It isn't often that Bad Girl gets serious. This one page story, inspired by a true event, won a flash fiction contest from across the big pond. Strange thing...I still get shivery when I read it.
Blue Satin and Love
“This is beautiful, Mom – where did you ever get it?”
I looked down at the Barbie doll
evening gown Natalie held in her hand.
Blue satin shimmered under our kitchen lights, and the tiny rosettes
were individual works of art that had been hidden away for decades in a
basement storage box.
“My grandmother from Sicily made it
for me for Christmas one year.”
I remembered those hours Grandma had spent in front of the black
Singer sewing machine, arthritic hands working hard to create things of warmth
and beauty. Like many immigrant women,
she made most of our clothes, which – at the time - was a mark of shame to
me. How to explain the embarrassment of
wearing homemade clothes to a daughter of today?
“It doesn’t even look worn,” Natalie
said, in awe.
“That’s because I never played with it.” Yes, the blue satin was pretty, but in my
young mind, it didn’t compare to the black nylon Barbie doll gown you could
purchase at Simpson’s. My doll clothes
were made from scraps of fabric left over from larger projects. The other girls at school received
store-bought Christmas gifts; how I had envied them.
“She must have loved you a whole lot.” Natalie’s voice was soft. She handed it to me.
I fingered the hand-hemmed skirt, the tiny perfect stitches, and as
I opened the snaps on the back, something happened to my heart. It flooded with
the love that had been there all this time, stuck in a box, waiting to be
discovered.
END
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