After I reached beneath a design table with the broom and collected countless strips of lace, silk, and bows, I found my way through stands draped with linens and fabrics to a trash can beside the front door. When I reached into the door’s curtain to flip the sign in the window to closed, I saw the gazebo glowing across the square. For some reason nevertheless, I had an impression that it was grinning at me as though what had just happened there was only the first of the magical things to come. I peered at it, inching a bit closer to the glass, but suddenly the lights flicked out. I jerked my face out of the window. In the glass, I saw the reflection of Lynette rushing out of the storage room behind me. I turned. She was carrying a tray, and on it, a steaming mug with a tea bag string and paper dangling from it and a small plate with a pastry on it. She halted at a dressing room door and knocked.
“Rosa is it?” she said, tilted an ear toward the door. “I know you didn’t want me to go through all the trouble but I whipped you up a cup of tea with lemon anyway.” She lifted the plate. “I even added a little—” She tilted closer to the door. “Well, are you sure, it’s really no trouble at all? Okay, let me know if you need any help with you buttons.”
I watched Lynette stare at the door a moment, swallow, and then rush to a nearby design table where she set the cup and plate down alongside several packets of honey and a napkin with a spoon resting on it. While I walked up beside her, she studied each the items she’d situated there, adjusting the spoon a bit here, the cup a bit there, and then stared at the dressing room door, rubbing her shaky hands.
“Hi, Auntie,” I said smiling wide.
She yelp, threw her hands in the air. “Oh, Sebastian,” she said. “I forgot you were here.”
“What’s all this?”
“Tea for your, uh… friend.”
I sniffed it, curled my lip. “What’s in it??”
“It’s an old recipe with strong herbs, I agree, but if she eats it with this crumpet the aftertaste won’t linger as long.”
My forehead wrinkled.
“Trust the crumpet, Sebastian,” she said. “Years ago, my mother served one with my herbal tea when I was sick, and her mother when she was sick.”
“Sick??” I said. “What do you mean by sick?”
She looked at me as though I had three heads, tugged me behind a nearby linen stand, and then glanced back at the dressing room door. “Okay, Sebastian,” she said shaking my arm. “Out with it!”
“Out with what?”
“I didn’t want to ask either of you when you both walked into the shop, but since she’s in there dressing now, I want to know what it is—measles, mumps, a fever in reverse??”
I shrugged my shoulders.
“Your friend, Sebastian,” she said. “Here skin is hard and freezing… it’s almost like a block of ice. I shuddered twice just helping her try on shoes.”
I gasped, and then glanced at the dressing room door, back at Lynette, and back at the door. “Oh, that…” I said and forced a chuckle. “Well, you see, uh…”
She folded her arms.
“The thing is this, um…”
“Uh huh…”
I peeked at the door once more, and then seized her arm. “Shhh…” I said, finger pressed to my lips. “Quick, back here…” I led her behind the next furthest linen stand. “I told Rosa I wouldn’t say much because she is very sensitive about the situation, so you have to promise me that you won’t mention anything about… not until it blows over. So auntie, what do you say? Can I trust you??”
Lynette peeked around the stand. “What does she have??”
I drew her back toward me. “Please, I need you to promise.”
“Even if it’s one of those conditions I’ve learned about from watching the Wonder Channel??”
“Auntie, please…”
“Fine,” she said. “I promise I won’t say anything… there—are you happy? Now, what’s she got? Come on—I know I’ve heard of it.”
I tugged my collar, swallowed. “Well, for starters, it’s… umm, sort of, umm… common way up north…”
“Like the Arctic?”
“Huh? Oh right, yes… the Arctic.”
“Well, go on… what do they call it?” she said. “The scientific name, I mean.”
“They call it… well, it’s defined scientifically as a cold, freezing sensation like a Frost… Jack… itis—”
“Frosjacitis??” she said.
“Well… yes, you’ve got it—Frosjacitis!”
“Are you both still out there?” Rosa said voice said from behind the dressing room door. “Are you ready for me to come out?”
Lynette and I scurried from behind a stand.
“Now remember, Auntie,” I said. “Not a word to Rosa or anyone about her Frosjacitis, okay? You’d promised…”
Lynette folded her arms. “I’ll bite my tongue for now, but you best believe you’ve got some questions coming…” She turned toward the dressing room. “Come on out, Rosa!” she said and then peered at me.
Over my shoulder, I heard the swooshing sound of fabric. I leaned into Lynette nevertheless, hands clapped together. “Question? Auntie, please… she’s sensitive about the whole thing; there’s not much I could tell you… could you please just—”
Lynette’s eyes—they widened as they stared past me, and after I turned to see what she was gawking at, my jaw thumped the floor.
The blue silk clung to her thin waist as though it was thing she’d ever wear. The puffed sleeves lent the gown a regal effect much like a queen who sashayed into her court. Along the bodice, shimmery pearl dripped down the sides and fanned out with the bell over the floor. And her auburn curls dangle down only just touching the white trim along her shoulders.
Rosa bit her lip, her grey eyes searching ours, except Lynette and I only stood staring, and for the moment, unable to form words. She then glanced into a full-length mirror nearby. “Does it not look alright?”
“Alright??” Lynette said and then scampered to her, looked her over, and seized the sides of her covered shoulders. “Dear child, you’re absolutely breathtaking!”
Rosa’s eyes widened, mouth gaping. “Breathtaking? Really??”
I approached her, and she turned to me, showing me a glow in her eyes I hadn’t seen since the night I’d found her in the den by the fire when I’d circled around her and said she was real. While he stood face-to-face, I noticed she didn’t blink, not once as she returned my gaze. I could have stared into her eyes until morning. I stepped forward, half raising my hands with the thought of hugging her, but once she leaned forward, I stopped and swung my arms in a casual fashion and nodded. “Breathtaking indeed,” I said.
Rosa flattened her eyebrows at me, but I flashed a smile at her, swallowed, and peered at Lynette as she circled the gown picking off the lent, brushing the bell, and fluffing the puffed sleeves.
“You see, Rosa?” she said. “No other single word captures how wonderful you’re going to look tonight in one of my gowns… and I’m not only saying that because I made it. If you’re not the most beautiful young lady at the Christmas Eve ball I’ll hang-up my needle and thread and close the shop doors for good!”
Rosa laughed. “Oh no, Ms. Jones,” she said. “I couldn’t let you—” She paused. “Did you say, Christmas Eve Ball??”
“Yes,ball…”
“As in dancing??”
“Yes, child,” she said. “Dancing and prancing: one-and-a-two-and-a-three-and-a… wait, you can dance can’t you?”
“A little, but—”
“Well then. In this dress, as long as you don’t step on anyone’s toes, you’ll shine like a star. You wouldn’t mind that would you?”
“Stars are faint and distant and shine from faraway, Ms. Jones,” she said.
I touched her shoulder. “Come on, Rosa,” I said. “I’ll show you the time of your life… I promise.”
Lynette moved my hand, waved a finger at me. “But not too good a time as I am on-board to chaperone this year; not that any of our youth are troublesome. It’s the adults that I watch for.” She kneeled, straightened the bottom of her gown. “I still believe it was one of them who spiked the punch bowl the year before last.” She stood, backed away. “Now Rosa, let’s get another look at you.” She nodded and smiled. “You look wonderful. It’s amazing really, just this morning I’d questioned whether or not Sebastian could find a date and her you are tonight as though you’d just fallen out of the sky.”
Rosa whirled toward me. “You’d told her??”
“Told me what, child?”
“Un Auntie, how about we go ahead and ring the gown up?”
“Non-sense,” Lynette said. “I told you if you found a date she could have the dress free of charge.”
I shook my head. “I can’t let you do that. I can pay you and then buy used music workbooks for my studies next semester.”
I dug my wallet out of my pocket, but Lynette held-up her palm.
“No nephew,” she said. “I’ve already made up my mind. Besides, a promise is a promise… She can have the gown so long as she attends the ball tonight.”
Rosa’s face lit up. “My very own gown??” Thank you so much, Ms. Jones, I will attend the ball tonight! Thank you, thank you!” She raced to the mirror and, there, twisted and turned about, studying the dress.
“And that’s not all,” Lynette said, and walked over to her and whispered in her ear. Afterward, Rosa beamed ear to ear, turning her head left and right while Lynette petted and stroked her curls.
Lynette held up a single finger. “But I can only do it if you can arrive back here within an hour.”
“I’ll come back! Rosa said and threw her arms around her. But when Lynette did, as well, she began pressing her palm throughout Rosa’s back.
“What is this??” Lynette said and stepped around her. “You’ve still got that old ragged dress on. How did you forget to take it off? Come with me into the dressing room, I’ll find you something to wear home, and that thing can go straight into the trash.”
“But I didn’t forget to take it off,” Rosa said.
“Honey, if that rug means something to you we can hang it up, but for heaven sakes, take it off.”
“But if I take it off…” she said and glanced at me. “I can’t take it off… ever!”
“Why on earth not??”
“Because, she’ll catch a chill,” I said and rushed between them. “And she needs to stay warm.” Without a sound, I mouthed the word Frosjacitis to Lynette, and after she wrinkled her forehead at me, she smiled at Rosa.
“Of course,” Lynette said. “Well, let me run to the back for some pins to make certain your other dress stays out of sight.” She glanced once more at me, and I heard her murmured the word again before she rounded a linen stand and slipped through the storage room door.
Rosa twirled around in the dress. “Do you really like it, Sebastian?”
I told her that I did and then asked her what Lynette’s whisper was about.
“Oh, that’s a secret… for the ball tonight…”
She threw her arms around me, thanked me for the wonderful surprise, but I claimed I had not given it to her yet and that I was saving it until after the ball. She wanted a hint as to what it was, but I shook my head and smiling, peering at the mug of tea, pastry plate, and napkin-wrapped spoon lying beside it.
“Not just yet…”