The Red Dress

Jamie stood in front of the store looking at a mannequin in a red dress who bore an expression reminiscent of her sister Betty. Betty always wore a dress well. After a moment, Jamie went in.

The clerk eyed her, as if she had suspicions that Jamie did not belong. Jamie’s hair was down, and soaked from the rain. She carried a small sack with dog food for Freddy. Did she look unkempt?

She pointed. “I’m interested in that dress. The one on the mannequin.”

The clerk scanned Jamie the way one might evaluate a used car. Then she took an identical but larger dress off a rack and held it up to her. Jamie saw that it was a size 14. She was only a size 10.

The clerk sniffed. Her name tag read “Beatrice.” “I don’t think it’s your color.”

Jamie wondered what her color was. Would she ever find a suitable dress? Perhaps she should not go to the party on Saturday. She looked around the room at the sea of dress racks full of styles and sizes and colors. Why had she come in?

“There’s another one you might like. It’s on sale. Step this way.”

Jamie followed Beatrice to the back of the store. The sale racks looked sad and a bit dingy. Here were the picked over, unwanted items.

Beatrice held up a gray-brown dress with a high neckline.

Jamie straightened. “No. I want the other dress. Red, size 10. Red is my color.”

Thank you for reading my 250-word micro-fiction story. Your comments are welcome!

I wrote this story when I ran a weekly micro-fiction writing contest, and I would also often contribute my own piece, just for fun. This story was my piece for the prompt, “sale.”