"Well?" Dawn said. "You haven't said a word all the time I've been working. What do you have to say now?"
"She loves it. Don't you, Ice?" Mama asked, her eyes pressuring me to respond positively.
I nodded.
"Yes. I think I do," I admitted.
Mama let out a trapped breath, and she and Dawn laughed. Mama really looked pleased and that made her face even softer and younger. Anger always aged her instantly, like a dark hand waved mai'cally in front of her.
"Now we'll do her eyebrows and I'll get her straight on her makeup," she told Dawn. "We're off to get her a nice dress."
"Are you going to a prom or something?" Dawn asked me. I looked at Mama.
"No, she's going on her first real date."
"First? You're kidding me. Lena Goodman."
"I wish I was," Mama said. "We've got a lot of time to make up." Dawn raised her eyebrows, looked at me and nodded.
"I bet." she said. "And I bet she will," she added.
Everyone but me laughed.
"Okay," Dawn said. "I gave you the best cut I could. Remember, before you go to sleep every night, prepare your hair for its own beauty rest. Apply a small amount of the moisturizer your Mama just bought for you, and to stop hair breakage, don't wear no hair band. We have satin sleep caps. Lena. Maybe you oughta get one for her."
"Yes," Mama said. "Absolutely."
Mama was on a tear now, spirited by our success at the beauty parlor. We took a cab to the Gallery at Market East and to Drawbridge's
Department Store where Daddy had a twenty-percent discount, When I saw the price of the clothes. I didn't think it mattered if he had a discount or not, but cost didn't matter to Mama. She wouldn't let a little thing like breaking our budget for a couple of months stand in her way.
"I don't want you wearing those granny clothes young -girls parade around in these days. Most of them look like sacks from thrift shops. And those clodhoppers they wear... I swear it's like girls are ashamed to show what they got anymore, or else they don't have it and don't have anything to show."
I tried to explain styles and trends to Mama, but she wouldn't hear of it.
"What makes you look good is in style and what doesn't is out of style in my book," she said.
We wandered through the teen fashions unsuccessfully. Mama didn't like anything. I thought she would give up on Drawbridge's, but she decided to go into the adult section, and she stopped in front of a manikin wearing what was called a princess cut blouse and skirt. It was a black and silver polyester jacquard material with a floral pattern on the blouse and a modest leaf pattern on the skirt. Because of the curve-enhancing princess shape in front and back. Mama thought it was sexy and stylish.
Wh
en I stepped out of the fitting room. Mama and people around her looked impressed. Other customers paused to look at us. too. I was
embarrassed by the attention.
"What a perfect fit and what a beautiful figure your daughter has. Mrs. Goodman. She could model for us," the saleswoman said, "She looks like she's in her early twenties."
"Her father will have to sit at the door with a shotgun, you buy her that dress," a woman just passing said to Mama.
Mama was bursting with pride, her eyes electric, her shoulders hoisted,
"That's the latest fashion, you say?" she asked the saleswoman.
"Yes ma'am. It just came in yesterday, matter of fact."
"We'll take it," Mama decided.
It was an expensive outfit because of its designer. but Mama was determined.