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what it must feel like to ride the
Maid of the Mist
under the falls.
    I pressed my face into the gingham and found out how new smelled. I must have dreamed about this dress, it was so familiar.
    “Hold it up and see if it fits.”
    I squeezed it to me, then quickly pulled it back. It made my regular one look really, really old.
    There was a little piece of paper held onto the dress by a string and a safety pin. My hands were shaking like a leaf and I read, HIMELHOCH’S FINE APPAREL FOR LADIES AND GENTLEMEN .
    Then I remembered. I
had
seen this dress before!
    Himelhoch’s is a rich people’s clothes store me and Clarice walk by every day on the way home. We’d seen a dress just like this one in the big front window on one of those little white dummy girl statues! I fell in love with it and Clarice fell in love with the green-and-gray dress that the dummy sister of my statue was wearing.
    Every day we passed Himelhoch’s we’d imagine where we’d wear the two dresses.
    Once it was for going to a real restaurant and asking a stranger to cook us some food, once for our graduating from college and once for Clarice’s wedding, where I was her maid of honor.
    The best thing we imagined was wearing them to Benny and Dolly’s funeral! We’d wear veils so people would think we were crying, but we’d secretly be laughing about how rich and happy we looked while those hoodlums were put six feet under.
    The dresses disappeared from the windows in April and we hated what took their place.
    I held the piece of paper. Mrs. Needham’s brow wrinkled. “Dear me. Bring that here!”
    She undid the safety pin. “That silly child. Wore this all summer and never took the tags off.”
    “Thank you, thank you so much, Mrs. Needham.…” My throat betrayed me again.
    “Be sure to ask your parents, Deza. They may contact me ifthere are any questions. Tell absolutely no one, not even Clarice, about my niece’s clothes. Use that explosive imagination of yours to come up with a story. Now, be prepared for September. I can’t wait!”
    My hands were shaking even harder when I put my brand-new clothes back in the sack.
    I went to my desk, collected my books and smoothed out my essay even more. The A- wasn’t so bad after all. I headed to the door, then turned back. “Mrs. Needham, you’ll never know—”
    “Deza Malone! One more peep out of you and I will mail those clothes right back to Cleveland. Pull yourself together and go!”
    I would have gone, but she held up two fingers, touched her cheek, held up one finger and put her hand on her chest. Like she was saying the pledge to allegiance. And she smiled!
    I knew I was risking my new clothes but I dropped everything and ran back. She jumped up and made a face, but I wrapped my arms around her and held on tight.
    “Mrs. Needham, I’ve always dreamed that one day I’d have the same heart as you, but I thought I’d have to wait until I got to be real old too!”
    She let me cry before she got me arm’s length away. “Fine, Deza. Now please go home.”
    I grabbed Mrs. Needham one more time.
    The only thing that the best teacher in the world could say was “Oh, for the love of Pete!”

Chapter Six
Hershey’s Kisses and Lockjaw

    I walked into the hallway. My path was lit up with sunshine and happiness and bright flowers. To make it even more perfect, Clarice was sitting on the floor right under the picture of President Roosevelt with tears rimming out of her eyes.
    She jumped up. “Oh, Deza, please! I’m really, really sorry I acted that way, I was so surprised and happy and I lost my mind for a minute. Will you ever forgive me?”
    “You don’t even need to ask.”
    We hooked arms and started our walk home.
    “What did Mrs. Needham tell you? She wouldn’t change your grade, would she?” Clarice put her hand to my ear. “Don’ttell anyone, but I have an uncle in Indianapolis who got tried for murder. He got away with it, Deza. If I write to him he can give us a plan