Read I Wish I Had a Red Dress for Free Online

said.
    “And I’ll call everybody.”
    We sounded like one of those Judy Garland/Mickey Rooney movies where one looks at the other one about forty minutes into the movie and says, “Why don’t we do our own show?” And the other one says, “We can hold auditions right here in the backyard!” And before you know it, they’ve run up some costumes, hired a band, and scheduled an opening night.
    “Don’t forget to tell Sheila,” I said.
    Tee snorted. “They ain’t gonna let that girl out. Who gonna bring ’em a beer if she over here hangin’ out wit us?”
    She was probably right about that, but maybe we could sneak her out for a minute or two just to take a break.
    “I gotta go, Miz J.” Tee took her coat from the hook behind the door and slipped her arms in. It was almost Mavis’s bedtime and Tee was big on bedtime stories ever since I told her that was how my mother taught me how to read. Tee wants to give that gift to Mavis. “But can I ask you something?”
    “Sure.” I handed her the scarf that had slipped from her sleeve to the floor.
    She zipped her coat slowly and pulled on a pair of fur-lined red leather gloves, an extravagant gift from an out-of-town boyfriend who hid up here long enough to father Mavis and celebrateher first birthday, but not long enough to outwait the rival who shot him dead his first day back in the big city. The gloves were almost five years old now, but other than Mavis, they were all Tee had to remember him by, so they weren’t going anywhere.
    “It didn’t go so good today in Lansing, did it?”
    “It wasn’t so bad,” I said, sounding a little too cheery even to myself. “We’ll figure it out.”
    She frowned at me and tossed her braids off her face impatiently. “How we gonna figure it out if we don’t tell me what really went down?”
    She had a point there. There was no reason not to tell her the truth. Withholding information isn’t exactly like lying, but it’s close enough.
    “I’m sorry,” I said, and I meant it. “I didn’t want to worry you.”
    She snorted at that. “You the worrier, not me! What happened?”
    “They didn’t respect me or you or any of the work we’re doing here,” I said slowly, wanting to be clear, but not get hung up on the details. “So I withdrew our proposal.”
    Her eyes opened wide with surprise. She knew how hard I’d been working on it. “For real?”
    I nodded.
    She thought about that for a minute. “Because you didn’t want them even considerin’ us after what they said?”
    “Exactly.”
    “It was that foul?”
    “Pretty foul.”
    “So did you go off or did you just walk away?”
    I smiled a little at the memory. “I went off a little and then I walked away.”
    “Did you cuss?”
    I shook my head. “I was too righteous to cuss.”
    She grinned at me. “You know you can be righteous when you want to!”
    I laughed, relieved she understood and didn’t panic.
    “I saw this comin’,” she said.
    “Saw what coming?”
    “I knew they were gonna piss you off and I knew you were gonna tell ’em where to put they money and walk out.”
    “You’re a psychic now?” I said.
    She just shrugged. “No, but the way you were talkin’ when you went to that grant class and those guys marked up your proposal with that red pen . . .”
    I was surprised she remembered that, but she was absolutely right. That red pen had not endeared them to me. The last time somebody marked up something I had written in red ink was in high school and I didn’t appreciate it then either. “How was I talking?”
    “Like somebody whose last nerve was bein’ worked on one time too many.”
    “So why didn’t you warn me?”
    “What was I gonna say? Miz J, don’t go down there askin’ those white folks for no money! ” She shrugged again. “You had to try. We need the money, right?”
    “Yeah, we do,” I said. “I just hope I did the right thing.”
    She looked at me like she was surprised to have to remind me of