“Anderson, snap it up,” the woman said, checking a list. “You’ll be first in the Kimball number. Walker, you’re not wearing the white. He says you don’t do right by it.”
Kilty was mildly curious, but not particularly intrigued by the girls. They were years older than she and several worlds apart. With towel and bathing cap in hand, she padded down the cement floor and pushed through the locker-room door at the far end, near the pool.
The man who had been at the table with all the models was standing there. He wore funny-colored pants. She guessed they were chartreuse.
When she was five steps beyond him, he said, “Girl! Yes, I mean you. Come here!”
Kilty turned and walked back, scowling. She hadn’t liked his tone of voice. “What do you want?”
He stared at her coldly and thoroughly. He had a thin, tanned face and small, bright blue eyes. He was older than she had thought.
“Turn around, girl. Slow.”
“I will not turn around.”
“You a member here, girl? What’s your name?”
“My father is a member, and my name is Kilty Morrow.”
“You’ve got good shoulders and good legs, Kilty.” He pointed at the door of the women’s locker room. “You see a dark, heavy woman in there with my girls?”
“Yes. Do you want me to get her for you?”
“No. Go in and tell her Carl says you can wear the white.”
“I can wear what?”
“My white outfit. You can wear it in the show.”
Kilty stared at him. “What do you mean?”
“All right. Slow and easy does it. They tell me, ‘Carl, when you go out there, pick one of the members and hang a dress on her and put her in your show. It goes over big. The members like it. And maybe the girl buys the dress, even.’ So I look around. You walk like a plumber’s helper carrying the tool bag, but Lizzy can show you how to walk right. Now are you happy?”
“No, I’m not. And I’m not wearing your silly dress.”
“Don’t you want to be in a style show? Are you saying no because you’re scared?”
“I just think the whole thing is silly. But I know a girl who’ll do it for you. See over there? The blond girl. She’ll wear it. Her name is Sandra Birch.”
Carl located Sandra. He shook his head sadly. “Not that one. That one is still carrying baby fat. Lizzy couldn’t wedge her into it. And if she could, that girl looks like she’d simper. Ever see what a simper does to a smart frock?”
“I’m afraid I can’t help you,” Kilty said, and started toward the pool.
“Come back here!”
“Look, I’m not going to wear your dress.”
He shrugged. “So I know that. And I know why. Stage fright.”
Kilty felt tears of frustration and anger close behind her eyes. “I am not scared.”
“You don’t kid me, girl. Any kid your age built like you are goes for clothes. If you’re not scared, why don’t you be a good girl and help me out of a jam? Do it for laughs.”
“For laughs?” Kilty said dubiously. Her mind was racing. She could imagine the expression on her mother’s face. And it would be priceless ammunition in the war that had been going on for over a year now. (“But, Mother! Don’t you remember that I was in the style show?”)
“Be a good kid,” Carl said.
“I’ll do it!” she said breathlessly. She would hear no more talk about Sandra.
“Run in there and tell Lizzy. Don’t let her give you a bad time.”
Lizzy stared at her. “What was that, dearie? He wants you in the white? Has he gone nuts?”
“He said I should do it for laughs.”
“Now laughs he wants! Maybe you should fall into the pool with it, dearie. Let’s see how you handle yourself. Walk around there slow and turn around and walk back.”
When Kilty turned around slowly, Lizzy had a hand over her eyes. “Dearie,” she said, “you are not a soldier with a gun. And what do you look for on the floor? Anderson! Come here and show this one how it goes.”
Kilty watched Anderson’s stylized stalk and brittle smile. Kilty frowned. “But people would laugh at me if I walked like that.”
“Listen, you!” Anderson said.
“Be quiet. Look, dearie, all models walk like that. I don’t know why. They just do. Now you see if you can do it just like Anderson. Like a game, you know. Follow the leader.”
Just then the voice of the announcer came dimly through the walls, with a background of slow piano music. “Ladies and gentlemen, we are presenting today a style show in cooperation with...”
Lizzy started barking orders. The models started milling around. A white organdy dress with a pale orchid stole was thrust at Kilty and she was commanded to put it on. Three girls went to work on her. One flattened her hair down, pulled it tight into a chignon and put a pale orchid net on it. Another put big dangling earrings on her. The third found the right shoes to go with the dress, sheer nylons.
Lizzy came over then and slapped her in the small of the back, tugged at the waist of the skirt, said, “It will have to do. Brownell, you make her walk some more, then bring her up where she can watch how you do it on the stand.”
Kilty said, “I don’t think I better try to do it.”
Brownell, a tiny redhead, said, “Everybody has the flutters the first time, kid. Just keep your head up and look them in the eye and show your teeth.”
Lizzy moved a bit so that Kilty could see from the doorway. The crowd, all her friends and her parents’ friends, were just a confusing, shifting area of color. She could hear the announcer’s voice, but the words did not reach her brain.
“Watch Anderson, now. See, when she turns on the platform there she puts her right hand on her hip with the elbow forward. You do that too.”
“I can’t!” Kilty said in a small, trembling voice. “I never should have...”
Lizzy put a firm hand against the small of Kilty’s back and pushed firmly. “Get going!” she hissed. “You’re on.”
“...And now, in white organdy, a gay new way to be young in the evening. Ballet-length skirt and strapless top by Denteri. And the model... Miss Kilty Morrow...”
She could hear all the voices. “Kilty! Why, it’s the Morrow girl! Kilty Morrow!”
Kilty clenched her teeth. They said to walk slow. Slow it would be. Maybe she’d never get to the platform. And smile. Use Anderson’s smile.
Despite her pace, she seemed to reach the corner of the pool too quickly. She turned toward the platform. The pool looked very inviting. A person could hide down there, under water. A person lucky enough could drown.
The platform. She stepped up onto it. She smiled out over the audience in a glazed way and turned slowly, with her right hand on her hip the way Anderson had done it.
Her parents swam into her line of vision. Her father’s eyes were out on stalks. Her mother’s mouth was open. Kilty wanted to laugh, leap into the pool and run like a deer, all at the same time.
The applause startled Kilty. Without knowing how, she maintained her slow pace back to Lizzy.
“How was I?”
“Dearie, you ran like a late commuter and spun up there like a top. You would have blurred a fast shutter. Otherwise you were swell.”
Carl sauntered over. “Didn’t hurt you, did it?” he asked.
“N-n-no, I guess not.”
“So come around in a year and maybe I can fix some part-time work for you.” He handed her a card. “You’re a good junior-miss type, girl.”
Kilty, once again in her swim suit, tried to walk casually to the table where her parents waited. She got the slow stalk of the model and her customary lope all mixed up. She felt as if she were composed entirely of knees and elbows.
She sat down at the table. Laura moistened her lips. “Kilty, how on earth did you get into that parade?”