Grave Apparel (78 page)

“Maybe. If it
doesn’t
work
out, can we come and stay with you?” Jasmine said, no doubt thinking
Lacey
was
the
world’s
biggest
pushover.

It’s
my
own
fault,
she
thought,
I
bought
them
coats
and
apple
pies.
“You
wouldn’t
like
it.
I’ve
been
told
I’m
really
mean.”

Jasmine
smirked.
“How
mean could you be?
You
brought us
coats.”

“Are
you really mean?” Lily Rose rubbed the fur on the col lar of her coat.
“You
don’t
look
mean.”

“Pretty mean.
I’d
make
you sleep in a real bed instead of a laundry room and
wash
your
faces
and comb your
hair.”

“My hair!” Jasmine wailed and grabbed her
hair,
embar
rassed.
“It’s
really bad,
isn’t
it? I lost my hair band. I need an other
one.”

“Me
too,”
Lily Rose said
sadly.
“I need clips and I
don’t
have
a
comb.
I
lost
it
somewhere.”
She
shrugged
extravagantly
and grabbed her hair with
two
hands and pulled. It
was
full of

snarls.
Lacey
helped the girls with their
new
coats and slipped on her
own.
Jasmine helped Lily Rose with her
zipper.

“We’ll
take
care of your
hair.
It’ll
be really pretty when
it’s
clean and
combed.”

“But no cops,
Lacey,”
Jasmine said.
“We
don’t
talk to the police.
It’s
our
policy.”

“Yeah,
I
know
it’s
your
policy.
Well,
let me tell you some thing. The cops
have
a
policy
too.
It’s
called
‘We
don’t
care what kids
think,’
and sooner or
later,
they’re
going to
find
you. But this way you’ll be together and you
won’t
be all
alone.
You’ll
be
okay.”

“No cops!” Jasmine squealed. A
few
people turned around to stare at them.

“Inside
voices,
Jasmine,”
Lily Rose stagewhispered.
“No
cops,”
Jasmine said
again,
softly.

Lacey
grabbed her bags and ushered them out the door to
find
a cab, holding their hands. She thought she had them, if she could just
keep
the
forward
momentum.

“Now.
You
can trust me, and
I’ll
make
sure you
have
a home with great foster parents who will
take
care of you. Or
you’ll
be in the system with just the cops and no one to
take
care of
you.”
The girls were thinking about it.
They
didn’t
make
a run for it. “If you choose me and Mac and Kim Jones, then
you’ll
have
a home with your
sister,
and the Santa Dude will
never
find
you.”

“What’s
going to happen to him?” Jasmine
asked.
“He’s
going to go to
prison.”
I
hope,
she added
silently.

“What if we
don’t
like
these foster parents of yours?” Jas
mine’s
tough guy look
was
back.

“You
will, trust me. And if the cops
find
you and you
don’t
have
a guardian, you both get swept up in the system, you go to
juvenile
facilities,
and you might get split
up.”

“No, Miss
Lacey.”
Lily Rose pulled on
Lacey’s
hand.
“You
can’t
do that to
us.”

“I
don’t
want
that to happen
either,
Lily Rose. I’m on your side. So
what’s
it going to be, Jasmine?
You’re
the big
sister.
You’re
in
charge.
You
have
to decide.
It’s
time.”
Lacey
waved
her hand at the
traffic
and a purple cab pulled
over
for them. She opened the back door and ushered the girls in. She sat
next
to Jasmine and shut the
door.
The
driver
waited
for instructions. Jasmine
was
silent.

“Come on,
Jasmine.”
Lily Rose bit her
lower
lip. “Please? I

don’t
want
the Santa Dude to get us.
We
have
to stay
together.
We’re
a
family.”

“Okay,”
Jasmine
finally
said to her
sister.
“We’re
gonna trust
Lacey.
’Cause she came and helped me and the lady in the
alley,
right? And ’cause she came and bought us coats and apple pies. And ’cause if it
doesn’t
work
out we can go and stay with
her.
Okay,
Lily Rose?” Lily Rose nodded. Jasmine turned to
Lacey
and shook hands.
“It’s
a deal,
Lacey.
We’re
trusting you. But we
have
to get our things at Miss
Charday’s,
please?
We
have
to tell her goodbye. And we
have
to tell her thank
you.”

“I left my things there
too,”
Lily Rose said.
“All
I
have
in the
world,
the whole
world.
And then can we go?”

They
had a deal.
Lacey
breathed a sigh of relief. “Where does Miss Charday
live?”

“Right across the street from where we used to
live.
Can we go right
now?”

Of course. The kids had stayed in their
own
neighborhood, close to home.
Lacey
hugged Jasmine and Lily Rose together
and
they
giggled.
They
suddenly
seemed
so
small,
just
two armfuls,
even
wrapped up in their
puffy
new
coats.
“We’ll
go see Miss Charday
together.
But
first,
I
know
a place where we can get some bands for your hair and a couple of combs, okay?
We’ll
make
you
pretty.”

Lacey
told the
cabdriver
to
take
them to Dupont Circle.
Now
that
the
decision
was
finally
made,
both
girls
seemed
enor
mously excited by this big adventure. Jasmine took
Lacey’s
hand and squeezed it tight.

“I
never
been in a taxicab before!” Lily Rose said.
Lacey
reached for her cell phone.
She’d
reeled them in.

The cab dropped them in front of Stylettos, the salon just
off
Dupont Circle where
Lacey’s
friend Stella
Lake
was
the man
ager.
Stella’s
blue menorah with multicolored lights was
lit,
even
though Hanukkah
was
at least a week
away.
Next
to the
menorah
in
a
blaze
of
pink
lights
sat
a
fourfoottall
pink
feather tree decorated with pink flamingos, purple balls, and a riot of colorful hair accessories, clips, elastic bands, and pretty painted porcelain barrettes. The girls stopped on the
sidewalk
to
gawk
at
the
holiday
decorations,
bouncing
up
and
down
outside
the
salon’s
front
windows.
Lily Rose announced that
she
wanted
the pink tree. Jasmine wanted one in blue. And she
wanted
all the pretty menorah candles too.

It
was
just before eight,
but
to
Lacey
it felt
like
two
in the morning. There were a
few
customers left in the salon, their heads
covered
with foil wrapping. Stella
was
stocking shampoo bottles in the displays and applying pink
bows
everywhere.
She pounced happily on
Lacey
the instant she and her
wards
walked
through the
door.
The girls hid behind
Lacey’s
legs
and
peeked
out at Stella.

Stella
had
shed
her
usual
Stylettos
smock,
and
she
was
wearing a
longsleeved,
skintight black sweater with an
eye
popping neckline. No winter cold
would
stop her from
showing
off
the Girls. Her black
Lycra
stretch pants were also skintight
over
shiny
gold stilettos. Her black hair
was
slicked
back à la Rudolph
Valentino
and her
makeup was
just as dramatic.

“Lacey!
It is about time! I
have
been
expecting
you!” Stella inspected her
friend’s
outfit.
“Uhoh, all dressed up for a party? So let me see, let me see!”
Lacey
unbuttoned
her coat to
show
off
her
outfit.
“Aha,
got to be from the Aunt Mimi collection.

Nice,
classy,
elegant.
Nothing
I’d
ever
wear,
but
nice.
But
you
know,
Lace, I really could
have
done something better
with
your
hair.
Something sophisticated? A French twist or some thing, to
show
off
your neckline?
You
know,
something sort of ‘Our Miss Brooks’ meets Naughty Miss
Lacey.”

Lacey
smiled. “There
was
no time, Stella,
I’ll
explain
later.

We
can’t
stay
long.”

“Stop! Who is this ‘we’?” Stella eyed the two little
girls
peeking around
Lacey.
Lily Rose stared at the
exotic
Stella. “So what
have
you brought me here? A couple of little Christmas presents?
For
me?
You
shouldn’t
have!
Are
they
adorable or what?”
Lacey
made introductions. Stella
examined
the girls’ hair with a professional
scowl.
The girls giggled.
Lacey’s
friend seemed to be amusing them so
far.

“They
are
adorable,”
Lacey
said. “But we need some rubber bands for their hair and some combs and maybe a quick brush out and then we
have
to meet—”

“Ha!
That’s
not all
they
need.”
Stella hefted a handful of Jas
mine’s
tangled curls. “These girls need the
works.
Shampoo, cut,
blow
dry,
conditioner.
Both of
them.”