in here is ugly. Let's scoot before she locks the door and makes us play dress-up."
We escaped out of the store before Charleen could come back out.
"What now?" Theo asked breathlessly as we were chugging away on the pavement.
"We could try the thrift store," I suggested. My breath was coming out in little puffs. I wondered how long snow would hold off this year. "Not glamorous, but they might have something. If you dig hard enough you can usually find some kind of treasure."
It was a short walk down to the thrift store. I hadn't been in a long time. Housed in a large building that used to be a warehouse, the store was crammed with ceramics, dishes, toys and clothes. As usual, the building was full of shoppers picking through the goods. Theo followed me over to the section with discarded dresses and costumes.
"Looks like they were cleaning out the theater department," I observed. A decent amount of costumes hung on the rows. We shifted the hangers and looked through the offerings. A plaid shirt and fringed pants complete with a cowboy hat, a Native American dress, something that looked like a deconstructed spacesuit.
"Not seeing anything yet," Theo reported. We moved on to the racks of formal clothes, although most of them looked like something a hip grandma would wear.
"I like this..." Theo pulled out a long dress covered in delicate blue and green sequins.
"That's beautiful, Theo, but it's huge," I said, looking it over.
"Mom has a sewing machine," she said hopefully. "I've made a few skirts and tops before; this wouldn't be too difficult to turn into something wearable."
I began to get discouraged as we continued to paw through the crowded racks. I wondered if I would find any of the things we had tossed out of our storage room. From the looks of it, half of Hell had the same idea about cleaning out their old junk.
I knew I was being picky, but since I was going with Henry, I wanted to look my best. I was about to give up and go home begging to Claire, when I saw a swatch of shimmery silver-white fabric. I pulled out an elegant dress with a halter top. The cascading fabric looked magical. There were no tags, and it appeared handmade. It was exactly what I wanted, even though I hadn't known what to look for.
"Wow, that is really beautiful," Theo said. "Try it on."
I went into the little fitting room in the back, pulling the dress over my head. It fit perfectly from what I could see in the mirror, curving gently around my hips and even giving me the appearance of something in the chest. I walked out and showed Theo, whose face lit up.
"It's a great contrast with your hair," she gushed. "You have to buy it."
"I don't know about the back, though," I said, turning around and putting my long hair over my shoulder. There was a deep v plunge that stopped midway down. It felt a little odd having my whole back exposed.
"Well, you can make it like a costume, so how about some wings?" Theo suggested. "I'm sure you could find some cheap at the costume shop."
That settled it, and we took our finds up to the checkout counter. As we paid for them, I knew Saturday was going to be a very interesting night.
Chapter 16
Theo and I sat in our dresses on my living room couch. I had just been through two hours of makeup application and hair styling. My scalp itched and I felt like I had pancake batter smeared on my face. And now I couldn't stop twiddling my thumbs. I shifted, the feathery white angel wings I was wearing cutting into my back.
Theo had done major reconstructive surgery to her dress in just two days, shortening the front and turning the excess into a long train in the back like a mermaid tail. The result was stunning. She'd found an unusual mix of chunky blue and green glitter from the craft store that now not only framed her eyes, but decorated her cheeks.
"I really don't want to wear my glasses," she complained, taking them off and squinting at the TV, "but I'm completely blind without them."
"They look fine," I assured her. "You look really pretty."
"I feel kind of exposed," she admitted, putting up the front of her dress.
Claire came out of her office, where she had been clearing old pictures off of her camera. She held the camera with