her lap nervously. “I’m not sure, I think that she grabbed—“
“You touched the dress?” Deedee looks at me, her eyes looking into mine.
I look at her blankly.
“It’s paper, do you know that?”
I look at her blankly.
“Paper dresses cannot be touched. Not even by the wearer.” Her eyes seem to get pointier and angrier. She looks at me. She glares.
But only for a second.
She smiles, her purple lips into a U. Her teeth flash for a second.
“It’s fine. I can fix it.”
Without asking, she takes the top of my dress and lifts it off my shoulders and off me. My pale skin shivers, trying to shake off the feeling of cold loneliness. I need something to wear!
Seeing me shaking, trembling uncontrollably, Danzie throws a towel in my direction.
I clutch it desperately and wrap it around myself. It is warm and soft. I sigh.
They are at the other side of the room now, talking speedily and talking low. I bet they’re talking about me. I bet they’re talking about how they want to get rid of me, but they can’t.
I bet they’re talking about if they weren’t forced to do this, they would probably kill me first.
As if they heard me, Danzie and Deedee look back at me. They smile. Their lips are in a nice U.
Their teeth flash for a second. Their white, shiny, clean teeth.