Read Dream When You're Feeling Blue for Free Online Page A

that leg makeup takes a long time to dry! And this is Velva! Elizabeth
Arden
!”
    When she saw Kitty, her mouth dropped open.
    “What do you think?” Kitty asked and spun in a slow circle.
    “I think…Well, jeepers, you look just beautiful, Kitty! That’s the prettiest dress I’ve ever seen.”
    Kitty smirked in Tish’s direction.
    “She’s too ginned up,” Tish said. “She’ll embarrass herself. Wait till Ma and Pop see her; they won’t let her out of the house.”
    “I already showed it to Ma,” Kitty said.
    “When?” Tish asked.
    Kitty moved to the mirror to adjust her hairpins. “When I brought it home.”
    Tish snorted. “In the bag? Sure. But wait till she sees it on you!”
    “You’re just jealous,” Kitty said, and when Tish crossed her arms and said, “No I’m not!” Louise told her mildly she was, too. Tish was wearing their mother’s faux pearl necklace and a nice skirt and sweater in a lovely blue color that set off her eyes, but she was nothing next to Kitty.
    Tish went to the closet and pulled out one of the sisters’ oldest cardigans, a saggy white one, the bottom button hanging by a thread. “Wear this out of the house,” she told Kitty. And then, to Louise, “See? Would I help her if I were jealous?”
    “I’m not wearing that!” Kitty said. “You still haven’t tightened the button, and besides that you got a mustard stain on the elbow!”
    “Uh-oh,” Louise said. “I guess I got the mustard on it. I had a hot dog last time I wore it. Sorry.”
    “Just wear it out of the house,” Tish said. “Believe me, I have experience in these matters.”
    On this point Kitty had to agree. She snatched the cardigan from her sister, then returned to the mirror to finish perfecting her hairdo. Maybe she’d cut her hair. A girl at work had told her about a hairstyle she’d seen in a magazine called the Bombshell. You cut your hair short, then curled it into tight ringlets that “exploded” all over your head.
    Louise put on a plain blue dress that she might wear to work and pulled her hair back in a snood. “Okay,” she said. “I’m ready. Let’s go.”
    Her sisters stared at her.
    “That’s it?” Tish asked.
    “What?” Louise looked down at herself.
    “You’re so…plain,” Tish said.
    “I’m engaged,” Louise said.
    Tish laughed. “So are half the fellows! You’re not there to get involved; you’re there to show the guys a good time for one night! They’re scared, and they’re lonely. Most of them just want to talk!”
    Louise marched over to the mirror and yanked the snood from her hair. She put combs on either side of her head and halfheartedly fluffed her curls. She put on lipstick and blotted it, using the other half of a tissue Kitty had left on the dresser top, then threw the tissue pointedly into the trash. “Let’s go,” she said, “or we’ll be late.” To Kitty, she said, “And I wish that for once you would pick up after yourself. I’m not your maid.”
    Kitty said nothing. She had been wondering if this was the Moment. For almost a week now, she’d been waiting for it. In his brief note, Julian had told her that he had finished making the payments on the ring Michael secretly had on layaway for Louise. He’d done it at the last minute so Michael could do nothing about it—his pride would never stand for Julian doing such a thing. But Julian felt that if Michael and Louise were going to be engaged, let the girl have the ring. These were uncertain times. Let Louise have the ring.
    Julian said he would tell Michael about it in a letter. Kitty was to give the ring to Louise when the moment was right, and then explain to her why Julian had done what he had. Well, the moment might have been right when Louise had said she was engaged, just before she started acting like Kitty’s mother. But now Kitty would wait for another moment, a time when Louise was blue. Anyone would agree that that was a better idea.