* * *
School seemed to drag by slowly the next day. Emmaline and I spent lunch talking about the dance and we scribbled little notes about shopping on our slates throughout the day, nudging the other to read it before we erased it. Somehow Mr. Web didn’t notice.
I decided that I was definitely going to the ball. I wasn’t sure about all the details yet, but I was going. And I was really excited about going shopping with Emmaline right after school.
The sun was out and the air wasn’t nearly as cold as it had been the day before. On the contrary, it almost felt good outside.
When the school bell finally rang, Emmaline and I popped out of our chairs like pieces of toast and hurried outside. Neither of us could wait to ditch our books at her house and go shopping.
“Bye, Alexandra,” Hayden called out as we turned right onto the sidewalk. We waved back to him.
“That question about the dance really came out of nowhere for you, didn’t it?” Emmaline asked me quietly.
“Yeah it did,” I answered. “I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
“At least we know you’re going. So where should we start?”
“All the good dress shops are on Michigan Avenue. I say we start at the first one and work our way down.”
“Good idea. We need to see them all before we pick out the perfect dress, right?”
“Right.”
We walked quickly the rest of the way, dropped our books right inside Emmaline’s door, and then hurried on toward Michigan Avenue. “Hannah’s is first,” I said as soon as the bright pink door came into view.
“Let’s go across the street to get a muffin first. I’m starving,” Emmaline said. So we crossed the street and walked into The Morning Deli to get two English muffins and some orange juice. “I love breakfast food in the afternoon,” Emmaline said as we took a seat. “So you said you want to wear green to the ball, right?”
“Yeah. That way it’ll match the green in my hazel eyes.”
“I think purple looks better on you. You should get a lavender dress and put a lilac in your hair.”
“Maybe. I guess you’ll want to wear blue. It always makes your blue eyes stand out.”
“I don’t know. Blue is the primary winter color, but red is the color of Christmas. I guess I’ll try on as many dresses in each color as I can.”
We both ate quickly and then went outside to cross the street again.
Miss Hannah waved at us through the window when she saw us coming. She was standing behind the counter, putting a pile of black dresses on hangers. “Hello, girls,” she said, following the chime of the bell above the door when we walked in.
“Hello, Miss Hannah. We’re looking at dresses for the Winter Ball today,” Emmaline said.
“How exciting. I attended it last year and had a lot of fun. Would you like some help in choosing one?”
“No, thanks.”
“Let me know if you need anything, then.”
We went to look at the racks of dresses on the left side of the store since they were more formal. Emmaline picked out several blue dresses in every shade, and I picked out a few green ones and a light purple one with tiny violets lining the neckline. We took them into two dressing rooms that were right beside each other in the back. I inhaled the fresh scent Hannah’s dressing rooms always had, like someone had just scrubbed down every inch of it, as I pulled the first dress on. It was dark green and came in two pieces.
“This one’s too big,” I heard Emmaline complaining.
I looked in the mirror beside me and decided the dress I had on was hideous, but I walked out to show it to Emmaline anyway. “What do you think of this one?” I asked through the door of her stall.
“Hold on. Two of these dresses are too big even though I got them in my size.” Her door opened and she walked out in a long royal blue dress that trailed behind her a bit. “See? This one is the same size and it fits perfectly. I wish the companies making dresses would get it together.” She stopped and stared at my dress. “Oh, sorry Alexandra, but that dress—isn’t going to work.”
“I was thinking the same thing, but I thought I would get your opinion anyway. Go ahead and turn around.” She spun around and I saw long streaks of lighter blue reaching across the back. It fit every curve in her body perfectly. “Your dress is beautiful. If dress shopping wasn’t so much fun I would tell you to go ahead and buy that one.”
“Thanks. I’ll keep it in mind.”
We both went back into our dressing rooms to try on a different one. It was hard not to be jealous of Emmaline. Her figure was just as faultless as her face. There was just no way I would ever look as good as she did in that blue dress, even if I tried on every dress in the store.
I began to pull on another dark green dress.
“I was thinking today about what makes Mason so appealing,” Emmaline said through the wall.
“Yeah?”
“Maybe it’s the bad boy side of him.”
“Mason’s a good guy, Emmaline.”
“I know he’s a good guy, but he’s sort of a bad boy, isn’t he? Breaking into a place and living in it, taking you to the top of the water tower.”
“Keep it down.” I stepped out of my dressing room and looked around to make sure no one had heard her. Luckily, no one was nearby.
“Sorry. Look, I’m not judging him or anything. If I were in your situation, I wouldn’t be able to turn away from him either.”
Emmaline stepped out too, this time wearing a dark blue dress that went down nearly to her ankles. “That dress isn’t right for you, either,” she said.
I looked down at my green dress. “I know. Yours looks terrific, of course, but I like the other one better.”
“Me too. I really think you should try that purple one on.”
“Back to Mason. I can see what you’re saying, but that’s not what I find so appealing about him. He’s gorgeous. That drew me in right away. But he’s a lot of fun, too. He’s attentive. He gave me his coat and made sure I had something to eat last night. And he said I was beautiful.”
“Well, the bad boy image doesn’t hurt, right?”
I shrugged and walked back into my dressing room. She had a point. And she didn’t even know who his father was. Mobster or not, he added to the idea of Mason being a bad boy.
After taking the green dress off and putting the purple one on, I looked in the mirror and stopped to stare. It looked amazing. The delicate light purple material seemed to melt over my skin like liquid. Each violet was dusted with sparkling powder and had a purple gemstone in the center of it. The long skirt swept lightly against the floor and opened wide as I twirled around. This is the one. I smiled at my reflection.
“You know what we should do?” Emmaline said as her door opened. “We should go by Swatches and say hi to Mason.”
I opened my door and walked out. “I can’t do that, Emmaline. He may not want me to visit him at work. He didn’t ask me to come by.”
She didn’t respond. She just stared at my dress the same way I had. “That dress is perfect on you. Were there other ones?”
“You want to try on the same dress?”
“No. We can shop for dresses all day, but none of them are going to look as good on you as that one does. If that’s the last one, you should buy it now and spend the rest of the time shopping for shoes and something to put in your hair. Someone could come in here while we’re gone and buy it instead of you.”
“There were two others, but they were both too small for me.”
“I think you should get it, then.” Looking in the mirror on the wall, it was hard to disagree.
“I might. I’ll try on a few more dresses here and get it if nothing else looks right. I’m going to put these green dresses up and grab some more purple ones. I think you were right about wearing purple.” So I went back into the dressing room and picked up all the dresses to hang back on their racks. I kept the violet one, of course, and grabbed six other dresse
s to try on.
“Is that you?” Emmaline asked when she heard my dressing room door shut.
“Yes.”
“I still think we should go say hi to Mason. He showed up at school and at your house without being invited. I think he would be really happy if you went by to see him. We’ll say we’re shopping for dresses for the ball and then he’ll have to invite you.”
Great minds think alike, I guess. “I was hoping he would ask me, but then what about you?”
“Don’t worry about me. Maybe he could set me up with someone he knows, like someone he’s fixed a car for. Then we could ride with them to the ball.”
“Let’s worry about it after we’ve picked out our dresses.”
We both tried on at least ten more, but for me, none of them compared to the violet one. “I guess I’ll buy this one,” I said as we hung the others up. “Are you sure you don’t want to buy the blue dress you tried on first? That was the prettiest one.”
“There’s two in that size and I haven’t tried on any red ones yet. I didn’t like any of the ones they have here,” Emmaline answered. “It’s on the top of my list, though. Let’s go look at shoes.” We made our way to the back corner where we found rows of shoes and little padded chairs and tried on a dozen pairs of shoes each. I stuck with purple and black, but didn’t find anything I really liked. Emmaline didn’t have any better luck. So I paid for my dress and then we walked outside.
“The next one’s The Vimage Line, but there’s no way I can afford that place,” Emmaline said as we walked past the exquisite store with everything detailed in gold.
“If you really want one of their dresses I bet Hayden could get you one for free,” I said.
“I couldn’t ask him to do that.”
“Why do you have such a difficult time talking to him? He’s a really nice guy.” She never had that problem with anyone else.
“I don’t know. He just does that to me.”
“I wish he would ask you to the ball. It would solve all my dance problems.”
“Me too. There’s The Songbird. Let’s go look in there.” Inside, the walls were baby blue and had lifelike, little birds painted on here and there.
Emmaline picked out several dresses and I took a seat with mine just outside of her dressing room so I could see her in every one and give her my input. A couple were really pretty, but not as beautiful as the one at Hannah’s had been. “Oh, well, on to the shoes,” she said after she’d tried on the last one. I found an open toed pair that matched the color of my dress perfectly, but there were plenty of pairs, so I decided to come back if I didn’t find anything else.
“What about gloves?” I asked, remembering that we each needed a pair.
“Oh yeah, my mother has a pair that will match your dress perfectly. You could borrow them,” Emmaline said.
“All right, if you’re sure she won’t mind.”
“She won’t. She’s really excited that we’re going to the ball. Last night she went on and on about her first dance with my father. I’ll have to look for gloves after I find the dress I’m going to wear.”
We walked outside and continued to walk down Meridian Avenue. “Swatches is right down there,” Emmaline said at the first intersection.
“I know. I just don’t know if I should stop by.”
“You definitely should.” She lowered her voice as three women walked past us. “If he can come to your house in the middle of the night, you can drop by to see him at work.”
“I guess we could just go see if he’s not busy right now.”
Emmaline smiled and took my arm, leading me across the street and then to the right.
A car pulled out of the mechanic shop up ahead and a man with dirty hands stepped outside of the garage to wave. “That must be Benny. He’s cute,” Emmaline said as the man turned around and walked back into the garage.
I began to feel nervous as we got closer. What was I going to say?
Emmaline kept her hold on my arm as she walked right into the messy garage and looked around. Two cars were parked inside, one up on a lift. But I didn’t see anyone. “Hello?” she called out.
“Let’s try the office,” I said, wanting to get out of the garage since I didn’t know if we should be there.
“No wait, give me just a minute,” a man’s voice called out from under the car on the ground. Something fell on the floor with a loud clank and then he stood up on the car’s far side. His young face was smudged with grease. He looked like he was about Mason’s age. “What can I help you ladies with?”
Emmaline looked over at me. I still didn’t know what to say. What if I asked Mason’s boss to see him and got him in trouble? Suddenly I wished I hadn’t come. “We’re here to see Mason if he’s not too busy,” Emmaline said.
“Sure thing. He’s out back dumpin’ some oil. He’ll be back in a minute.” He pulled a white cloth off of a shelf behind him and walked over to us. “So which one of you is Alexandra?” I felt my heart race at the thought of Mason talking about me at work.
“I am,” I said.
I watched the white rag become black as he wiped his hands. “I’m Benny. It’s nice to meet you.” He reached out his semi-clean hand to shake mine with. “Mason’ll be real happy you came by. And who’re you?” He reached out for Emmaline’s hand.
“I’m Emmaline, Alexandra’s friend. Do you own this shop?”
“Sort of. My dad passed it on to me two years ago when I turned twenty. He still owns it technically, but I run it and keep up with everything. I’ll inherit it when he passes on.”
The door in the back of the garage opened and Mason walked in carrying two empty buckets. “You’ve got visitors,” Benny said.
“Visitors?” Mason set the buckets down in the corner and looked over at us. “Alexandra.” I could hardly believe the way his face lit up when he saw me. He crossed the room quickly and came to stand right in front of me. “I’m glad you dropped by. I would hug you, but then you’d be as dirty as I am.”
“That’s all right. Emmaline and I were just out shopping for dresses, so we came by to see you.”
“The Winter Ball’s next Friday,” Emmaline said.
“Next Friday? That’s your birthday, isn’t it?” Mason asked me.
“Yes.”
He looked at me thoughtfully for a minute. Then he shook his head. “I wish I could take you, but I’m afraid I’ll be working. Weekends are usually pretty busy around here since that’s when people need their cars the least.”
My heart sank. I wouldn’t be going with Mason.
“Are you going with Hayden, then?” Emmaline asked me. I stared at her in shock. How could she ask me that right in front of Mason?
“Why would she be going with him?” Mason asked.
“Well, he asked her to go with him yesterday.”
“He asked you to the dance?” he asked me.
“I didn’t say yes.”
“Are you planning on it?” He looked really upset, which actually made me feel a little better.
“No. I’m not going with Hayden.”
“Maybe I could take a break for a few minutes, Benny,” Mason asked him.
“Sure thing. It was nice to meet you ladies.” Benny went back to the car he was working on and disappeared underneath it.
“Give me a minute to wash up,” Mason said. He walked over to a sink that was just inside the garage and rolled up his sleeves before he started washing his hands. Then he walked back over to us and took my hand. “Maybe we could all go get some pie.”
“Okay,” I said.
“Is that the dress?” he asked as we walked. My dress was well protected in its cover and draped over my free arm.
“Yeah. I still have to get matching shoes, though.”
“I bet it’ll be beautiful on you. I’d offer to carry it for you if my arm wasn’t so dirty…I’m just sick about this. I didn’t even know the ball was coming up, but there’s not much I could have done about it.”
> “It’s all right, Mason.”
We went to a busy little diner and each ordered a slice of apple pie. Mason scooted his chair closer to mine when we sat down. Emmaline and I talked to Mason about the radio show coming on later. I wondered about the curious message he left in my pocket two nights before, but I wasn’t sure if I should bring it up in front of Emmaline. When we were finished Mason said he had to go back to work, so we all walked back together.
“I’m really sorry I can’t take you to the dance, Alexandra, but would you do something for me?” he asked as we turned onto the street Swatches was on.
“Yes.”
“Don’t go with someone else.”
I smiled at his serious face. “I’ll just go with Emmaline. We were only planning to go to the show at the beginning, anyway. I won’t go with anyone else.”
We reached the auto repair shop. “Thanks. And if you’re in the area again, maybe you could drop by.”
“You wouldn’t mind?”
He gave me a half smile and kind of an odd look. “Of course I wouldn’t.”
“Okay.”
He brushed my hair gently away from my face and leaned over to kiss my cheek. “Bye, Alexandra. It was nice to see you again, Emmaline.”
“You too.”
Emmaline and I walked back toward Michigan Avenue. “Why did you bring up Hayden?” I asked her as we turned onto it.
“I thought Mason would get jealous and say he would take you to the dance no matter what.”
“It was kind of mean.”
“Sorry. But you wouldn’t be saying that if it had worked. Here’s Francine’s Fancies.” We went inside and shopped around, but found nothing we really wanted. We went into a few other stores and Emmaline found a pair of silver shoes with blue buttons on the side that she bought. But in the end, we went back to Hannah’s so she could get the first dress she tried on. And I bought the pair of shoes at The Songbird.
We hurried back to Emmaline’s for dinner, each with a dress in one arm and a bag containing a pair of shoes in the other. “We’ll have to eat dinner quickly to be able to hear the program on the radio,” Emmaline said as we walked to her house.
The mystery programs on the radio always had a cast of people telling a gripping story, full of suspense and complete with fantastic sound effects, sometimes airing a series over a certain period of time. ‘The Killing Plot’ would be starting that night and the broadcaster would announce how long it would run for after the first installment. The new mystery program was announced the previous Sunday night and Hayden’s mother had told me about it.
“Hello, Mrs. Porter,” I said when we reached Emmaline’s house and walked into the dining room to find dinner already on the table and her parents sitting there, waiting.
“Hello, Alexandra. I can’t wait to see your dresses on you. How about right after dinner?” Emmaline’s mother asked brightly. She had the same blond hair Emmaline did, but she let hers wave instead of curl.
“You’re late, Darling,” Emmaline’s father cut in. The heavy bags under his eyes made him look much older than he was. As a college professor of Physics, he spent many late nights planning lessons and grading papers.
“Sorry, Father,” Emmaline said as we both sat down. “When we realized what time it was, we still had to stop and get shoes. We got here as soon as we could.”
“We’ve only been waiting a couple of minutes, really,” her mother said. “And this is their first big dance. What’s the harm in getting home a little late?”
“Oh—I suppose so.” Emmaline’s father smiled at her mother affectionately.
“Here you are, Dears,” she said, passing the roast chicken carvings to us.
“Could we show you the dresses in the morning, Mother? We were hoping to listen to The Killing Plot on the radio after dinner. It’s just starting,” Emmaline asked.
“Of course.” She leaned forward and gave us both a mischievous smile. “Do either of you have a date yet?” she asked.
“Alexandra has two.”
“What?” her mother and I both asked at the same time.
“Go on, Alexandra. Tell them about Hayden and Mason.”
So the conversation was centered around me for most of dinner. After hearing about Mason and Hayden, Emmaline’s mother’s advice was simple. “A mechanic can support a family well enough, but he’ll never be able to provide quite like the next in line to own The Vimage Line.” I smiled and nodded, but didn’t take it seriously.
After dinner, Emmaline and I helped her mother with the dishes before we changed into our nightgowns and went into the living room to listen to the radio. Emmaline turned it on and adjusted the dial until she found the station we were looking for. A man was singing a song I’d never heard before. We each sat down on a puffy beige chair as I began to brush my hair.
“What do you want for your birthday?” Emmaline asked me.
“I just want Mason to take me to the ball. It would have been so much fun to put that dress on to go to a dance with him in.”
A cool breeze blew against me from a window that was left cracked open. The white, semi-transparent drapes danced around with it.
“Is there anything else?” Emmaline asked me.
“You don’t have to get me anything, Emmaline.”
“Yes I do. You’re my best friend, and you got me that perfume for my birthday.”
I tried to think of something, but my mind just kept wandering back to Mason. “If he can’t take me to the dance, then I wish he would just kiss me. That would be the best gift I’ve ever gotten.” Yeah, my first real kiss would be from Mason…that would be the perfect birthday present…But even after everything he said to me at the top of the water tower, I doubted that he wanted to kiss me.
Emmaline laughed. “Come on, Alexandra. I can’t get you either of those things.”
The singing stopped. A special thanks to Renardo Hamming for singing for us tonight. Next, we will be beginning the chilling tale of The Killing Plot. In this new mystery, a simple visit becomes an unspeakable nightmare, and a man’s search for the woman he loves becomes a race against time for her very life, the broadcaster began.
“Tell me later,” Emmaline said.
For the next forty minutes, we both listened to the beginning of ‘The Killing Plot’ before it was announced that it would come on every Friday night at the same time for the following four weeks. “I guess we’ll just have to skip next week and hope we don’t miss too much,” Emmaline said as she stood up to switch the radio off.
“That’s right,” I said. “We’ll be at the Winter Ball. Maybe Hayden’s mother will tell us what happens. She’s planning to listen to it, too.”
“What are you going to do about Hayden, anyway?”
“I guess I’ll tell him I can’t go with him. I’m going with you instead.”
“I wouldn’t mind if he came too.”
“Mason would.”
We started walking up the stairs to Emmaline’s bedroom.
“We need to remember to ask your mother if I can borrow her gloves in the morning,” I said.
“That’s right. And I’ll need to pick up a pair in the morning. We can go shopping for something to put in our hair, too,” she said.
“Okay, I’ll just call my parents when I wake up to let them know I won’t be home until the afternoon.”
“You should go see Mason again tomorrow. Did you see how happy he was to see you?”
“I was a little surprised by that, actually.” For some reason, hearing his name brought his notes to mind and I wondered if maybe I had one in my pocket right then. Reaching for my side, I realized that I was wearing my nightgown.
When we reached her room, I picked my dress up off of the floor. “I’m going to the bathroom for a minute. I’ll be right back,” I said, taking it with me. I don’t know why I felt so protective of the little notes, but I did.
I shut the door behind me and stood leaning against it as I reached into my pocket and
pulled out a little piece of paper. “How does he do that?” I whispered to myself. I felt the familiar excitement in holding up the note to see what Mason had written to me. Tomorrow? was all it said. “Tomorrow?” I shoved the strip of paper back in my pocket. “I wish these made more sense.” But maybe I would see him tomorrow, and finally find out what the two latest messages actually meant.