New Year's Eve, Gingham Style

Nobody could stop her. 

She had worn it every New Year's Eve party for the last fifty-three years, and no one was going to tell her no.  Even if she now needed help getting it on, it didn't matter.  Even if the nursing staff had to help her button it in back, and double check to make sure she had her special powder blue Depends on, it was going to happen. 

It started in 1960, at a party her and her husband, Rodney (God rest his soul - gone twenty-five years now), held at their Pine Street home.  All the right people were there, and she was feeling giddy but old (ha! - funny to think that given her age now).  She was feeling flirty and defiant, telling everyone she could still get into it, and she got the dress out, went away to put it on, and came back in all her Ozian glory.

Rebecca Cooper had played Dorothy in the Crowley High School production of The Wizard of Oz, way back in 1944, when she was just 17.  But by god, she was a fit thing, and she could get into it and shine like the dickens!  People's jaws dropped that night.

And she had put on that blue gingham dress every New Year's night since.  Now squeezing into it was not a problem.  Now it dwarfed her, as over the last few years she had continued to shrink, as the elderly are wont to do.

Nevertheless, she wore it with pride, coming into the recreation room, moving her walker forward as confidently and dramatically as she could.  The room pattered out a tepid applause, but it was enough to make her smile and swell up.

She was the daughter of Sarah Rachel Crowley Franks Steel Compton, who had died at the Crowley Baptist Retirement Village just a few months ago, taking a dive into a Pogo cake on her 105th birthday.  It was traumatic to see her mother pass that way, but her mother had also taught her to soldier on, so that is what she did.

Rebecca was the only daughter of her mother's first husband, Robert Franks (there was another daughter by Sarah's second husband, Tommy Steel, but as far as Rebecca was concerned, the less said about that black sheep the better).  She had married Edwin Cooper shortly out of high school (before she had time to learn some of his more unusual peccadilloes) and her eldest son was Thomas Cooper, the lawyer with Cooper & Strickland.  She loved her dear Tommy, even if he didn't come around enough.

In fact, the only non-residents that were there were three kids.  Or young people might be more accurate.  Franny Goodkind was the one she was most familiar with.  She was a great grandchild of Mattie Goodkind, the oldest resident there at 102 (a title she had inherited after Rebecca's mother passed), but Franny had also spent a lot of time with her mother.  Most modern youth had gone straight to hell, as far as she was concerned, but Franny was the grand exception.

Rebecca also kind of knew the Steel girl.  She wasn't sure why she was there.  She was a great grandchild of her mother's, but not a direct kin of hers, and didn't know who she was directly related to.

There was also a boy whom Rebecca had no idea who he was.  Kind of a chunky kid, with glasses and a lost soul look.  Was he one of their boyfriends?  She had no idea.  But she passed close by, because she wanted the boy and those two girls to see how beautiful she looked in her blue gingham dress.

Adam looked up at her as she crossed their paths.  For a brief second, he though he saw Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, but then realized it was a wizened older lady, looking like a Golden Age Gale.  He looked at Franny and they both gave kind of a shrug.

Franny had tried to talk to her granny, Mattie, but she couldn't stop talking about Skoal.  Had she had anymore to sneak in to her?  Mattie was family, but honestly, Franny couldn't stop missing Sarah.  Sarah was the one she spent most of her time with, delighting in her company and stories.  As Sarah's speech deteriorated, Franny was the only one who listened carefully enough to hear her.  And the stories Sarah would tell!

"I'm not saying I don't mind your company, but I'm just not quite sure why you're here tonight.  Didn't you want to go out on that New Year's Eve Ghost Hunt with Cokie?"  Franny asked, grateful for her company but genuinely puzzled.

Tabby turned to her, her cloudy eyes looking sad and apprehensive.  "I know, Franny.  But I decided to spend the time with my best friend instead tonight.  The ghost hunt thing is getting a little old.  I mean, I don't want to hurt Cokie's feelings, but..."

Franny's eyes widened.  "Are you breaking up with my brother?"

Tabby looked shocked.  "Oh, no!  Of course not!  I don't break up with guys, they break up with me!"

"Cokie is breaking up with you?"  Franny was surprised.  Cokie was just gushing to her about Tabby yesterday.  She had never seen him fall so hard for somebody.

"Well, no, not exactly.  I just figure if I stop making myself so available, he'll gradually lose interest," said Tabby, acting like what she was saying made perfect sense and was scientific writ.

"But isn't that the same as breaking up with him?"

"No! Definitely not!  Because I'm not saying the words to him 'I'm breaking up'.  Don't you see?"

"Not really.  But I don't have to understand.  I don't want to be nosy.  It's your choice.  But I do have to tell you that Cokie is crazy about you."

Tabby slumped.  "I know.  Boy, do I know.  Cokie is wonderful, I really like him.  I just don't think we're headed to the same place."  Tabby thought of her dream of becoming a scientist, just like her vision in the barn last summer was leading her towards.  How do you stay down on the farm when James T. Kirk himself is appealing to you?  "There's something else I need to tell you, though.  Something my whole family is having a tough time dealing with."

That has to have something to do with Tabitha's sister, Racine, and Racine's pregnancy.  Not a topic she wanted to be ensnared in, but sometimes, when you're somebody's friend, you just take the hit.  Especially when she just wanted to sit here with Adam Garnett, whom Franny has a tremendous crush on, and now he was here, for some unknown reason, close enough for her to SMELL and almost touch.  If she just reached her hand a few inches, it would brush up against his.  She wasn't sure why Adam was there, but she dreamed that it was for her.  And now Tabby wanted to bring up Adam's big crush, Racine Steel, who had done gotten herself pregnant with Bobby Ray's child.

Adam was nervous about the whole thing.  Tabby was the wrong Steel!  He swore when he had overheard that a Steel girl was going to be here tonight that it was going to be Racine!  Instead he was listening to Tabitha blabber about how her rejecting a guy was not her rejecting a guy.

"I'm...I'm...gonna get some punch," Adam said, and walked away from the two.

"It's awful, Franny.  I can't believe it.  The pregnancy was bad enough," began Tabitha.  "Now she's...." and Tabitha lowered her voice to the barest of whispers..."miscarried."

Franny was shocked.  "Oh, Tabby, that's horrible!  I know it wasn't what she wanted, to be pregnant right now, but I'm sure she didn't want to end like this!"

Tabitha nodded, tearing.  "You know that.  I know that.  But those busybodies at New Life don't.  They're gonna think she had an..." and Tabitha's voice dropped even lower..."abortion."

That though hadn't occurred to Franny.  But she generally instinctively thought the best of people.  But like any human being, sometimes darker thoughts did get a hold of her.  Like realizing that a now not pregnant Racine might take up with Adam again, or at the very least give Adam newfound hope.  "I hope not, Tabby.  I'm sure the doctors will vouch for her."

"Maybe.  But she lost the baby long before she got to a doctor.  They wanted to add a new law to Georgia that would require a criminal investigation of every miscarriage.  Thank god that didn't pass."

"Yes.  Thank god!" Franny exclaimed in agreement.  What a mess!  She looked up and saw Adam at the punch bowl, being rapidly approached by Rebecca Cooper, pushing her walker forward as fast as it would go.

"Hello, young man!" greeted Rebecca.  "Do you like my blue gingham dress?"

Socially awkward Adam did his best to mutter something.  "Y-yes, ma'am.  It's very...uh...nice."

"Why, thank you!"  She pulled herself up to her full five foot height, her chip proudly in the air.  "I'm Dorothy, you know.  Dorothy Gale, from Kansas!  And you look just like Gerald Delco, the boy who played the Cowardly Lion!"

Adam thought she was either talking about some play performance from very long ago, or that she was completely off her rocker.  Given where they were at, it was a real toss up. 

"C'mon, Cowardly Lion!  Come dance with Dorothy!"  The sound system had just started playing Glen miller's 1940's hit In the Mood.  Adam didn't know what to do.  But he was not going to disappoint someone tonight.  Not like he had been disappointed by Racine.  She stepped out of her walker, and they danced. Carefully, gently, as magically graceful as Adam had ever been in his life.

Franny saw them dance, and her heart melted.  If what she had for Adam before was a mere crush, a flirting infatuation - that stage was now over.  She was in love, and knew she would be for the rest of her life.

Racine be darned, Franny thought.  Somehow, Adam would be Franny's.  She knew who she wanted to grow old with.