Prom Night in Purgatory(40)

Maggie popped the earrings out of one ear and then the other, showing Lizzie it wasn’t that big of a deal.

“How do you put those on?” Maggie nodded toward the bobbles in Lizzie’s palm. Lizzie eyed the holes in Maggie’s now bare ears, her face wrinkled in revulsion.

“Good grief, Lizzie!” Maggie chuckled. “Where I come from, everyone has their ears pierced, and sometimes their lips and eyebrows too!

Lizzie backed away, horrified. Maggie could see that Lizzie was a little afraid of her now. Time to change the subject.

“Let me try these. Can’t be too hard, can it?” Maggie stood and took the earrings from Lizzie’s palm, giving Lizzie a comforting pat on her back before she moved away.

“Turn the back until it screws in tight,” Lizzie supplied helpfully, her eyes never leaving Maggie’s earlobes. Maggie sighed and shook her head. Ghosts and time travel didn’t seem to bother the girl, but pierced ears had almost sent her over the edge. The earrings weren’t very comfortable, and Maggie could see why women had eventually given in and put holes in their ears.

It seemed that Irene had more than enough make-up to spare, and Lizzie had spent a fair amount of time watching her big sister apply it. She showed Maggie how to wet the little brush and rub it across the black rectangular pan of mascara to coat it before combing it through her lashes. She then talked her through applying the foundation and powder “just the way Irene does, using the middle fingers only.”

When they pulled out the curlers, though, Lizzie was horrified by the long drooping waves and curls. Maggie thought it looked kind of pretty, though, kind of like a movie star from the 1930s or ‘40s. She parted it on the left side and let the right side play peekaboo with her lined and mascaraed blue eyes. She thought she looked kind of sexy. Lizzie just sighed and let her shoulders droop dejectedly. Maggie was pretty sure Lizzie thought she had blown it before she even set foot at the prom. Hopefully Johnny would think differently.

The wrinkles in the red dress had all but disappeared, and Maggie slipped it on over the half slip, the nylons and the garter belt (gasp!), and the strapless bra Lizzie had pilfered from Irene’s drawer. The slip kept the net skirt from irritating her legs, and Maggie wondered why slips had ever gone out of style. She’d never worn a slip or hose. The garter belt dug into her skin, and the nylons were torturous, but they weren’t so different from dance tights, so she endured them. The bullet shape of the bra still embarrassed her, but she had to give it props. The girls never looked better...or more deadly.

Lizzie tried to douse Maggie in Irene’s perfume, but Maggie declined. If she got close enough to Johnny tonight for him to smell her perfume, she didn’t want him to think of Irene. Instead, she dabbed the spot behind her ears, the inner crease at her elbows, and the barely visible valley between her breasts with a little rose water that Lizzie had been given for Christmas and never used.

When she was ready, she twirled for Lizzie and picked up the little silver purse that had still been wrapped around her wrist when she had awakened to find herself in a time long since past.

“You’re so pretty....even with that old-fashioned hairstyle,” Lizzie sighed, her smile slightly dreamy. “I wish I could come.” Lizzie sat up suddenly. “Maggie? How are you going to get there?”

Maggie had thought of that already. She would walk, of course. It was only three blocks down and three blocks over. She would be fine and told Lizzie as much.

“You can’t walk!” Lizzie said, horror—stricken. “You can take Nana’s car. She’ll never know.”

“I can’t take her car!” Maggie gasped, equally horrified. “What if she discovers it’s gone and calls the police, and I get thrown in the slammer and have to try to explain who I am and where I came from.”

“Let me take care of Nana!” Lizzie resisted the notion that Mary Smith would ever discover her car had been absconded by a teenager from the future, posing as her young charge’s cousin.

“I will walk, Lizzie.”

“Maggie!” Lizzie got all watery-eyed and serious immediately. “You can’t walk in the dark, at night, completely alone.”

Maggie tried to brush Lizzie’s worries aside. “See these red shoes? I’ll just click my heels three times and wish myself home.” She thought Lizzie would laugh. But Lizzie just shook her head soberly.

“If you disappear, no one will ever know what happened to you. No one here will even know to look for you! And I will worry about you.....forever.”

Maggie had no response, and Lizzie knew she’d won.

“I will get the keys and distract Nana. She always watches Perry Mason on Saturdays. I think she’s in love with him. After that it’s Lawrence Welk. When Daddy’s gone, she doesn’t budge from the couch all night long. I’ll go down and tell her your mother is coming to pick you up, and then I’ll sit with her and whine about wanting to watch Dick Clark, and I’ll make sure the television is plenty loud. Go out to the garage, start the car, and before you go, give a loud toot on the horn. I’ll run and call up the stairs that your mother is here and then talk for a moment like I’m saying goodbye. Then I will walk to the front door and open it. When I shut it, wait a few seconds, and drive away. She’ll be fast asleep when you get back, but there is a key under the rocking chair on the porch just in case I fall asleep too, all right?”