The Dressmaker

Chapter 8
Chapter 7

The evening of the fight at school, Dan’s mother came into his bedroom after Carrie had been put to bed. "Dan, sweetie, could I talk to you?"

"Yeah, mom?"

"I’ve been talking to Carrie, and I think you know she was very upset about being picked on at school today."

"Yeah..."

"Well, when she was a little girl the first time, she had a very mean older brother who picked on her a lot. So when she came here, I thought what she’d really want would be a sweet older brother who protected her. And you’ve done such a good job at doing that, and she says she loves you a lot." Dan blushed. "But after talking to her, I think she’s still not completely happy here, and I’ve been trying to think about how to make her happier."

"Oh...I’ll help, if I can."

She smiled. "I knew you’d be a good brother about this. I have an idea, and I do need your help with it."

Dan liked the idea of helping console his sister, and nodded eagerly. "Now, why don’t you change into your birthday pajamas, and we’ll start."

"My birthday pajamas?"

"You’ll see." Dan changed into his birthday pajamas and sat on the bed. "Now, we’re going to have to make a few little changes." She began whistling happily as she tweaked the outfit. The changes were substantial, and as she worked, Dan began to feel dizzy. She started with the legs, first tugging at them a bit, then pulling out scissors and cutting them above the knees. She took the scissors to the sleeves, too. The cuts were clean, perfectly even, and it began to look like he was wearing a short pajama set.

She wasn’t done, though. She set in at the waistband, sewing the pants and shirt together in one piece. The world was spinning, and it was hard for Dan to concentrate, but it seemed like when she was finished with a part, the boundary was seamless, as if the pants and shirt had always been one piece of cloth.

Still whistling, she pulled out buttons and sewed them down the center. Finally, she turned to his name; with her hands in the way, he couldn’t see the changes until she was done. When she finally pulled away, he saw that she’d changed it to spell "DANNY" (still, somehow, centered properly).

"Now, let’s see how that worked." She prompted him to stand up, and she looked him over as he looked down at his outfit. Now, instead of the long pjs it had been, it was a one-piece short set. Somehow she’d changed the pattern, too, and his baseballs had been replaced by little dogs.

Danny was confused. "This is helping?"

His mother stepped back to examine her work. "Yes, I think it will help a lot. I think your twin sister will be very happy."

That was only more confusing, but before he could ask, he was being picked up and tucked in, and realizing that he was very, very tired.