Twining

"I wish he would stop looking at me," I quietly whispered to myself. I looked down at my hands placed in my lap. I slowly lifted my eyes, without lifting my head, to see if he was still looking at me or was I mistaken. "No, he is still looking at me with those baby blues of his," I said to no one again. I heard the footfalls of his feet coming towards me. "Maybe he is not coming towards me at all. Maybe he is going to talk to someone else in this huge ball room of people," I told myself again.

"Hello," he said to me as he lifted my face up so he could look closer in my eyes.

I could not believe he was standing in front of me. He had to be the most handsome boy in the room. Why would he even glance at me? I gazed into his eyes and quickly looked away. His blond hair was neatly combed and enhanced those blue eyes. I stood up, dropped my hands to my side and wanted desperately to say hi back to him, but instead I turned away and went to the dressing room.

"And just where have you been?" my sister asked. "You know you need to help me get dressed. It's not every day a young girl turns 16 you know," she stated sarcastically. "Now get over here and help me put this gown on. Isn't it the prettiest gown you have ever seen? It makes me wish I was living in this theme of 1890. Well, just for this dress anyway. I don't think I would fare too well in the 1800s," she giggled.

Lucy wanted to be lost in that time era when it came to her dress, decorations, and the food all the way down to the homemade pies. Not that she helped with any of it.

She and I struggled getting her into the corset. Mother finally entered the dressing room and explained how and where everything went. Lucy wanted her waist to be 16 inches. That meant we had to cinch that corset tight to get her size 20 waist down to a 16. She held onto the bed post while Mother and I tugged and tugged. We got her down to about 18 inches, which would be just fine. We told her we got her to the 16 inch waist that she wanted. Mother looked at me and winked.

After the corset, we had to get her into the petty coats as they were called. I had never seen petty coats. Mother said she had worn them under her school dresses back in the day but not petty coats such as this. Lucy stepped inside the circle of coats, pulled them up to her waist, and the battle was on again as we pulled the cinches to tighten it. When we finished, Lucy let out a breath.

Next was getting her into this ball dress. Lucy was right. It was a beautiful dress. For me, it was cut too low in the front. I didn't realize ladies from that time era showed her boobs like Lucy was doing. I grabbed the top of the dress and yanked it up higher only for Lucy to pull it back down.

She stepped in front of the full-length mirror and twirled that big red ball gown around and around with her hands. She looked at herself from every direction with a smile as big as Texas as she admired herself. She pulled her shoulders up around her neck and squealed with delight. Her shoulders were bare as the puffed-out sleeves fell a few inches away from them. A white lacy sash tied at her waist showed off that 16-inch waist. The bell of the dress flowed over the petty coats and fell in layers from short to long all the way to her feet.

The last step was to complete the hair. She usually wore her long, blond hair down or in a ponytail, but today she wanted it piled on her head to show off her shoulders she said.

She was finally complete and ready to make her entrance. She turned towards me and asked me when was I going to get dressed. I told her I was dressed.

"You are going to wear that ugly thing?"

I gazed upon my full-length yellow ball gown in the same mirror Lucy admired herself. It might be a little plain compared to hers, but this was the dress Mother chose for me, and it was not ugly. Yellow went with my dark complexion and dark hair, the opposite of Lucy. I did not respond to my little sister's comments. Even though Lucy could be a brat at times, I would not do anything to ruin her 16th birthday party. Until the very end, anyway. I had something to show her, but it could wait and would wait.

"Well, it's too late now," she said. "By the way, why were you late coming to me? You were at least ten minutes late," she smirked.

"A young man began talking to me, and I didn't want to be rude, so I talked with him for just a minute, Lucy. It was just a minute."

"What young man, Elsie?" she asked.

"I didn't catch his name. He sort of looked familiar but after looking into his eyes, I did not know him," I explained.

"Is he good looking?" Lucy asked.

"I don't know. He was just a guy," I replied even though he was very good looking. He was at least 6 feet tall, square jaw, nice hair, broad shoulders and quite the gentleman, but I wasn't about to tell her that.

"Where is he?" she asked peering through the parted curtains that she was to depart from to make her entrance. "Mother, who is she talking about?"

"I am not sure, but I think he is the Colonel's son. You remember Dan. I knew he was coming with his dad and his mother, Danika. Let me look out. I believe that is him standing next to the wall under the picture of Abe Lincoln."

Lucy shoved mother aside and looked across the ball room. She smiled as she landed her love-sick eyes on him. Is that Dan, Mother? The one we used to call Dandy Dan when we were little?"

"Yes, that is him. He was sent away for a few years to military school. He's at least 18 or 20 years old now. He has turned into a fine young man, Lucy."

I noticed Mother was not including me in this picture of Dan for Lucy. I reached inside my sash that stretched across my dress and felt the document that I carried with me.

The event manager stepped into the dressing room from the back door entrance and approached Lucy.

"Everything is in place, Lucy. We have the food ready, and we have your three-tiered Irish cream cake topped with the sweet 16 topper like you requested on the round table with the pink cloth. Everything is just as you ordered," the manager stated.

"Can you just shut-up for a minute, Holly?" Lucy rudely replied. She continued to gaze at Dan from the slit in the curtain.

"Well, excuse me, Missy. But I am trying to keep everything according to the schedule. If you can't be nice to me, I can just leave and you can run this shebang by yourself," Holly retorted.

"I am sorry, Holly. Let's get this party started," she said with a smile and a kick in the air.

Holly threw her hair back and lifted her head and stepped out of the dressing room.

A minute later, the song Happy Birthday was being played by a pianist, and someone from behind the stage opened the curtain. I stepped up next to Lucy to adjust the flowing train in the back of her dress, and she shoved me aside. I fell backwards into the folding chairs causing a loud clatter sound. Lucy never looked at me.

Getting up off the floor and rubbing my rump, I watched her glide out onto the stage. Wearing that fake smile, she twirled her head this way and that making sure all eyes were on her. Then Dad stepped up to her side. The song Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen began to play and Dad swept her up into his arms. They danced across the room and halfway through, Lucy stopped dancing. She walked across the room to where Dan stood and reached her hand out to him. He declined. She stood still for a moment and walked back to dad and shouted loudly for everyone to join in with her and dance.

Dan walked quickly across the ball room floor coming in my direction. He reached his hand out for me to join him. I cupped my hand in his and we stepped onto the dance floor. I tried hard to keep away from where Lucy was. She was now dancing with Walter Bumsted, a boy from her school. We did not attend the same school as I didn't look the part to suit her. Because I looked so different from her with my curly hair, dark skin and broad nose, she demanded I attend a public school across town.

Dan swept me outside onto the balcony. I thought my heart was going to jump out of my chest with fear from what Lucy might do and from the thrill of Dan's presence. He walked me to the patio that was lit with twinkling lights, and we sat down. We talked and talked and talked. He asked me about Lucy.

"What do you want to know about her? If you want to know about her, go ask her," I told him.

"Don't get your panties in a wad, Elsie, I'm just curious. You two are sisters, but so different from each other. Lucy is rude and has a mean streak. From the time we were young and growing up with each other, she has had this mean streak. Where does that come from?"

"She is all fake, Dan. From that blond hair to her fake boobs. She is fake. She has always been stuck on herself and that is where she is "stuck", " I said.

We both heard the announcement that she was to cut her birthday cake, so I got up to go inside. I asked him to wait before coming in as I did not want anyone to know we were outside together. He did what I asked.

Before the cutting of the cake, friends and family members stepped up to the microphone to give a speech about their favorite memory of Lucy.

I wanted to go last. I stepped up to the microphone and Lucy quickly tried to prevent me from speaking by shouting, "I am going to go cut the cake. Everyone join me."

I looked at her sternly and firmly said, "Wait. I have something to say."

Lucy looked at me quizzically. I smiled at her and began my speech.

"Today is a day for celebration of the 16th birthday of Lucy. AND the 16th birthday for me as well." I heard gasps in the air. I pulled the document from my sash. I read from it. "This document states that twin girls were born on this day to our parents William and Danika Holbrook in the city of Beaumont, Texas. However, another document is my DNA test, and without Lucy's knowledge, I have her DNA results too. It states that I share the same DNA as Lucy and that we are 50% African American." I held my head high as I read these results. "All of my life, I have been pushed aside by my parents and by Lucy. Did they know about our heritage? I am positive SOMEONE knew," I stated as I looked into the eyes of my mother. She stood tall and she looked into my eyes. She didn't turn away not for one second. My dad slowly dropped my mother's hand.

"Do you have anything to say, Mother?" I asked.

From where she stood, she just said, "I am proud of you."

I stood straight and said into the microphone, "This does not change one thing in my life," and looked at Lucy. "Let's continue with our birthday celebration, shall we?"