The Dream Dress

By the time Iris was a teenager, she realized that she did not have an easy beauty. Her body grew straight and strong like a tree, but she never caught any interested second glances. Her dark eyes didn’t seem to arrest anyone’s attention as she blossomed into womanhood. The delicate curve of her cheek—when she turned her head just so—went ignored. Iris had a beauty that you had to look for, deep in her, right in her very soul.