A $1 wedding dress
Yard sales. They were her
kryptonite, or maybe more accurately, her catnip. Irresistible.
Cassie could not drive past a sign
without taking a quick photo of it for later, or making a note and if there was
one on as she drove past, she was stopping no matter where she had to be.
On today, of all days, she should
have been able to resist the lure. She was happy, elated, all of the good
things. She didn’t need the high that finding a great bargain gave her, but
somehow she headed out early and thought she’d just drop in and check the yard
sale she had snapped a shot of recently. It was even on the way to the mall
where she was meeting her best friend.
She followed the homemade arrows
until she could see the faded sun umbrella set up in the front yard. Card
tables, a clothes rack, and boxes of yet to be discovered bargains were
scattered about.
Clutching her purse in her hand,
she picked carefully though a box of paperbacks. Sadly, the only author she
knew was for a title she already owned.
The seller eyed her off and
flicked cigarette ash into an ashtray. There wasn’t a price tag on the ashtray.
Sidling over to another box, she
dug around in it. Her tiki phase was well and truly over otherwise the hula
dancing girl would have been perfect.
The seller made a grunt noise. It
might have been a question but if it was she had missed it.
She shifted the hangers on the
clothes rack and stopped at a garment bag. She unzipped it and peered inside.
“What’s this?”
“Wedding dress.”
“Oh my gosh,” she squeaked before
she could stop herself. It was too hard to haggle well if she was too eager and
the seller knew she wanted something. “My boyfriend asked me to marry him last
night.”
The old woman dragged on her
cigarette. “Bully for you.”
“Can I open it?”
A shrug she took as permission.
The dress was champagne, not
white, but it was perfect. She couldn’t find a stain or a tear or a missing
button. No age marks. It was a figure hugging strapless dress, fitted at the
front with a train at the back and a short cropped jacket that matched.
She couldn’t guess at it’s age.
The style was timeless classic. She also couldn’t see a tag to tell her the
size. There were no labels at all. That made sense if it was handmade for a
bride. “What size is it?”
“It’ll fit.”
She frowned, but there was nowhere
to try it on unless she went inside the woman’s house, and she wasn’t offering.
She hung it back on the rack,
carefully zipping it back into the bag before moving on to look at some other
items.
Her eyes strayed back to the
dress.
Another young woman arrived and
she had a moment’s panic that the new girl would steal her dress. Instead, the
new customer bought the hula doll and left.
She sighed with relief.
“Did you want it?” The old woman
asked.
“The Hula girl?”
“No, the wedding gown.”
“I don’t know...”
“It’s one dollar.”
She stared at the seller. That
just couldn’t be right. The garment bag alone was worth more than a dollar. The
buttons, the material, and so on. “A... dollar?”
“Yeah.”
She hadn’t agreed but she was
already moving over to the clothes rack.
“That’s the deal.”
“Deal?” She stopped.
“You can sell it for a dollar when
you’re done.”
She wanted to ask, but didn’t. It
felt like rudeness to ask what ‘done’ meant. When you’re married of course. Who
needs a second wedding dress?
She and Aaron had been talking
about it for years. They lived together but it was always ‘when we’re married’
not ‘if’. He had finally asked her formally last night and that was why she was
so happy today.
It seemed like a sign to see the
dress of her dreams today.
“Is it a deal?” the seller
pressed.
“You have to tell me the real
price.”
“One dollar.”
“I’ve got a hundred in cash.”
First time she’d tried to haggle someone up.
The woman held her hand up to
forestall her. “One dollar; no more, no less.”
“Is there something wrong with
it?”
“Do you want the dress or not.
I’ve got customers.”
She didn’t. “Fine. A dollar.”
She had to dig in the bottom of
her purse but eventually she handed over a crumpled note.
The woman made her shake hands on
it as if they really had made a deal.
She hurried over to her car,
fearful that the seller would change her mind. She waved at the woman as she
drove off.
Her dress. The perfect dress.
At the corner she paused. If she
went to the mall and left it in the car, it might get stolen. It would take her
fifteen minutes to drop it off at home. She messaged her friend to tell her
she’d be a couple of minutes late.
It was hard to carry the long bag.
She parked on the street rather than use the garage door, and went in through
the front door. She heard voices as the door swung open.
“Where’s your bride?” a husky
female asked with a bitter laugh.
“Out,” Aaron said. “We’ve got
hours.”
A sound like a smack and then a
small yelp.
“Can’t we use the bed?” the woman
whined.
“She’ll notice. We fuck on
everything else and she’s too stupid to know.”
“Boring,” the woman agreed.
By then, her feet had taken her to
the end of the hall, almost without her permission. She knew what they were doing.
She didn’t want to see it, but she needed to. And she couldn’t stop. She even
knew who he was with. His work colleague Jennifer. The woman he went away with
on business trips. A whole lot of small things she had ignored clicked together
into a larger, clearer mosaic.
She clutched the dress hanger so
hard her fingers went white. A strength came to her. She didn’t know where it
came from. She stepped into the room. “Get out of my house.” She didn’t shout.
She was loud and clear.
“Shit!” Jennifer said.
“Hey, don’t talk to her like
that,” Aaron argued.
“I was talking to you. Get out of my house, Aaron.”
“This is our-” he stopped at the
look on her face.
“You told me it was your house,”
Jennifer said to Aaron. She had collected her clothes and she held them in a
bundle in front of her body.
“You two can have this
conversation somewhere else.” Pulling her phone out, she starting looking for a
local locksmith.
“I can explain,” Aaron started but
she gave him the hand.
She explained her issue to the guy
who answered. “One hour? Perfect.”
Jennifer tugged Aaron backwards.
He was just staring at her. “Come on,” Jennifer encouraged.
“I’ll be back for my stuff.”
Throwing it out on the lawn would
have been fun, but it felt too emotional. Something had changed, or broken
inside her.
When she heard the door slam she
went to the garage to get some moving boxes. He’d be on her land for less time
collecting his stuff if she packed it in a few boxes for him.
*****
A few weeks later after a lot of
tears, tequila and bitching with her bff, she remembered the dress. It had been
carefully hung in her wardrobe.
She put it in her car and drove
back to the house where the yard sale had been. The seller wouldn't want the
dress back; they’d made a deal but she went anyway.
A car pulled into the drive as she
parked at the kerb.
“Hi!” she chirped at the weary
looking man as he pulled a suitcase out of the car. “I bought this at your yard
sale.”
He just stared at her. “Sorry?”
“Yard sale.”
“Jet lag.”
“Huh?”
He said, “I’ve been away for a month.”
They both thought of it at the
same time. Had he been robbed? He
rushed to check, then unlock the front door
“Nothing’s disturbed,” she said as
stood inside the entrance. The house looked neat and tidy.
He darted into the rooms and
finally emerged looking confused. “A yard sale?” he repeated.
She showed him the shot of the
flyer with the address.
“I don’t get it. I’m sorry, can I
offer you a drink? All I’ve got is cold beer.” He smiled sheepishly. “After a
trip it’s nice to get home and have a beer.”
“Yes.”
The dress hung over the back of a
kitchen chair as she told him the story. She apologised for just barging into
his home. He made a joke about it being rare.
They opened a second beer.
“So it kind of saved you?” he
said.
“I guess. She said, ‘when you’re
done’. Is that what she meant? ‘Sell it for a dollar when you’re done.’”
“Was it her dress, do you think?” he asked. “Was she married?”
“I didn’t see anyone with her. If
it was her dress, why did she use your house?”
“Maybe it was her house. I’m
renting from an agency. Or maybe she lives near here and noticed I was away.”
He clinked their beer bottles together. “New promotion means no more travel.”
“Congrats and yay.”
“Is it a nice dress?”
She nodded. “Perfect.”
“Pity.” He reached for the bag but
she stopped him.
“It’s bad luck,” she argued.
It was only bad luck for the groom to see the wedding gown, not some
random guy she’d just met. But, then again, he wasn’t random. The dress had
brought her to him.
“I don’t even know your name,” he
complained.
“It’s Cassie.”
“Neil.”
They shook hands and it felt like
she'd just made another deal; a better one.
*****
She wore the dress for her wedding
and then sold it at their first yard sale. The clothes rack was set up almost
exactly where she had stacked the boxes of Aaron’s stuff. Neil moving in had
changed the house in so many ways.
It was a different dress by then.
(No, it really WAS a different dress. Now it had a pencil skirt.) She was oddly
unsurprised by the alterations she’d had nothing to do with. She also felt half
sorry, half excited for the young woman wearing retro clothes and red pumps who
bought it.
For one dollar, as promised.
She bit her lip as the girl
carried it off triumphantly.
Neil kissed Cassie’s hair. “You
did the right thing.”
“I know, but I’m worried she’ll be
hurt.”
“Cruel to be kind. You never know
what comes next.”
“Or who comes next,” she added
with a kiss.
~~~~
© AM Gray 2017
