Middle Aged Prom Dress #10
Lael Littke's Prom Dress: Chapter Ten
Hi, friends,
Welcome back to my deep dive into YA horror of the ‘80s and ‘90s!
If you’d like to start from the beginning of my Prom Dress coverage, the first nine installments are here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
My recapping of Christopher Pike’s Slumber Party starts here.
Nicole Eckhart was only mildly curious when her foot bumped against something under her bus seat. Actually, it almost seemed as if whatever it was had made the movement that brought her foot in contact with it. She’d thought maybe it was a dog someone had smuggled aboard, or a stowaway cat.
—Prom Dress, by Lael Littke
Scene One: Enter… the next victim??
I love that the assumption is that if a dog was on the bus, it would be with a person, but a cat would be a Solo Adventurer.
Anyway, she pulls the bag out and immediately opens it, which is a move straight from The Past, because I feel like that’s something we largely don’t do anymore? Now, when there’s an unattended bag, at least part of our brain immediately thinks UH OH, no?
Related: If you’ve never seen Alfred Hitchcock’s Sabotage from 1936, it’s worth it—it involves a whole sequence with a kid unknowingly carrying a bomb around town and he ends up on a bus—and maybe I’m misremembering but I think there might have even been a puppy on the bus???—and all the way through, I was like HITCHCOCK’S NOT GOING TO GO THROUGH WITH THIS, IS HE? IN 1936? A KID AND A WHOLE BUS OF PEOPLE AND A PUPPY? HE WOULDN’T… but then hoo boy, he did.
I love watching older stuff and discovering that it still has the ability to shock you. So often, we’re not nearly as jaded as we think we are.
Back to Nicole:
She couldn’t believe her eyes. Inside the bag was a dress, a delicate, lacy, cream-colored dress that fairly lit up the dark bag. From what she could see, it was her dream dress, the kind that projected an image of a beautiful young woman, not a teenage girl. The kind that would catch the eye of. . . . No, that was her secret. She wasn’t even going to think his name. That might jinx whatever fate it was that had sent her the dress. She touched the dress gently and it seemed to cling to her fingers.
A couple of thoughts:
I’m starting to think that it was actually The Dress in Marcellus Wallace’s briefcase in Pulp Fiction, not his soul. Which would really put quite the spin on the movie.
The common thread between these girls, more than the dress itself, seems to be their affection for trifling guys. Which is maybe not entirely fair, as we haven’t met this one yet. However, there HAS been somewhat of a pattern so far.
If the object of her affection is a teacher, I will barf, but I will also not be surprised. Littke is being WAAAAY too precious about it for the crush to just be on a classmate.
Nicole believed in fate. Hadn’t her astrological forecast that very morning said that the outlook for the fulfillment of a cherished desire was favorable that day? Take advantage of opportunities that may arise, it advised.
—Prom Dress, by Lael Littke
Scene Two: Nicole’s situation
Nicole’s on the bus because she’s headed to an academic decathlon at the university, though she seems to be more moony about the possibilities AROUND the decathlon than concerned with the event itself:
Today, this evening, was the reception for the decathlon participants, and that was when she’d hoped. . . . No, don’t think about it, she told herself. Just let it come. The whole night lay ahead, a tantalizing, magical, anything-could-happen night. The dress, which she knew without thinking that she would wear, would make the night magical.
She and the rest of the team will be staying overnight, on campus and in dorms, because the decathlon is going to be held on university grounds—which means that there’s a possibility that Dean Goudy could see her or recognize the dress, maybe? Then again, I tried to predict what was going to happen with Felicia and then Lael Littke introduced the boa constrictor thing, so I should just stop trying to guess, because I am never! right!
OMG I JUST REMEMBERED THE JEWELRY
IS NICOLE GOING TO GET ARRESTED
Anyway, she hasn’t found the jewelry yet, so we’ll have to see how she reacts to THAT.
I love that The Dress is so Gotta Catch ‘Em All about its victims. We’ve had Robin the brunette dancer, Felicia the raven-haired nurse, and now Nicole the red-headed brain:
She wasn’t really beautiful, like Tanya, although her red hair and blue eyes were attractive. She wasn’t athletic or musically gifted or rich. All she had going for her was her brain, her quick, retentive brain that could absorb, process, and give back information like a computer. Better than a computer, since she didn’t have to depend on the limitations of the programmer. Mr. Waring, their decathlon team coach, was always saying that he wished they could invent a printer to hook up to Nicole’s brain and they’d have the best computer in the business. The other team members laughingly agreed.
Poor old Nicole wants to be more than a brain—she wants to be HOT:
Was that how they regarded her? As a machine?
They wouldn’t after they saw her in the dress.
Good thing she literally hasn’t even pulled the thing out of the bag and she is POSITIVE it’s going to fit her?
Anyway, then she proceeds to think about Mr. Waring for a full page, so even though I’ve sworn off trying to predict this stuff, I’m 99% sure I’m right about the teacher thing? Then again:
Mr. Waring was sitting with Bryan Bentley, whose brown hair was all spiky from the finger-combings he gave it while he studied. Bryan was something of a football jock, and he had to study harder than the others to stay on the team. But once he learned a thing, he never forgot it, so it was just a matter of fierce study.
So he seems like a contender for the Object of Her Affection as well? But they have a little back-and-forth that makes it seem like she’s actually comfortable around Bryan, so my assumption is that she’s not crushing on him, because god forbid one of these characters want to date someone that they’re actually COMFORTABLE around, yeesh.
WELP:
She and Bryan were the only ones who’d grown up in the town of Tullidge. The others had all come from elsewhere, Mr. Waring most recently. He’d come there after his wife and baby daughter had been killed in a freak accident. It was fate that had brought them together, and fate that had put them on the bus that day rather than coming in Mr. Waring’s battered station wagon, whose battery had given out at the last moment.
Even beyond that bit about Mr. Waring’s station wagon, there’s an endless explanation of how they ended up on the bus, thus allowing her to find The Dress—like, Littke has resorted to explaining CARPOOL LOGISTICS, I’d REALLY like to see her contract for this book. Was she trying to hit a specific page count? Word count? The world may never know.
Oh, and Nicole’s keeping Felicia’s shoes, too—they’re the same size, because FATE, hahaha.
More on FATE:
It was fate that she’d come to sit on the seat under which the bag was. [That is an incredibly awkward sentence, good lord. -L.] It was as if the dress had been calling out to her. Maybe the bag had actually moved over to bump her foot. She’d wanted so desperately to show him tonight that she was a warm and desirable woman. More than just a high school girl. More than just a machine. A brain plus everything else a person like him would want.
The bus driver had been talking on his two-way radio, but Nicole was too far away to hear what the incoming voice was saying. She sensed, however, that it might have something to do with the blue bag.
—Prom Dress, by Lael Littke
Scene Three: Jiminy Cricket fails again
How on EARTH could she “sense” that he was talking about the bag? Is she psychic as well as brilliant?
The bus driver asks everyone to look under their seats for the bag, and Nicole seals her own fate: instead of turning it in, she hides it under all of her own stuff:
Even so, Nicole knew she should turn it in. After all, it belonged to somebody else, somebody who remembered where she’d left it. Somebody who wanted it back.
But Nicole needed it.
She does all of the same justifying that Robin and Felicia did—she’ll give it back once she gets what she wants, it’ll just be for a little while, it’s basically just borrowing it, etc. And, like Robin and Felicia, she considers giving it back, but we know that’s not going to happen—partly because that wouldn’t make for much of a story, and partly because we know that she’s just trying to mentally justify it so she doesn’t feel like she’s being a Bad Person.
The bus driver comes back to where Nicole is sitting and talks to her directly, but she plays innocent and even makes a show of leaning over to look under her seat again, and he’s hilariously exasperated by the whole thing, muttering and shrugging and so on. If I got MY heart’s desire and someone made a miniseries out of this nonsense, some character actor could make a MEAL out of the bus driver role.
He heads back up front, she shoves the bag into her suitcase, and that’s that.
Nicole and Tanya were sharing a room at the dorm on the university campus where the decathlon was being held. Nicole didn’t want to open the suitcase in front of Tanya, but that wasn’t a problem. Tanya stayed in the room just long enough to dump her things, then left to be with John, saying she’d be back in time to dress for the dinner and reception at the Student Union.
—Prom Dress, by Lael Littke
Scene Four: Nicole tries the dress on—with bonus jewelry!
We get the ubiquitous Try The Dress On moment:
Quickly she took off her school clothes and tried on the dress. Its lacy scallops whispered down over her body, and the high collar caressed her neck. The long sleeves hid her freckled arms, and the soft, creamy color softened the redness of her hair.
It makes me a little sad that the dress ENHANCED Robin and Felicia’s looks, whereas it CONCEALS/DIMINISHES Nicole? It’s like the narration is agreeing with Nicole that her red hair and freckles are flaws—and maybe unintentionally telling any reader with similar coloring that they should be self-conscious?
SHE FINALLY FINDS THE JEWELRY:
Jewelry! A string of pearls. Some pearl earrings. A pearl ring.
Well! When fate decided to dress her up, it was a virtual fairy godmother.
SOMETHING SOMETHING BOOK SMART VERSUS COMMON SENSE OMG OMG OMG
Seriously. She finds this bag on a bus that covers the university; odds are PRETTY GOOD that the person who lost the bag is CONNECTED TO THE UNIVERSITY IN SOME WAY. WTAF ARE YOU THINKING, NICOLE???????
OMG SHE KEEPS GOING. Currently, Nicole is at the top of my WHICH DRESS VICTIM IS THE BIGGEST JACKASS? list:
Humming happily, she put the pearls around her neck and slipped the ring on her finger. Perfect! And the earrings. Now she knew why she’d had the impulse to have her ears pierced just a month before. All in preparation for this night. She took out the little gold earrings she’d been wearing and put in the pearls, wondering all the while if they were real.
The dress, the pearls, the shoes—they all seemed to have been made for one another. For her!
Don’t worry, Rowena gets her moment:
What was that on her left cheek? It looked as if she had a mud pack on that side of her face. But when she went to the mirror for a closer look, the odd marking was gone. They needed to put a new mirror in the dorm room. This one played tricks with the light.
She continues swanning around the room in her new outfit—she is wobbly in Felicia’s shoes, but LOVES what they do for her legs—and is very much looking forward to Making An Entrance:
She didn’t want to go with Tanya. She wanted to go alone, with nothing to detract from her and the lovely dress when he saw her.
Tanya asks her to wait for her so they can head to the reception together, but Nicole sneaks out:
Since Tanya had turned on some loud music from a tape deck she’d brought, it was easy for Nicole to pretend she hadn’t heard. Dressing swiftly in the lace dress while Tanya was in the shower, she hurried from the dorm room.
Bringing the tape deck on the trip is such a 1989 move, I love it.
It wasn’t until she was on the shady walkway leading to the Student Union that she had some doubts about wearing the dress and jewelry. What if they belonged to a girl who was also taking part in the decathlon? What if the owner was there in the dining room, watching as Nicole entered?
—Prom Dress, by Lael Littke
Scene Five: Nicole heads to the reception
Nicole apparently doesn’t know what Einstein looks like?:
Beside the doorway was a tall pedestal on which perched a bust of a man with flowing hair and a large mustache. Attached to the pedestal was a sign that said, “Welcome, Einsteins of the future!”
I’m pretty sure this is the first chapter that hasn’t ended on a FOREBODING note:
Suddenly she wasn’t worried anymore about the owner of the dress being there. The benefits were stacked high against the possible risk. After all, hadn’t her horoscope for the day advised, Take advantage of opportunities that may arise?
Maybe that means that the curse is lifted and nothing bad will happen and the reception will go GREAT.
My money is FULLY on Dean Goudy being there and recognizing the jewelry, but Lael Littke has also proven to be such a chaotic plotter that I won’t be surprised if I’m surprised, if that makes sense, heh.
Talk to you next week,
Leila
The dress is merely an early, inexperienced prequel to The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants jeans. It's all there - everlasting sisterhood - between the clinically insane and the elderly vague, anyway; travel - granted, via bus, but it's there - a spiritual connection of sorts through an article of clothing (largely a haunting by YMMV) and, of course, the outfit that fits everyone from grown women in the workforce to random teens with dancer's bodies, to academic decathlon chicks, and soon, the whole town.
Now the whole plot makes sense, no?
I'm a little grossed out that Lael is projecting such a very specific"... image of a beautiful young woman, not a teenage girl" female... Despite the varied hair color, she's clearly a waif-thin white girl - and she'd have to be, since a major plot point is casual theft, and Butter Wouldn't Melt Innocence, which traditionally in 80's lit doesn't seem to be something girls of color could pull off in any genre.
I do find it interesting what The Cursed Dress gives, and what it takes - first beauty and sanity, in Rowena's case, then beauty and ability/health in Robin's case. Breath/health and sanity, in Felicia's case (and honestly, I am wondering if it's not going to take her career, because correct me if I'm wrong, but stealing from patients would be considered a firing offense in other medical settings? And I'm still low-key worried about blackmail attempts and Someone Finding Out - but I also think I may be reading too much into a plot which is happy to commit Drive By Dress crimes and never tell us the end of the story for each Thief/Victim)...
I'm a little afraid to even ask what the dress is going to do with a smart girl who isn't pretty. Is it going to take her smarts (though she's currently being really, really dumb)? I'm both afraid of how that would work, and also fairly confident that ANYTHING I think is utterly wrong. That kind of scattershot plotting is The Littke Gift that keeps on giving.
And yes, I'm still rooting for the dress. These girls are working my nerves.
OH MY GOSH, that Sabotage scene! The suspense was horrible -- and then he went through with it!