Rita

I'm a party dress.

But I knew it at first glance- she'd never wear me to any party.

I'm meant to be showy on a cruise boat, to be looked over at a garden party, to be noticed in a dance club. I'm bold.

I knew my bright colorful palate would have her gasping. She stood there staring at me. With her plain hair, in her plain jeans and plain shirt and plain earrings, in dull neutral colors that might have made me yawn had she not yanked me off of my rack and piled me in her arms on the way to the dressing room.

"You just HAVE to get that one!", said the other woman with her.

"But when would I ever wear this?" she mumbled. "I guess...it is really cute...it fits pretty well," talking to herself. She looked at me in the mirror and smiled.

She decided to take me home.

I was folded neatly, and then stuffed into a suitcase with all of her other plain clothes.

It felt good to be hung up again. But I stayed hung up for a long long time. Once or twice she glanced in my direction, touched me, tried me on. Said something about being too ostentatious for church. And hung me up again. I could feel the air around me changing. The humid heat was gone. That's when it happened- she moved me to the back. I hoped she'd move me to the front again once summer came around- the right season for a dress like me.

It was dark. It was stuffy behind all those old skirts who never talked much. Even they only got out once a month or so. The only ones who chatted about their adventures were the jeans with fraying around their edges. And the overwashed knits. Maybe it was better that I stayed here, hidden against the wall. I didn't want to end up like them, with my beautiful colors faded and my pleats stretched in all the wrong directions.

But still, it would be nice to be worn. To go outside. At least once. Just one time. To move and sway and be seen. I know it's what I was made for.

If you liked my little ditty about Rita, check out Secret Lives of Dresses on this blog- (Now a published book!)

Yes, I stole the idea to write about my own dress.