Blue Moon of Kentucky

Chapter 40

The foolishness of buying a fancy dress for her didn't hit Loretta until she was just about to get herself ready for church on Christmas Eve. Somehow neither one of them considered that she was starting to gain weight. It wasn't as though she forgot that she was pregnant – that was something one couldn't just forget. She simply didn't consider it when he shoved the dress in her face and asked if she wanted it.

Of course she wanted it. What holler girl who grew up wearing feed sack dresses and subsequently spent most of her marriage making and mending her own dresses wouldn't want it?

But she should have used her brain.

She might have said that she didn't want to show off in front of her family (and she didn't) but she had been looking forward to being able to dress up and pretend that she was a proper lady.

Even worse, it didn't hit her until she had dressed Erin Love in her little green dress, white tights, black shoes and the red cardigan she made for her. A ribbon that matched the ones on the sleeves of her dress tied in her hair rounded out the outfit. She had succeeded in transforming their almost toddler who was normally sticky, drooling and blurry with energy into an adorable Christmas sprite.

Loretta actually tried to squeeze into the dress, but immediately realized that there would be no way for her to zip it up without tearing it.

And because she had been so certain that she would wear the dress, even if it ended up making her look fat, she had nothing else to wear. Her regular church dress was too tight (they didn't go as regularly as they perhaps should) and everyone else would be wearing their best clothes.

Elvis and Junior, who were next door with his parents and Minnie Mae, returned to find Loretta tearing through her closet.

Junior took one look at Erin Love. "What did you do to the poor kid? She looks like a–"

"You shut your dadgum mouth, Junior," Loretta cut him off. Her cheeks reddened with fury. "Or no, why don't you go ahead and tell me what I look like? 'Cause I already know. Like a fat housewife. I might as well keep them curlers in and wear my housecoat to church." She jabbed at the tears rolling down her cheek with the heel of her hand. "Why do I even bother?"

"Loretta?" Elvis said her name cautiously. 

"That dress don't fit," she burst out. "I'm too fat."

Panic fluttered across his face. "O-okay then we'll find somethin' else for–"

"There is nothin' else. Don't you think that I tried to find somethin' else? I'm too fat for anything that looks nice."

"Your church dress?"

"Don't fit! I done told you. Nothin' fits because I'm fat."

"All pregnant women are fat," Junior said, apparently under the impression that he was helping.

Loretta whipped around to glare at him. "You need to shut that big mouth of yours and stay out of it. I– "

She would have kept going if it wasn't for the knock on the door.

"Junior!" Both Elvis and Loretta barked. Junior didn't waste any time running to the door, leaving the couple suspended in tense silence.

Gladys' loud voice filled the apartment. She looked at Erin Love, who was trying to stuff the popcorn on the Christmas tree into her mouth.

"There's my little angel," she cooed.

Loretta burst into tears. "She has a dress that fits her and everything and I got nothin'."

Gladys proffered the strange looking wrapped object she was holding. "Why don't you try this dress I bought for you? When Elvis mentioned what you was gonna wear, I started to wonder– " Gladys tore off the already wrinkled wrapping paper to reveal a gray dress with an intricate black velvet flocked design and a subtle hint of sparkle. The classic wiggle skirt fell to below the knee, the sleeves were 3/4 and the high neck and ruching at the front made it look as though the dress would accommodate both her stomach and her bust.