7 DAYS. 20 HOURS. 16 MINUTES.
The following morning saw three knocks on the garage door: Bobby, whose toy car had broken; Levitus, an older gentleman who volunteered at the church and gave out soup to the homeless, who wanted to know if I was free next week to look at his steamer; and Old Mags, who swung by just to say hello. We were each currently holding a steaming cup of toffee and eating a piece of the sea salt fudge Meena had bought me back in Vakt Port.
Somehow, even though it was a mere few days ago, it seemed like a lifetime had passed between now and our shopping trip.
“How was Prago City?”
I shrugged, not really sure what to say, what I could say, or what I wanted to say. “It’s a lovely city. I can see why your granddaughter moved there. I love how they make their buildings all those wonderful colors.”
“It’s certainly a sight, isn’t it?” She looked around the garage, a small furrow in her brow. “Where’s that steambot that usually follows you about? It’s a little quiet in here without his consistent noise.”
“Oh,” I started to reply, sucking in the tears and quieting my shaking hands, “he broke beyond repair on the trip.”
“And there’s no replacing him? No one who could fix him? I know how fond of him you were, even as a child.”
I shook my head. “Afraid not.”
“And the princess? How was your work with her?”
I couldn’t help it. I grinned from ear to ear. “That went...well. We work well together.”
“I know that smile, those rosy cheeks.” Her gray hair shimmies down her back as she laughs. “Oh, young love. What a wonderful time of life.”
“She wants to show me off at the ball tonight.” The smile faded from my lips, doubt shoving its way in. “But I...I don’t know.”
“What don’t you know? That you’re beautiful? Look in the mirror. That you’re worth her affections? Look at everything you do for the people in your life. You took nothing more than a scholarship from the princess, you provided for Phyllis and the girls, despite the fact that they deserve to rot on the streets, and you fix any broken child’s toy that comes your way for free. And don’t tell me you’ve stopped giving some of my eggs to Levitus to boil and feed to the homeless. I know you do that.”
“She lives in a totally different world from me, Mags. She’s prim and proper and princess-like, and I’m just me.”
Mags waved her hand in the air, dismissing my concerns. “You can learn to be all of those things.”
“I don’t want to, and that’s the problem. I want to be with her, but I don’t want to sit on a throne next to her. I want to run the garage, go to school, build my brand, invent new technology.”
“Have you talked to her about this?”
“Well, we haven’t really had the I-want-to-spend-the-rest-of-my-life-with-you talk yet.” My eyes fell sheepishly to the ground.
Old Mags sighed and put her cup down. “Seriously, you young people need some life lessons from us older folk. Talk to her. It’s okay to have doubts and be scared, but you shouldn’t choose to not live just because of a few thoughts in that giant noggin’ of yours.” Old Mags stood up in a burst of energy and held out her hand. “Tell you what. Let’s get you ready for the ball, and then tonight, after you’ve danced the night away and you’re inevitably looking for some space to be alone, talk, and just exist, tell her your concerns. I’ll bet she’s already thought about them.”
“You think?” I grabbed the keys and locked up behind us. “I just don’t want to lose her or hold her back.” She’s been through so much, lost so much of her life; I didn’t want to be another reason she couldn’t be herself.
We trudged down the street and around the corner, heading to Old Mags’s house. Lapis sprinted toward me holding a wooden box almost as tall as she was. “Cinderella!”
“Lapis?”
“This arrived for you from a royal courier.” She handed me the box and rested her hands on her knees, her breathing ragged from carrying it all this way. “I think it might be from the princess.”
I looked at Mags, who smirked. We all turned the final corner and headed through the moss-covered door and into Mags’s living room.
“Come on, then. Let’s see.”
“Yeah,” Lapis agreed. “I want to see what being friends with the princess gets you.”
Everyone stood on edge as I unlatched the box and lifted the lid. We were momentarily blinded by the bright flash of silver.
“Is that a necklace?” Lapis asked.
“It looks to be made of metal,” Mags added.
“It is made from metal,” I explained. “In Prago City, the more beading and metal elements you have, the more noble you are.” I held the necklace up to the flickering bulb. “But this is made entirely from metal.”
“You’ll have to wear something beneath the necklace, lest you ruin your skin.” Lapis had become an expert in fashion from all the pageants Phyllis had dragged her to, and I hoped one day she would make use of the sketches she shoved down the side of her bed. “I have the perfect pair of shoes to go with this, if you need them.”
“Really?” I asked, surprised she would let me borrow something from her prized collection.
She looked at me and said, “Of course.”
“You basically tried to gouge my eyes out every time I so much as looked at your shoes my entire teenage life.”
She cringed, her eyes darting back to the necklace for something else to look at besides me. “I...it was wrong of me. I’m sorry.” She didn’t offer anything else: no excuses, no reasons, no explanations. Just a simple apology. “But you can take whatever you need.”
I shook my head, not understanding why now of all times, not understanding her change of person.
“Without you,” she whispered, “he would never have said yes. I’d been trying to convince him for months to marry me, that we’ll find a way, but he wanted to make it big before he introduced me to his world. He wanted to make sure I had everything I could ever ask for. But all I wanted was him. He wouldn’t listen, so I sat quietly and waited. And waited. And waited. Until I couldn’t take it anymore and sent that letter begging him to be with me. Just one last try. I owed him that.”
I still didn’t understand why she was thanking me. My confused face must have given me away, because she went on to explain.
“He said that something you said changed his mind. That he wasn’t putting enough value on the things in life that were important to him.” She met my eyes, and her blues shined with love and appreciation—a look I had not seen on her face before—and I wilted.
It didn’t matter that she’d teased me and bullied me my entire childhood; it didn’t matter that her sister still hated me; all that mattered was that she was getting her happily ever after now, and that I helped make that happen for someone who had spent their life as trapped as me. But her entrapment was being locked into dresses, dragged to balls, forced to dance with suitor after suitor like a prized lily at a flower show. Maybe, in some regards, I had gotten off easy.
“You’re welcome. Just remember to send me an invite to the wedding.” Now, about the ball. “I still don’t have a dress, though. Nothing you and Lazuli have will ever fit me.”
Mags looked at me with a devilish grin and her eyes sparkled with some kind of mischief. “Did I ever tell you about my wedding gown?”
Lapis and I looked at her with puzzled expressions.
“It is the most beautiful shade of sky blue, designed by my sister when we were still young enough to do such nimble work with our fingers.” She vanished into her bedroom and came back moments later with a worn box almost the length of her. “I’ve kept it in perfect condition all these years, hoping it would one day find another use.” She unlatched the wooden box and pulled out a dress that was more tulle and lace and beading than it was solid fabric, but when she held it up to the light, my eyes danced over it. “Think it’ll do?”
Once we had found enough bracelets and material to cover both arms, grabbed the necklace, found the shoes at the bottom of Lapis’s closet that fit, we were all the way to creating a more formal look.
I had been through this once when Meena had taken me to the theater in Prago City, and I didn’t like it, but at least then I didn’t have anyone I knew bearing witness to my humiliation. By the time the dress was sitting on my figure and we had locked me into more layers than I had ever worn, though, I had to admit I looked okay in the dim lighting of the living room.
Lapis stood beside me in her own gown made of layers of white and peach cotton with silver tulle and buttons. Where her usual style was bright colors and cinched waistlines, this was more laid back, more sedated and settled but with an elegance that showed off the intelligence in her eyes and the thoughtfulness in her smile. It was more her.
Lapis tugged at my hair again, and I flinched but tried to hide it with a laugh at something Mags had just said.
“If you did this more often, you wouldn’t find it so horrid. Seriously, your father left you socially feral.” She curled another chunk of blonde strands with a tongue tipping beyond her pursed lips.
“I think he just wanted me to be myself and not be molded into society’s idea of a well-fitted woman. He wanted me to forge my own path.”
“He was a good man.” She pulled another few pieces down and twisted them into the perfect curls that trailed down my back. “Do you remember when he used to take us to the empty warehouse with the tall window view of the sunset? You could see the perfect desert hues from there. It was Lazuli’s favorite time of the week.”
It had never occurred to me that my father had left an impression on them. But he took them in and gave them guidance in a way Phyllis couldn’t. He was always kind and gentle toward them.
Mags had steamed us cups of hot milk and sat them on the table in front of us. “He was a beautiful person.”
“I miss him,” I whispered. I missed IoN too.
“Me too,” Lapis admitted.
After they had placed all kinds of powders and colored creams on my face—only half of which I had used before and only some of which I recognized—they placed me in front of the mirror. The dress looked like feathers made out of moonlight in the dark room, with pieces of material curving over the shoulders to my back. It cinched in at the waist and came back out to curve over my hips in a way that made me look more feminine, more delicate, than I was used to seeing in my reflection. It was like a beautiful, strong contradiction.
“You look fit for a princess,” Mags said and winked.
Lapis looked at me with a tilted head, confused for a second before she blushed. “Let’s go get you your princess, then.”