Puddles

Chapter 6: Assimilation +

  Uh, this dress! Do you people actually wear these things??" I fidgeted frustratedly with the stiff, starched clothing. The dress resembled nothing of the beautiful full-length ballroom dresses I'd seen before. Sure, it was big, poofy, and extremely irritating--I cannot explain in words how much I hate poofy dresses--but the design certainly had no likeness to anything I'd known. The sleeves started in a somewhat cute flare, but the starch made the edges into potentially dangerous sword blades. And then the rest of the sleeve foofed out at the end, bulbous and obnoxious. But the body of the dress....was a nightmare. The criss-cross pattern made simply looking at it dizzying, and still the colors were hectic. Patches of drab grey, slices and stitches of grapevine purple ran along the smooth fabric. Yet, there was a certain beauty which the designers had somehow captures, a type of unique, but glorious chaos. Nevertheless, I choose comfort over style any day.

"You haven't seen or felt anything yet, my dear," the woman answered encouragingly, her face taut in concentration. Her worn, deft fingers flew about my body in quick, precise movements. She hummed quietly to herself, a tune I did not know, but which seemed so familiar. I contemplated asking her, but instead studied the room, leafing through a list of recent events through my head.

Falling through a puddle, taken captive by a strange kingdom, meeting people with coded names...I still laughed at what had happened, still held on to that ever fleeting hope that maybe, obviously, I reasoned, this was all a dream, and the boys would burst into my room any minute telling me to get downstairs before the chocolate chip pancakes disappeared. I imagined telling anyone at home, imagined their faces, and how I would know how silly it sounded, even to myself. But here I was, dressing for my new occupation as a palace oist--whatever that was. Mr. Woodgrey still had barely told me anything about anything. Then again, why should he? I supposed I never looked through his eyes before; what did he think of me? Of course, what anyone else would think of some girl who fell--no, claimed she fell through a puddle, who claims she's from another planet. 

I must've snorted out loud, and the sound must've come out something like a dying whale, because the woman peered at me suspiciously through the corner of her eye. I cleared my throat awkwardly and pretended to smooth the already wrinkless corners of my dress. I watched the woman roll her eyes, and for a minute I thought they'd stick there, then they dropped back onto the section of fabric she was sewing. 

"Whatever you do, do not make that sound in front of them. He'll have your head sooner 'n you can say 'Fador.'"

My hands stopped. Some scrap of information; finally. "They...what? Wait, do you...he...?" 

But the woman continued as if I hadn't spoken. "I'nt that right. Mmmhm. That man's got no heart in him, just a big ol' stone. You'd think he wan't human, the way he looks at some peoples. But," and here she finally stopped her needle and looked up at me, "they say that he...." she lowered her voice to barely above a whisper, "Well now, its rumored that he is descended from one of them changed peoples. A very few say he may e'n be directly-"

"Lirrel, are you finished yet? We got fifty other girls needin' to get in there. I don't understand why they can't all just dress together."

The old woman took up her needle again and continued sewing. I noticed a sly smile twitching at the corners of her full lips, and got the idea that she had 'selective' hearing loss.

"They tell me you fell through a puddle?" Lirell emphasized 'fell' as if most people jump through puddles, or fly. 

"So it seemed. Of course, you don't believe me. And I can't blame you; if our situations were reversed, I'd be equally suspicious. And I hope you know that I don't plan to stay here for long. I will find a way back; I don't care who I have to go to. Even if--"

"Lirrel!!" The man yelled through the door louder, and with a sigh and another drawn out roll of the eyes, the woman called back, "You jis give me another minute, sir, an' I'll be finished." She turned back to me and whispered once more, "Naow I know you ain't s'posed to be reco'nized, so I'm 'onnna change you up a bit." With that she plucked a small satchel out of her apron pocket, reached in, and pulled out a small green tinted bottle.

"Ummm.....no thank you. I like me just the way I am without-"

"Did I ask for your opinion?" The woman yanked my hand away from where I had clasped it next to my chest. One drop, then another, and then another sparkle of green fell onto my freckled skin. What happened next even I still find hard to believe.

The color flooded my skin, swept up my arms, around my neck, up into my face. I inspected my arms cautiously, jaw hanging wide open. My skin was deathly pale, which was something, considering my brothers called me the freckled albino of the family. But this kind of pale  belonged on snow, not me, and honestly, if I hadn't kept it together so well, I think I might've cried like a baby. And supposedly Snow White was pretty? Certainly not the word I would've used for that color just then. Oh, but I hadn't seen the worst. I walked stiffly over to the smaller mirror hanging on the wall to inspect what else the potion had destroyed. But I hadn't taken one step before the man waiting at the door--poor guy, I'd completely forgotten about him when the woman took out the bottle--came barging in.

"Lirrel, if you don't-" He stopped in his tracks, and I dragged my eyes away from my skin for a few minutes to notice about twenty other round eyes staring at me from behind the man.

"Wal, don't jis stand there, man! We're leavin now, so's you can have the place." A strong hand pushed me out the door, past the staring man, past the staring, raggedy-looking servant girls, and down yet another long corridor. 

As I left the room, though, I caught a fleeting glimpse of my new self in the mirror.

"Naow, go fin' Mrs. Orion, and she'll give you your identification and job instruction."

I nodded absently, my mind on nothing but my current appearance.