CMJB's Short Story Project: 2017

Two months until prom, I kept repeating to myself, “Tara, two more months until prom”. This weekend my mom and I have scheduled an appointment with her favorite tailor that she claims to trust with her life. And I’m not the least worried, I’ve seen the traditional attire he has designed for my mother and it has me ready for the weekend to arrive. I have gone through the outline, the colors, the pattern, and I’ve obsessed over similar designs, and each time I do I have the same reassuring feeling that everything is going to go perfect. Last Monday, Becky confided in me and shown me the progress of her dress, her parents are paying a fortune because not only do they want their “princess’s” dress custom made, they also paid the designer extra to only design her dress. When the news got around to everyone at school we all wondered what would happen for her wedding. The days counted down until finally it was the weekend, it was time to make a visit with my tailor. My mother and I drove down to a sophisticated office building deep into downtown. When i walked into the office I was greeted by his secretary, she didn't look particularly pleasant, she wore mismatched clothing and green eyeshadow that looked wrinkled on her eyelids every time she squinted through her glasses. She smiled as she handed me some treats in a small bag with a card that stated, “We make your wishes come true!”. The card had nothing to do with the tailor’s business so I proceeded to follow my mother to the tailor. He came out to greet my mother and I immediately started to smile. He was dressed in vibrant designer clothing from head to toe, it was obvious he knew what fashion was. “Is this your little darling that’s going to prom?” he said, as he shook my hand and stated his name, Jeffrey. I smiled, while my mother answered him, he snapped his fingers, clapped and rushed back into his office saying “let’s get to it”. We laughed and talked about our favorite fashion statements of all the current award shows, and I really felt that our bond was strengthened through our taste in fashion. Everything we planned about the dress, I trusted he would deliver. As our appointment came to end, I couldn’t help but to smile from cheek to cheek, I finally felt like a weight has been taken off my shoulders and prom was really beginning to happen. As I left the office, the secretary seemed to have been in the same place, like she had been waiting for me. I glanced at her and she winked at me.

Since I had my dress out the way, I finally felt prepared to plan for senior festivities. I planned how prom weekend would go with my friends, ordered my cap and gown and finished up last minute college requirements. School began to narrow down with prom arriving in less than two weeks. Each day I would ask my mom about the progress of my dress and she had the same response, “he’s not ready, he’s adding finishing touches..” . Finally a week before prom, everything was ready, I was too excited to hold in my squeals, I was practically dazed the whole car ride over. When we arrived, I jumped out and forgot to close the car door. I ran inside, and noticed that the creepy secretary wasn’t at her post. When i got a chance to look back up, I saw Jeffrey, standing, smiling at me with what appeared to be a new table cloth he designed. He pushed this strange configuration of fabric closer to me, and i blurted out without sense, “is this my dress?”. He shook his head with excitement, as I stood frozen. My mother finally arrived from outside, pulled off her sunshades, and repeated, “is this the dress? Jeffrey start talking” he looked with confusion, “Tara, isn’t this lovely, I followed the outline, sweetie this is your vision, remember?” I took a look at the dress with dismay, and my cheeks felt red hot, i gave a look to my mom and she understood my gestures, her composed American accent was hard to decipher when she told Jeffrey. “Now, would you let your daughter wear this, huh? Your nieces? Would you let them step out the house like this?” Jeffrey refuted, “Tara try on the dress darling, i promise you, you’ll have different set of words, then you did when you walked in, go,go,go!”. I grabbed the dress from his hands feeling hopeless and praying that all i needed to do was try on the dress for a miracle to happen. I tried it on. No miracle. This was the dress. I walked out with the dress to show Jeffrey and my mom shaking my head, i gave a look to my mom that she understood as, “it’s not the one”, to Jeffrey, he understood it was failure on his part. He jumped up from his chair and blurted, “This can be fixed, give me another opportunity! I promise it will not look anything like this, if you really want to know, I had my assistants make this”. My mother’s eyes opened, and she gently patting my back to reassure me that we would not be coming back.

Sobbing uncontrollably, I looked to my dresser and saw the bag of treats I had gotten from the secretary, tears continued to roll down my eyes as i opened the bag and saw the card that stated “We make your wishes come true”. I tossed it to the side and began to weep even more, I grabbed some mints that were in the bag and ate them hoping they would make me feel better. Suddenly I felt a cold breeze around my room as i swallowed the mints down. I look up, through tear soaked eyes and see a little fairy, she looked like the secretary from the office, but a lot more pleasant looking. I immediately thought I was hallucinating and used my hands to dry my hands. “Hi, my name is fairy godmother Madeline,” she continued, “ I heard your tears all the way from my castle. Are you okay?” I tried to get my words out but the tears made it almost impossible. Fairy Godmother Madeline looked at me as if I was a lost puppy. I managed to respond, “ My perfect prom! Its ruined thanks to an incompetent tailor who made me a dress that resembles a tablecloth.” I continued crying and looked up at Madeline , wondering why she was here and how she was going to make this situation better.

It’s almost as if Madeline read my thoughts. “Listen here,” Madeline said, “ what if I told you I could make all your problems go away with a twirl of my wand?” Madeline must be crazy, I thought to myself. However, I was in no position to argue with anybody trying to help me so I said, “Why not.” After all, things could not get any worse than they already are. So pushing all of the negative thoughts and the memories of the tragic event to the back of my mind, I pulled myself together and became optimistic. Maybe, just maybe, fairy godmother Madeline will make my dream prom come true after all. “Okay Madeline! Work your magic!” My excitement for prom was slowly but surely restoring.

Madeline studied me as if she was trying to take in every detail. “I have the perfect dress in mind for you!” Madeline said. With the twirl of her wand, a beautiful dress appeared out of thin air. The dress was so beautiful that it took my breath away. It literally left me breathless, I was having trouble breathing and quickly grabbed a chair. Tears started to fill my eyes again, but this time it was tears of joy. “Wow Madeline, thank you so much,” I said .

***********

Madeline’s eyes began to sparkle as she looked at me in the dress. “Another job well done,” she whispered and patted herself on the back. I could not contain my excitement. As I was spinning around, smiling in the mirror, Madeline told me she had one more surprise for me. She twirled her wand, and the man of my dreams appeared. The guy was 6 foot, chocolate, and looked like a snack! “You didn't think I was gonna let you go to prom alone, did you?” Madeline asked with a grin. Tonight is going to be the best night of my life!