The Dressmaker

Chapter 11
Chapter 10

This dreadful state only lasted a few days. One evening, just after Danny had turned on his night light before bed, his mother came in. "I’ve been talking to Carrie, and I don’t think either of you are entirely satisfied being twins. So we’re going to fix this."

Danny looked up, smiling. For the first time, a ray of hope that he might get to be a big kid, instead of a little ’fraidy cat. He was even more hopeful when the first thing she did was unbutton his pajamas, take out a washcloth, and clean off his chest. While there was no visible effect, Danny could feel, in his heart, the yellow scared color being washed away. She smiled at him, and he smiled back. "That won’t be necessary anymore."

Then his mother pulled out her sewing supplies and began tugging at the legs of his pants. Somehow she managed, with a deft series of alterations, to actually make them longer, into full length pants. But she kept going, pulling them beyond his legs, and kitting up the bottoms. Then she turned to his arms, pulling the out as well. Whistling excitedly, she pulled the buttons off, one by one.

By now, Danny’s world was spinning, and his whole body tingled with the changes. She fiddled with the back, adding a zipper to replace the buttons she’d removed. Finally, she turned to his name. When she was done, Danny saw that the letters were the same, but now each was in a different color of the rainbow, and his pajamas were now fleecy and red, with bright yellow fish with big blue eyes.

"Now, let’s see how that worked." She picked him up by the armpits and lifted him to stand on the bed. Even standing on the bed, he was eye to eye with her. Danny tried to figure out what was going on while she studied him intensely. "How old are you, darling?"

The question distracted Danny from his speculation. "Five." Instinctively, he held up his hand, all five fingers extended, to illustrate.

"Hmm..." His mother reached out abruptly with the scissors and, to his surprise, cut off his thumb. It didn’t hurt at all, and indeed, looking at his hand, the thumb was still there, but now curled up, so that he was holding up four fingers. Looking at his mother, she was now taller than him, even with him on top of the bed.

"But...I’m not big!"

She smiled. "No, you’re not. You’re my sweet little Danny. And it’s way past your bedtime." She picked him up, and suddenly Danny was so tired that he could barely stay awake long enough to be tucked in.