Shirley looked around.
“Are you out of your minds?” she snapped.
Gary still had the microphone.
“No,” he said. “We just know who really made the dress.”
Dresses
Shirley stormed off the stage. Dad followed only far enough to make sure she left.
Mrs. Chen came to me gently. “Delilah, do you want to go home?”
“Are you out of your minds?”
For a second, I did.
Then I looked at Mom’s photo on the screen and heard her voice again.
“I didn’t sew this for you to disappear.”
I straightened.
“No. My mom made this dress for prom. I’m staying at prom.”
Pregnancy & Maternity
Gary exhaled. “Good. Because I still don’t know how to dance.”
“I’m staying at prom.”
“Neither do I.”
I took his hand.
I stayed, and I let them see me.
Later, Dad put Mom’s photo back in the hallway.
Photographic & Digital Arts
He stood beneath it for a long time before he spoke.
“Shirley is staying with her sister tonight,” he said. “I told her not to come back until I speak with an attorney.”
I let them see me.
He looked at me carefully.
“Can we start over?”
I looked at Mom’s picture, then at him.
“No,” I said. “But we can start from the truth.”
Crafts
Before bed, I touched the tiny blue K inside the dress.
Shirley came to prom to make me feel like a copy.
Instead, 200 people saw exactly whose daughter I was.
“We can start from the truth.”
