Gatsby and I

The straw yellow dress

Don't let the title of this one fool you. It's not so much about the dress itself as it is about the day that I wore it because there's nothing to say about the dress in itself. Well frankly, almost nothing, but I still can say something about it.

Among the dresses in the cedar chest, there were many; one more beautiful than the other. There were three black ones, with black glass beads woven into intricate arabesque or fleur-de-lys patterns. There were two white ones made out of cashmere with a thin layer of chiffon on top out of which one's skirt was also adorned with light grey arabesques. There was a gold one with fringes from the shoulder straps to the bottom of the skirt and there were also two red ones of shiny silk with purplish reflexes. I had the dark sea green one I mentioned, an emerald green one that came with light blue gloves, a grass green one with beads all over the shoulder area and that floral kimono I mentioned. But there was one that completely diverged from the rest. The straw yellow dress.

It was made of a rather thin cotton fabric and that's it. No other embellishments except a plain white girdle made of linen. No tassels, no fringes, no beads, no nothing. But it was this dress that would bring in my way that someone I can't forget.

Who is it that I met in the straw yellow dress or more likely because of it? Well let me tell you.

The day was warm - the first morning in June. I was singing "Summertime" since the moment I woke up. Celestine heard that I was singing and she went:

"So you like Gershwin, ah?"

"Yep, Celestine. I really do like Gershwin's music."

"Y'ever heard of this thing he wrote called 'Rhapsody in blue'? It's the bee's knees."

"The what? I don't exactly know what 'the bee's knees' means."

"It means it's the best."

She started humming it in a dreamy way, then giggled and added:

"I don't know why, but that thing of Gershwin's just screams summer to me. I can imagine a sunrise above the bay yonder when I listen to it."

"Right. Well to me too. And speaking of the bay, after lunch I want to go out on the pier next to the path that leads to the neighbour's house. May I?"

"Yeah. Just be sure that nobody sees you out there. The house and the pier belong to you know whom."

"Do I know?"

"Yes, you do. It's the one and the only..."

She leans in towards my ear like she did yesterday and she whispers real faintly, but so that I can still hear it:

"Jay Gatsby."

"Okay. J-A-Y or no J-A-Y, why do you only whisper that name?"

"Because look! If anyone heard me talking about the fabled J-A-Y, I'd be D-E-A-D. They'd be like: 'Do you mean...' " she had me lip read the next word " 'Gatsby or do you mean your brother?' and that drives me mad. Darcy doesn't mention the man either because she knows me well enough and people know she's in cahoots with me."

"Cahoots?!"

"Means she's a close friend of mine who helps me at times. Darcy is an architect and I, a landscape artist so it's not seldom that we work on the same building at the same time - I outdoors and she on the building itself."

"So, great news - I'm not really hungry. I think I'll have a cup of tea and a chat with you today."

"Greater news: me neither. Maybe we could talk about some things over a nice spot of earl grey. How's that?"