Mum shut the lid of her laptop and said she needed to get the evening meal started. She also volunteered me to help since I had no homework. Julia asked if Mum had found any Prom photos on the schools website. Mum said she had but felt that I’d rather we did something other than talk about dresses… and she’s absolutely right. Julia got on with her homework and I peeled the carrots and potatoes. Later that evening, I borrowed the laptop and had a quiet look at the schools website and in particular, the photographs from last year’s Prom. I wished I hadn’t. All the boys are wearing dresses but unlike the girls, they’re wearing the sort of dress that little girls wear, with puffed sleeves, voluminous petticoats and broad satin sashes tied in a big bow at the small of the back. Now I understand the difference between a party dress and ball gown, and why my sister would rather wear one over the other.
A few days later, Mum said that she’d noticed I’d had a look at the Prom photos on her laptop. Julia and I are fully aware that she could check on our surfing history, so this didn’t surprise me. Then she asked me what I thought about them. “They look horrible!” I replied. “Like little girl’s dresses.”
“They are a bit ‘young’.” she replied. “But I think a party dress is more appropriate for a boy than a ball gown.” she added. I suggested that neither are appropriate for a boy. “Oh you know that’s not true… you don’t mind wearing your uniform these days.” she reminded me.
“I do, I just don’t complain about it any more.” I replied.
“Well… I guess you’ve got about six or seven weeks to have a think about it.” mum replied. “In that time maybe you should have another look through the Prom photos and think about the sort of dress you would like to wear.”
“I don’t want to wear any of them.” I muttered. She knows that. Why is she even asking?
“Think about it this way… if you had a choice between a pink dress or a blue one, which would you rather not wear?”
“The pink one.”
“Which mean you’d rather wear the blue one?”
“I guess.” I gulped. Mum asked which I’d rather wear if the choices were blue or green. “Blue… maybe… it depends on the shade.”
“A nice pale blue or a deep forest green?”
“Green.” I replied.
“Are you sure?” Mum asked. I nodded. Mum smiled before suggesting a dark ‘midnight’ blue or the deep forest green.
“I dunno.” I shrugged as I tried to imagine both.
“So you’d prefer a dark colour as opposed to a pale one?”
“I guess.”
“See… now we’re getting somewhere.” Mum grinned.
A few days later, Mum asked if I’d had another look at last year’s prom photos. I hadn’t, but Mum had and she’d taken a copy of the photographs showing the dresses that a; she likes and b; she though I might like. I sat beside my mother as she browsed the photos and it wasn’t comfortable viewing. She pointed out the colours; a deep green, a dark blue, maroon and claret (both of which were dark red to my untrained eyes), deep purple, dark raspberry (another shade of dark red). “so what do you think?” she asked.
“Er.. the colours are OK but I don’t like the dresses themselves.” I replied. “They all look the same.”
“Well they are all party dresses… so by definition they are quite similar.” my mother explained. She drew my attention to minor details such as the shape and style of the neck, the relative height of the waist, matching or contrasting sashes and the various styles of pin-tucked sleeves, puffed sleeves or no sleeves. I wasn’t in the mood to even think about it, let alone give Mum the answers she was looking for. “It’s important to get an idea of what you’d prefer before we go shopping for one.” Mum told me.