As she continued talking, she was expertly applying makeup to my face. A little foundation was followed by a very light application of blush and a hint of brown mascara on my eyelashes. Mom then applied a light pink lipstick to my lips followed by an application of lip-gloss to make my lips shiny. “Oh, one more thing. Tonight, you will call us mommy and daddy. And I want you to do a little curtsy for your daddy when you greet him tonight.”
“Curtsy? That’s dumb, mom.”
“Who am I?’
“I mean mommy.”
“That’s better. Now stand up. I will show you how to curtsy.” When I didn’t get up right away, mom gave me a look and said, “Or if you prefer, you can practice doing them at the ball field tomorrow.”
With that I quickly stood up. Mom told me to place my right foot behind my left foot and hold my slip with my right hand and then bend my knees a little. I never felt more stupid then practicing curtsying for those few minutes. “Ok, I think you got it. You can do a few more after we fix your hair and get your dress on. In fact, let me get your dress now and then we’ll do your hair so it doesn’t get messed up.” With that she went to the closet and brought over the pink and white dress we bought the day before at the mall. She told me to be careful not to let the dress touch my face since I already had on my makeup. She unzipped it and helped slip it on me. Once I had it on, she zipped me up and I felt trapped for the evening.
Mom sat me down again and started removing the curlers. “Wow. You’re hair really holds a curl. You’re going to look so pretty after we get it all combed out and styled a bit. After about 15 minutes of teasing and combing she seemed satisfied that my hair looked nice. Handing me my sandals, she said, “Here honey, put these on and then we’ll let you take a look at how pretty you are.”
After slipping on the dressy sandals I walked over to mirror and stood in silent shock at my reflection. I could not believe the pretty young girl in the mirror was really me. From head to toe I was all girl. All of a sudden the events of the day and the preceding week overcame me and I could feel tears welling up in my eyes. I didn’t want my father to see me like this. As I started crying, mom yelled at me. “You’d better not cry young lady. I just spent all afternoon fixing you up so you look like my little princess and I will not have you ruin everything with your tears. But if insist on crying like some baby girl, I’ll change you into an outfit more appropriate for a five-year-old girl and take you out like that. Do I make myself clear?”
“Sure mommy. I’m sorry. I’ll stop crying.”
“That’s better. Why don’t you sit on the bed and I’ll get dressed. Your father should be here any minute now. I think our reservations were for 6:30 or 7:00. And honey, don’t forget to smooth out your dress like I showed you so it doesn’t get all wrinkled.”
As I sat down mom slipped on her stockings and then removed her robe to finish dressing. I guess she really did think of me as a girl now since she was rummaging in her closet wearing only her lingerie looking for a dress to wear. “I want to wear something nice too since you look so pretty, Danielle.”
As I sat there I couldn’t help but think how horrible tonight would be. Birthdays were supposed to be fun but tonight would be no fun at all. I could not believe I would be spending such an important day dressed as a girl. And to make matters worse my dad would be there for the celebration and I had to convince him that I actually enjoyed all of this crap or else mom would take me to baseball practice dressed as a girl.