Dancing With Velvet Read Online Free Page A

you could come back with me and spend the night.”
    Celeste heard her father stirring. “I might do that, Marilyn, but I have to get up in time for church.”
    “I know. My parents would kill me if I missed mass, so we’ll get up.”
    “All right. When does the movie start?”
    “Seven-fifteen. Plenty of time.”
    “I’ll meet you there at seven.” Celeste started for her room.
    “Celeste!”
    She stopped but didn’t turn around. “What is it, Daddy?”
    “You fix any supper?”
    “There’s meatloaf and mashed potatoes in the warming oven.”
    When he lurched toward the kitchen, she wondered again how he managed to be sober enough to go to work every Monday.
    “Put everything in the icebox when you’re finished, please. I’m going to meet Marilyn at the movies and spend the night with her.”
    “This place not good enough for your friends?”
    “She invited me, Daddy.”
    “Always going some place, aren’t you?”
    “Just to work.”
    “You meeting some boy?”
    “No, Daddy, I told you. I’m meeting Marilyn from work.”
    “Staying out all night!”
    “At her house.”
    He muttered something under his breath, then loosed a stream of profanity she’d heard before but which always made her feel dirty and slightly sick. “You stay home tonight,” he finished.
    “No, Daddy, I’m nineteen. I can do what I want to.”
    “Not and live in this house.”
    “I take care of the house for you.”
    “You go out tonight, I don’t want you back.”
    She walked on into her room and closed the door. He wouldn’t remember what he’d said, of course, but the point was, he’d said it. She didn’t know why it still hurt after so long. She could barely remember when he’d spoken kindly to her, taken her in his lap and pretended to make a mustache for himself out of one of her braids. All of that stopped when Mamma died. Thank goodness she’d had Coralee.
    She had her pajamas and Sunday clothes packed in a small bag and was on her way out when the telephone rang.
    “What are you doing tonight, Cece?” Coralee’s cheery voice made Celeste ache to see her.
    “You just called last night. Is anything wrong?”
    “No, I was just thinking about you.”
    “I’m going to meet Marilyn at the movies and spend the night with her.”
    “Oh, good. I worry about you being there by yourself on weekends.”
    “Why?”
    “It’s not good for you, being alone so much.”
    “I’m all right, Sister.”
    “Did you think anymore about that dress?”
    “I went back to look at it, but it’s ridiculous to spend so much money on something I don’t have any use for.”
    “You never know.”
    “Sister, when I was looking at it today, I got the oddest feeling, like I’d seen it before or something.”
    “We had matching blue velvet dresses when you were about three and I was ten, but I guess you don’t remember.”
    “No. Did Mamma make them?”
    “She bought them downtown. At Fine’s, I think.”
    “Where did we wear them?”
    “To a Christmas party at the bank. Daddy took all of us.”
    “Oh.”
    “He said we were the prettiest girls there.”
    “He did?”
    “Then he took us for hot chocolate at a little café across the street. It’s not there anymore, but I remember the wife of the man who ran it happened to be making pies when we came in, and she fried some crust for us. You loved it. Got cinnamon and sugar all over your face. Mamma had to wet the corner of a napkin in her water glass to clean you up.”
    “I guess we had a really good time.”
    Coralee sighed. “It was one of the last ones, too. Mamma got sick right after that.”
    “I don’t remember.”
    “Well, you were only three.”
    “Coralee, why did Mamma like that set of leprechauns?”
    “I don’t know. I remember when she bought them at Woolworth, though.”
    “She bought them at Woolworth? I’ve never seen them there.”
    “That was a long time ago, Cece. You weren’t even born yet.”
    “But she liked them.”
    “Well,