“Stop the car,” Tracy yelled scaring her mother into slamming on the breaks at some unseen catastrophe.

Tracy jumped out of the car and went running into a wedding dress shop, one of the many that populated this small town. Mrs. Christine Marie Daniels pulled into the nearest parking spot, her heart still hammering away. She sat in the car momentarily before following her daughter into the dress shop.

Tracy in her designer suit was arguing with a very flustered sales person. She yelled, her green eyes blazing, “Why are you displaying it if-it-is-not-for-sale?” Tracy said as she flipped her dark hair over a shoulder. A habit she had picked up since she had started growing her hair out for her wedding.

The salesperson in her own suit, though hers was off the rack, answered Tracy’s query as calmly as she could, “Someone just called in a phone order and paid for it just before you came into the store.”

Tracy towered over the petite blonde sales person as she said, “They don’t know what they really bought do they? So, I can have this one.” Tracy tried to rationalize.

“I am really sorry miss,” the salesperson said.

“Tracy, why don’t you look around to see if something else might suit you better?” Christine said trying to appease her daughter, though she still felt like throttling her daughter for scaring her half to death.

“But, Mom, I want this one,” Tracy whined, sounding as if she were three instead of twenty-five.

“Young lady, that one is taken. Now look for something else,” Christine scolded her daughter. At the moment she was having trouble recognizing her high powered lawyer daughter.

“But,” Tracy began.

Her mother interrupted Tracy with, “No ands, ifs, or buts about it young lady. Now, you will do as you are told.”

“I was just unpacking a dress designed by the same person that did the one in the window, perhaps you would like to see it,” asked the hopeful clerk.

“We would like to see it, please,” said Christine.

“I’ll bring it right out,” the clerk said as she scuttled into the back room.

She came out a few moments later with a diaphanous gown of pearls, satin and lace. “I haven’t had time to steam it yet, but perhaps you’d like to try it on.”

“Yes, she would,” said Christine answering for Tracy.

“This is a one of a kind creation by Darla Greenspan, who, also, created the gown in the window,” the sales person babbled on extolling the gowns virtues as she led Tracy to the dressing room to change.

In what seemed like a lifetime Tracy came back out wearing the gown. The gown though beautiful did nothing for Tracy’s willowy figure. In fact, it made her look nine months pregnant.

“Oh, dear,” Christine said as she looked at her daughter in the high waist gown.

“I look terrible in this one,” Tracy complained.

“This is definitely the wrong style for you,” the clerk said. “Perhaps, you would like to try on this dress?” She said as she took another gown off its display.

“What I want is to try the one in the window. It is perfect for me with its princess lines.”

“While, I’ll admit that gown would look much better on you than this one, it is still someone else’s gown,” the clerk said.

“Please can’t I try it on?” Tracy begged.

The sales person was about to relent, when Christine told her daughter to go get dressed and they would check out other shops.

Tracy gave in, hoping that they would get lucky in another shop. While Tracy was getting dressed her mother slipped the salesclerk a business card and told her to call if the dress became available. The salesperson mumbled something about all sales being final, but took the business card, anyway.

Once back in the car, Christine said to her daughter. “You should never settle on the first gown you see. We will find your perfect wedding gown, even if we hire a designer to design one especially for you.”

Tracy kissed her mother on the cheek. “Mother you always know what to say to me to make it all better.”

The duo spent the rest of the day in and out of dress shops searching for another gown that Tracy believed could be the perfect one without much success. Tracy looked beautiful in most of the gowns, but none called to her the way the one in the window had. What was it about the one you couldn’t have being the one you wanted the most?

Tracy decided that if she could not find the perfect dress by April she would hire a designer to make her the perfect dress. She had an idea for her dress. This time the one would be hers for she could envision it in her minds eye.

 

About the Author: Rita L. Smith

Rita Smith has been a writer all her life. A Perfect Dress is her first published story. When not writing, she grows flowers and read. She lives in a small town in Ohio with her husband, four dogs and two cats.