Don’s mom smiled, her happiness fully restored.
“Don’t show Don,” she teased, waggling her finger. “It’s unlucky if the groom sees the bride’s dress before the wedding day.”
June came, and with it, the day of the wedding. Somehow, Stephanie had not found the right moment to tell Don about Stephen. She’d tried once, even getting so far as mentioning Stephen. Don had seemed ready to listen. Then a dog had darted out of a side street. Don had swerved to keep them from hitting it, and the moment had been lost.
All the hurdles Stephanie had expected hadn’t happened. Blood tests were no longer done. Physical exams were no longer required. The bored clerk hardly glanced at their birth certificates, shoved across forms for them to sign, and barely glanced at any signature but the one Don scrawled on the check. That she checked against his driver’s license.
Stephanie’s bridesmaids were to be Pam and Elaine, her best friends from work. Stephanie had initially cultivated Elaine for purely practical reasons, figuring that the personnel officer would be the first to hear any hints that someone suspected Stephanie was not quite what she seemed. Somewhere the pretense of friendship had become real. Pam worked as a programmer in the same division Stephanie did. She was uninquisitive about anything but numbers and codes, but with those she was brilliant, even funny.
The three women had arranged to meet at Stephanie’s house to get dressed in their finery and do each other’s hair. Then they would take the limousine over to the church together. If Stephanie met them at the door already in her gown, neither of her friends thought this odd. Her physical modesty was well-known, and many a bride could hardly wait to put on the lovely dress that she would, after all, wear only once.
Besides, the dress itself provided ample distraction.
“It’s amazing!” said Pam, a woman whose praise was usually reserved for the intricacies of some computer program.
“You showed it to us in the box,” Elaine added, “but this is a dress that needs to be seen on to be appreciated. Spin a bit, Stephanie. Look how those beads catch the light. If it wasn’t impossible you could believe they were diamonds. I love the netting over the neckline, modest without being in the least prudish.”
Stephanie loved the netting, too, as it concealed her falsies from close inspection. The only things was, she didn’t remember seeing the netting in any of the old photos. She supposed it had been too delicate to show.
“Even without your hair done or your make-up finished,” Pam said, “you look like a princess.”
“All hail Princess Stephanie!” Elaine said, making a deep curtsey, despite her jeans.
Stephanie flushed, remembering the boy of eight who had found his true self in a Cinderella costume.
“She’s blushing!” Pam said. “Now, you’re already half-way ready to go. Let’s get to our hair and then we’ll finish our make-up. Are you going to be all right in that gown? Wouldn’t you be more comfortable in a bathrobe?”
Stephanie spun, letting the diamond beads catch fire in the sunlight streaming through the windows.
“I don’t ever want to take it off,” she said. “I wish I could be Princess Stephanie forever and ever.”
Pam laughed. “Enjoy it while you can, though I’m sure Don is going to be an absolute Prince Charming, even after the wedding. You can tell he’s not just madly in love, he’s sincerely in love. Now, let’s start with Elaine’s hair. It’s thicker than mine, and as I recall…”
The conversation drifted off into the intricacies of hairdressing. As Stephanie’s hands worked on taming Elaine’s thick chestnut locks, her mind insisted on returning to that morning. She’d sat there on the edge of the bed, naked, looking back and forth between the magnificent wedding dress on its stand and the undeniably male sex organs dangling limp at her crotch.
“I’m a man, Don! A man! The woman you love doesn’t exist.”
She practiced the words, but she couldn’t imagine saying them over the phone, and Don was taking his mother’s superstitions very seriously. He’d even left the rehearsal dinner early, so he wouldn’t take a chance of seeing Stephanie after midnight.
“I guess he knows that Cinderella changes back into her real self after midnight,” Stephen said to the dress, “and he doesn’t want to take any chances. How can I do this to him? But how can I stand him up at the altar? Better to go through with it, then let him find out the truth. Then we can figure out the best way to save face for him afterwards. It would be easy for him to have the marriage declared invalid. Then I could disappear. He could tell everyone whatever he wanted. Or I could pretend to die…”
Stephen started crying, hard tears that wrenched from the heart.
“But I love him so much! That’s real, even if Stephanie isn’t. I love him, and I’m going to lose him because even if a scullery maid can be changed into a princess, there’s no way I can ever be.”
“Ouch!” Elaine’s exclamation brought Stephanie from her memories. “Not so hard! I don’t mind wearing it up, but I do protest having it pulled out at the roots.”
“Sorry,” Stephanie said. “I think I’ve got the pins in now, and doesn’t your hair look wonderful?”
It did, and Elaine was immediately mollified, turning her head side to side to inspect the effect. Pam’s hair was easier to do, but Stephanie made herself concentrate on the task, not letting her mind wander. She took charge of the cosmetics, and each of her friends were overwhelmed at the transformation.
“You won’t be the only princess at this ball!” Pam said, turning her head side to side to admire the results of Stephanie’s skillful shadowing. “Mike won’t know me.”
“Mike will be awed,” Elaine said, “but he’s going to be embarrassed unless you get your dress on. We’d better get moving. The limo’s going to be here before we know it.”
And it was. Stephanie had hardly settled the heirloom tiara that went with the dress into her fair hair when the driver came to the door. He seemed pleasantly impressed with the entourage, escorting them to the long car with visible pride.
“Usually,” Pam said when they were settled, “I consider stretch limousines an indulgence, but at a time like this, they make sense. We would never have fit your dress into a more usual car, Stephanie. Even ours would be a trial.”
Stephanie could only nod. Her heart was in her throat, and she was suddenly overwhelmed with what she was glad to know everyone would take for bridal jitters. Then they were at the church. She could hear the organ notes floating out toward them as the church’s big double doors swept open.
She stood straight. Great-grandmother’s wedding dress glittered in the sunlight. Her veil fell into place as if arranged by invisible angels. Pam and Elaine looked radiant, but Stephanie glowed.
The bouquets were waiting at the back. Don’s mom fussed about, making sure each woman got the right one.
“Stephanie, you look wonderful!” she whispered happily, pecking the bride on one cheek.
“Thanks, Mom,” Stephanie said. “Now go ahead. The usher is waiting for you.”
The parents of the groom were escorted to their seats, then the music shifted.
“That’s your cue,” Stephanie said, holding her bouquet just as she had practiced. “Take the lead, ladies. I’m right behind you.”
No one was giving the bride away, although Don’s dad had offered. Stephanie wouldn’t accept that kindness, would not let that good man be part of her deception. Unseen Stephen would give Stephanie away, just as he would accept the responsibility at the end.
The service went by in a blur. Stephanie knew she said all the right things because no one looked at her strangely. The priest said “Husband and wife,” and Don kissed her without a trace of shyness, never mind all the avid gazes fixed on them both.
Then they swept down the aisle to the thrilling notes of the organ recessional, and off to the reception. Stephanie had insisted that she could not bear a tyrannical photographer, so they settled for a few posed shots taken by a good friend, then joined the party.