Rosanne Bittner by Paradise Valley

Author:Paradise Valley
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Twenty-five

“There ya go, honey.” Ma Pilger tucked a rhinestone comb into the last curl atop Maggie’s head. “Now, take a look. I’ve got to say, you’re the prettiest thing that’s passed through Atlantic City in a hell of a long time. You looked like a kid when Sage walked in here with you, and you’re goin’ out a full woman.”

Maggie turned to look at herself in the full-length mirror in Ma’s bedroom, where the crusty old woman had let her bathe, then take a good, long nap before helping her dress. Rather than wear the ribbons she’d bought, Ma coiffed her red hair into a mass of curls bedecked with combs and tiny flowers.

Maggie sucked in her breath. “Ma!” She literally stared at herself. Never had she felt like a pretty woman, but she did now. “I’ve never looked like this!” She touched her lightly rouged cheeks, ran her fingers along the tiny daisies that decorated the bodice of her baby-blue checkered dress, cut slightly off the shoulders—just low enough to show she was a woman without revealing too much. She put a hand to her small waist. As with her first baby, she showed no signs so far of being with child. “I’ve never seen myself like this,” she told Ma. “And my hair—” She touched the curls. “I don’t even look like myself.”

“Ain’t you ever been dressed up fancy?” Ma asked her.

Maggie smiled. “No, never this fancy.”

Ma Pilger was a sweet woman with almost comical features—skinny arms and legs, wide around the middle. Sage was right that Ma looked far older than her years. He’d figured she should be about sixty now, but she looked ninety with so many lines in her face it would be impossible to count them.

“Back on the farm in Missouri I knew nothing but farm work,” Maggie told Ma. “A trip to the closest town once in a while, but only to get what things we needed—never for something fun, and never a reason to dress fancy.”

Ma’s deep brown eyes remained bright in spite of her aging features. Her kindness and friendly personality made up for her lost looks, so much so that after a mere couple of hours of knowing her, a person didn’t notice the incredible wrinkles, and the fact that when she smiled she showed only two teeth. “Well, you’ll have fun at the dance,” she told Maggie. “You and Sage hit town at just the right time. And I sure am glad to see Sage has took a wife. I ain’t seen him since he was still a hell-raiser and ridin’ with outlaws. I’m glad to see him happy and settled.”

Maggie decided not to explain that Sage had already been married once. Maybe Ma knew, but decided not to ask questions. “Sage said he’d take care of me having the proper dress for tonight,” she told Ma. “He sure kept his promise. Where on earth did he get this? I don’t remember seeing a dress shop, but then I haven’t seen the whole town.

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