The Wedding Gift Read Online Free

fourteen weeks along, which sounds awfully pregnant and I
am beginning to worry about my dress fitting. Oh, that dress! It is
the most fabulous dress in the world. It's by Vera Wang, and it’s a
strapless lace dress with a teeny tiny waist and a big skirt. Every
inch of it is covered in this fantastic Belgian lace and, to make
it totally stunning, there is a little teeny dusty green satin sash
which ties around the waist and trails to the floor.
    My perfect dress was nearly
fourteen thousand dollars! Of course Mama wanted to make my wedding
dress, and I wouldn’t have hurt her feelings for the world, but
after I saw this dress, the dress in a Vogue magazine, I knew I had
to have it and no other!
    The really smart thing is
how I paid for it. See, a few months ago when George made his
courting intentions serious, he gave me an American Express black
card. Those are the kind that only really rich people have; them
and movie stars. I mean hardly anyone alive has one, but I do, or
if I am paying strict attention to the truth, the Willets family
has them, and George put me on his account. So now I am just like
Jessica Simpson, who by the way, people say I look just like,
except her eyes are brown … mine are blue, and she is a lot older
than me of course.
    Dang it, this is so darn
funny. Here I look and see that I have been writing and writing.
I’ve done more writing in this here book now that I look at it,
than I did during all four years of high school.

Chapter 4

    Of course I was way too
busy in school for any silly writing; I had cheerleading, of which
for the last two years I was captain of the squad, and then I had
student council, and homecoming court to attend to. Then there was
my acting. I was Laurie in 'Oklahoma' in the Lion’s Club production
for four years straight. And then I was Guinevere in 'Camelot', and
Maria in 'West Side Story'. That last one was real funny because,
see, Maria is supposed to be of Hispanic origin, which I, of
course, am not, and when Daddy heard I got the part, he became all
heated up, and said his little girl was not going to be a
“ damn wetback ”. My
daddy is not a racist man but he’s just not a real educated one
either.
    And I said to him,
“ Daddy, it’s art and to please not to call
Latino Americans wetbacks neither ”, but he
would not be moved from his position about that play. So we went to
see Mr. Avery, who was my English teacher and the drama coach all
rolled into one. Mr. Avery listened to my daddy’s reasoning and, I
must say, he looked like he had swallowed a lemon 'cause he was
trying so hard not to laugh.
    But then what did he go and
do?
    Well I’ll tell you what he
did. He changed the entire story, so that I could still be Maria,
and do it with my own blond hair; the two gangs were changed from
Hispanic and white gangs to two white gangs, all just so I could be
the leading lady which, to be strictly honest, was not as much of a
surprise to me as it might have been to others. Mr. Avery is really
old, but he sure did like to stare at me just the same. The play
was real stupid, of course, on account of the changes and Jessie
said they should have renamed it 'A Redneck’s Story', or maybe
'White and Whiter in Oklahoma', which, to be strictly honest, I
might have to say I agree with her about.
    So then I also had my
responsibilities in Christian Youth, and what with being ‘Corn
Princess’, you can see that there were just not enough hours in the
day for writing or math or whatever.
    Jessie, heck she was about
a billion times worse than me; she had no extracurricular
activities except for cheering, and still I don’t think that girl
can spell a thing but her own name. Now my point about all that was
the writing; I see that I have just gone on and on, and not said a
word about my darling George, except as to how I have gone and
saved him from a life of being called Junior. That is real funny,
not saying much about him and all, because George is the man I am
going