Audrey Hepburn's Pearls: Part I

Chapter 17.3: 1994, Ruiz

Chapter 17.3: 1994, Ruiz

"What the hell are you wearing?"

"You like it?" Ambrose chirped, twirling around. His white polka dotted tulle skirt floated up like angel wings as he spun three times like Wonder Woman, clearly enjoying the feeling. His white lace gloved hands touched his face elegantly as he posed beautifully enough for the front cover of Vogue. His blonde wig was teased to perfection, so 1984. 

My hand touched the belt buckle at his waist. "Boy toy," I read, smirking. 

"So true, right?" he grinned, snapping his gum in the process, the perfect accessory to his Madonna at the 1984 VMA's costume. The teeny-bopper "virgin" bride.

I could only laugh. 

"And who are you wearing tonight, darrrling?" he asked, rolling his "R" and putting his hand over one of my costume's boobs. "Bit chesty tonight, are we?"

My hand went over his hand and he retracted it, giggling. My face erupted in a grin of my own, so excited I was to tell him exactly "who" I was wearing. 

"Would you believe...Miss Paula made this dress?" I asked, smoothing out the white pleats of the famous halter dress I was wearing. 

"No," Ambrose gasped, totally real now. His hand went over his mouth, his many rings glistening in the low luminescence of the street lights around us. 

"Yeah, she did. Way back when Marilyn Monroe was alive, in fact. Had to be the early 1960's? This is Georgina's dress," I beamed, taking tips of the skirt with my fingers and spreading it out to show it off. 

Ambrose smiled and took my hand, spinning his jack o' lantern pail on his other wrist as we walked down the stairs from my Mama's apartment. "Two Puerto Rican boys as classic blonde white ladies. Could it be better?" he chuckled and I burst into giggles. We giggled together as we piled into Miss Cha Cha's car. Before we set off, Ambrose blared the unmistakable vanity horn into the night.

The back windows of the car were open, letting in a very cool breeze through the car. I rested my delicately curled blonde wig'd head against the leopard print headrest, hoping it wouldn't lose its volume in back by doing so. 

We would be driving into my grandma's old neighborhood soon. This trip was a continuation of a tradition that Ambrose and I had started when we were seven years old. It was Halloween, and Ambrose was convinced we still looked young enough to trick or treat. 

"Di~aaa~beetuss," Ambrose sung loudly, tapping his rings to the rhythm in his head on the steering wheel as we stopped at a traffic light, "we-are-going-to-get~ Di~aaa~beetuss~"

I smacked his shoulder and he started giggling as I laughed and wiggled.

"I wonder what kind of candy we'll get tonight. All of those old ladies we used to get those big bars from are gone now. Last year there were so many kids out and not many lights on, remember?" I asked, thinking in a reverie.

"Yeah, but we're here later than last year. Maybe those families will be home and give us candy," he said, snapping his gum again. He turned his head suddenly and his large earrings clacked loudly against his neck. It was a comforting sound to me somehow, so familiar about him. I sighed silently to myself happily as he made a right turn when the light turned green. 

I closed my eyes, resting them before we were going to walk for hours. The many colorful lights of the city played on the insides of my eyelids despite. It was really pretty.