In a little house with a little yard and a little porch there was a roomful of
big people talking and laughing and eating cake. On the floor on a pink blanket
with lace edging sat a very bewildered baby girl who had just turned one year
old. Here she was in her familiar house on her very familiar blanket with her
familiar toys. And there was Mommy sitting in a chair talking to Auntie Sara.
Daddy stood by the table talking to Grandpa, and Grandma sat on the couch with
something in her lap. The baby knew all those people. They were familiar to her.
But who were all those other people? Why had they all stared at her when Mommy
brought out that sweet kind of bread covered with fluffy, sticky stuff? And what
was that thing in the middle?
“Blow out the candle, Emma,” they all cried, and several demonstrated how to go
about doing that. “Blow it out!”
But Emma only put her finger in her mouth. Finally Mommy blew on it and the
light went off. She took it out and licked off the pink fluffy stuff from the
end. What did it taste like?
Emma hesitantly touched the pink fluffy stuff and some of it stuck to her
finger. Why did it stick? Would it ever come off?
“Taste it, Emma,” Mommy said. “It’s yummy!”
“Yummy, yummy!” several other people agreed.
Emma held her finger up to Mommy. Maybe Mommy could get it off.
Mommy licked Emma’s finger and said, “Mmmm!”
“Mmmm!” everyone agreed.
Emma looked at her finger. The pick fluffy stuff was all gone. Mommy had eaten
it. Maybe Emma could eat some too. She stuck her whole hand in this time and
everybody laughed at her.
“Yummy, yummy, yummy!” they said, licking their lips.
Emma slowly brought it to her face and stuck two fingers in her mouth. Mmmm, it
was good! Now she attacked it with both hands, the sweet crumbs and fluffy stuff
covering her fingers.
Everyone laughed again and Mommy turned to cut up another one. The cake was
dished up and they let her finish eating hers in peace.
“Is that yummy cake?” Mommy asked after Emma had demolished hers until it was
just sticky pile of crumbs. Emma looked up at her, cheeks and lips coved with
crumbs and frosting. She put two fingers in her mouth and ran the other hand
through her sticky golden ringlets. “You’re a mess! Messy baby!” Mommy said and
she washed the remains of that yummy stuff off Emma’s face, hands, and hair.
Emma decided that she rather liked that cake and frosting stuff. It felt kind of
funny all over her hands and face, but it was good.
Then Mommy had set her down on her blanket in the living room filled with people
talking and laughing and eating that yummy cake stuff.
She stuck two fingers in her mouth to see if there was any left on her hands and
looked around the room with wide, questioning eyes. What were those things piled
on the end table and what was that thing Grandma was holding? Emma had seen lots
of those at Christmas time but she hadn’t really understood what to do with
them.
Emma was lost in the contemplation of all these new and unfamiliar things when
Mommy picked her up and set her one her lap. “Are you ready to open your
presents?” she asked.
Emma wasn’t sure.
Grandma then gave Mommy the thing that she had been holding. “This is a special
present,” she said. “I’ve been waiting years for this day!”
“Can you open it, Emma?” Mommy asked, showing her where to pull.
Maybe it tasted good like the cake. Emma tried to take a bite, but no, it didn’t
taste good like the cake. Everyone in the room laughed.
“Open it, Emma,” they all said.
Mommy pulled away the paper wrapping and dropped it on the floor. Inside was a
beautiful yellow dress with blue flowers. She held it up and everyone said, “Oh,
how cute!”
But Emma was more interested in the paper. She squirmed off Mommy’s lap and
began to examine it.
“This is a very special dress,” Grandma began. “I got it a long time ago, before
I was married. My mother and I were at a thrift store…”
- - -
The thrift store was full of racks and racks of clothing: coats, jeans, dresses,
shirts... A musty, dusty smell filled the air and the radio softly played oldies
music in the background. Amanda had just finished trying on a long black dress
that she’d found buried among a bunch of old prom dresses.
“I really like this dress,” she told her mother who was rummaging to find baby
clothes for her next child that would be born in the spring. “And six dollars is
a spectacular deal.”
“Yes, it really is a find,” Mother replied, “and just in time for the dance
we’re going to on Friday. Tell me, which outfit do you like better?”
She held up two fuzzy pajamas and Amanda considered them. “I like the green one
with the lions on it. The hippopotamus is cute and I like the blue, but I think
the lions are more fitting, since our last name is Lyons.”
“Besides,” Mother added in agreement, “the lion one is half off.”
“Yeah, half off twice the price of the hippo one.”
“Yes, but at least I feel like I’m getting a deal!”
Smiling they turned back to hunting. “Oh, this is a cute dress,” Mother said.
“Too bad we’re having a boy.”
“Oh,” Amanda cried, ecstatically, holding it up, “I love it!” It was a soft,
cotton yellow dress with blue flowers and green leaves. It had a long full skirt
pleated smoothly up to the little white collar and had short puffed sleeves that
would show dimpled baby arms. Amanda could just see a little girl with tiny
blonde ringlets and shiny black shoes toddling around with this sweet dress on
her.
While she sat daydreaming, her mother was saying, “We already got Lydia’s
present for her baby girl and we don’t know if anyone else at church is having a
girl. Oh well, I’m sure someone else will enjoy it someday.”
Amanda was snatched from her futuristic vision to the more real present. “Can’t
we get it anyway?”
“But everyone besides Lydia is having boys. I suppose we could keep it until
someone does have a girl. I’m sure we’ll have more babies at church soon
enough.”
“Couldn’t I keep it? It would be the one item I would put in a hope chest if I
had one.”
Mother looked at the dress in her daughter’s hopeful hands. “What if you never
have any girls?”
“Surely I’ll have girls.”
“Okay then. It will be the one item you would have in your hope chest if you had
one.”
Amanda set it lovingly in the cart next to the black dress. “Besides, if I don’t
have any girls I’ll give it to my first granddaughter.”
Amanda gently washed and ironed the yellow dress with blue flowers, folded it up
and carefully placed it in her mother’s hope chest on top of her old dolls and
the copy of The Velveteen Rabbit that she’d gotten from Granny when she turned
two. She closed the cedar lid and her hopes were safe.
The years rolled by. Amanda finished growing up and got married. She moved into
her own home and with her came the hope chest with the dolls, the books, and the
little yellow dress with blue flowers. She cooked the meals, washed the laundry,
vacuumed the floors, and the yellow dress with blue flowers remained safe in the
cedar hope chest.
- - -
Then she was pregnant with her first child and she began preparing to welcome
this bundle of joy. She and her husband talked about what they would name their
child. “If it’s a boy I like the name Joshua. Joshua is a good strong name. What
should we call it if it’s a girl? Emma is a nice name. Yes, I like Emma.”
Amanda tenderly pulled the little yellow dress with blue flowers out of the
cedar hope chest. She held it up admiringly. It was still just as adorable as it
had looked that first day in the thrifts store. Yes it would be perfect for
Emma.
Winter passed and spring came. In April Joshua was born. He was a handsome
sturdy little lad who would live up to his strong name. Amanda dressed him in
the green outfit with lions on it that her mother had given her. She reflected
that it had been bought half price the same day she had purchased the yellow
dress with blue flowers.
- - -
“Joshua, can you show Daddy how you can stand up all on your own?”
“Stand up! Big boy!”
“Show Daddy how you can walk to him!”
On toddling, uncertain feet, Joshua wobbled a couple steps into his Daddy’s
arms. Then they turned him around and made him walk back the other way into his
Mommy’s arms.
- - -
Amanda was getting her little boy dressed one morning and pulled out a green
checked shirt and a manly pair of overalls. “You’re getting to be such a big
boy!” she cooed, running her fingers through his golden curls. “If you were a
girl I would be dressing you in the yellow dress with blue flowers.”
Suddenly she got an idea. Her eyes twinkled and she smiled mischievously at the
little boy. “Come on little man, let’s see what you would look like as a girl.”
She took the lamp, the wedding picture, and the telephone off the hope chest and
pulled out the little yellow dress with blue flowers. She shook some creases out
and unzipped the back. Joshua cooed as the folds fell over his head, smelling of
cedar and preserved hopes. She zipped up the back and stood her little girl up.
The yellow and blue skirt fell daintily a little below the young master’s knees,
the short sleeves exposed his dimpled elbows, and the little white collar
perfectly framed his rosy face.
But Amanda could not help but burst out laughing at the sight of her manly boy
decked out in yellow and blue flowers. Joshua laughed and cooed right alongside
her. He ran and flung himself in the cushions of the rocking chair in his
delight, the yellow and blue skirt flouncing with his movements.
“I’m sorry, Joshua, but you’re are a very handsome little man and yellow and
blue flowers do not become you. Let’s put the dress safely away for your little
sister.” Amanda unzipped the dress, folded it, and lovingly put in back in the
hope chest, safe with the dolls and the book.
Joshua ran in his diaper to the changing table and grabbed his more appropriate
overalls.
- - -
The days and months continued to roll by. Joshua skipped and laughed and began
talking. Caleb was born and Daniel followed him. Amanda got out The Velveteen
Rabbit to read to her boys. She got out the dolls so her friends’ daughters
could play with them when they visited. Three more boys were born and the little
yellow dress with blue flowers remained forlornly in the cedar hope chest.
- - -
Six manly boys grew up to become six handsome young men. Joshua came home one
day and shouted out at the tope of his lungs, “Annie and I are getting married!
She said yes!” His beaming face and wide grin was almost outdone by her radiant
face and bubbly laugh. Loud cheers erupted from his five brothers, his father
shook his hand again and again, and Amanda squeezed her future daughter-in-law
in a crushing embrace.
This excitement was duplicated a few months later as Joshua, looking sharp in
his tuxedo, and Annie, the perfect picture of a bride adorned for her husband,
said, “I do”. Daniel fidgeted with his collar, Caleb winked at the maid of
honor, two others couldn’t keep their feet still, and the youngest laughed when
the flower girl dropped her basket of flower petals. Joshua and Annie, oblivious
to anything else, stared into each other’s eyes as they slipped the rings on
each other’s finger. A supreme happiness filled Amanda and she squeezed her
husband’s hand. They smiled at each other, thinking of all the years that they
had been blessed with Joshua, all his past antics, his frustrations, and his
joys.
The crowd lining the way from the reception hall to the car was loud and
boisterous. Flower petals showered down on the radiant couple as they skipped to
the car. “Go Joshua!” yelled Caleb at the top of his lungs and Daniel pelted his
brother right above his left ear with a ball of rose petals. “Good bye!
Goodbye!” everyone yelled as the car took off.
- - -
As Annie and Joshua settled into their new home, the hope chest sat in Amanda’s
home filled once again. The old dolls had seen some wear and a few were absent
from the community. The Velveteen Rabbit, much worn and read, was still there
and some memorabilia from the boys’ childhood had joined the bunch: Joshua’s old
teddy bear that was missing an eye, Caleb’s blanket, some favorite books of
theirs, and a few toy cars. And on top, still safe and sound lay the little
yellow dress with blue flowers.
- - -
One day Annie and Joshua came over. They gathered everyone into the living room.
“Mom and Dad,” Joshua said, trying to keep a straight face, “we have some big
news for you.” A grin broke through and Annie beamed away. “You’re going to be
grandparents!”
“I’m going to be an uncle!” said Caleb.
“We’re going to be uncles!” replied Daniel. The other brothers let out several
whoops and all five clapped their brother on the back. “You’re going to be a
dad, old man!” they reminded him, boisterously laughing.
- - -
In June Emma was born. Annie’s tired eyes sparkled as she handed the baby girl
to her grandmother. Amanda stared at her little granddaughter who was peacefully
sleeping. This was actually a little girl! She wrapped the tiny hand around her
finger and softly petted the delicate bit of fuzz that covered her head.
“I think she has a very feminine nose,” Annie said gently, knowing how happy her
mother-in-law was to finally have a girl. “Don’t you think?”
Amanda nodded. “And very elegant hands.”
“Oh, a baby’s a baby,” Joshua said, light touching his daughter’s “feminine
nose”. His face showed how happy he was. “They’re all cute, but you can’t tell a
girl from a boy. If we wrapped her in a blue blanket she’d look as handsome as
any baby boy.”
“No,” Amanda replied, “She looks like a girl. And” she added softly, “she looks
like a girl who would look beautiful in yellow and blue.” She petted her soft,
feminine cheek and imagined what she’d look like about one year old in a little
yellow dress with blue flowers.
- - -
One year later, Emma sat on the floor in a pink dress, white tights, and shiny
black shoes playing with wrapping paper. She decided that wrapping paper didn’t
taste as good as that frosting and cake did. Grandma picked her up and said,
“Finally you were born, as much of a girl as I could ever want. And now I’m
passing this dress to you.” She held up the yellow dress with blue flowers, all
washed and pressed as if it had just come off the rack of the most expensive
clothing store. But it had not come from any old clothing store. It had lain
carefully preserved in the cedar hope chest. Finally it had been taken out and
more than twenty-five years of hopes had been lovingly and tenderly pressed into
it.
Mommy took Emma into her room, took her pink dress off and put the little yellow
dress with blue flowers over her head. The folds fell gracefully smelling
freshly of cedar and laundry soap. The back was zipped up and Mommy said softly,
“Go show Grandma.”
Grandma sat folding up the wrapping paper when a little girl came toddling
around the corner. The sun shining through the window glistened off her tiny
golden ringlets and made her black shoes shine. Her eyes were sparkling and her
cheeks were rosy. And she was wearing the little yellow dress with blue flowers.
The skirt flounced as she wobbled across the room, the short sleeves showed off
her chubby arms and dimpled elbows, and the little white collar framed her sweet
face. She smiled, showing off her little baby teeth and ran to give Grandma a
hug. At last Amanda’s dream had come true, golden ringlets, shiny black shoes
and all.
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