Seven Dresses - The Third Dress by Maeryn Lamonte Copyright © 2023 With the girly side of Chaney's wardrobe to choose from, Michael was soon able to find something that suited him perfectly. The next challenge would be to find out how Aunt Miranda's neighbours would react to him.

-oOo-

The First Dress I Owned

The left-hand side of Chaney’s wardrobe was filled with frillies. Not a lot of pink, which made sense given my cousin’s dislike of the colour, but there was a fair bit of lace and quite a lot of floral patterns in bright, primary colours. There were a couple that caught my eye, and one in particular – a cotton summer dress with puff sleeves, an elasticated waist and a loose, full skirt that would fall down to about my knees. The loose fit looked like it would be cooler than the one I was wearing and the fuller skirt would make it easier for me to hide any reaction I might have to Chaney’s smile. I’d already sweated more than was ladylike in the yellow dress, so I picked the towel off the end of the bed and headed for the bathroom.

One cold shower later – refreshing in the summer weather and effective in putting my nethers in their place – I put on the new dress and followed everyone downstairs.

Aunt Miranda smiled at me with a fair imitation of her daughter’s megawattage, but apparently my id wasn’t into older women, either that or it was still recovering from the cold shower.

“That looks so much better on you than it ever did on Chaney.”

I couldn’t help the shy smile that crept onto my face.

“And that makes it all the prettier. Would you like a cup of tea? I have some brewing for our visitors.”

“Visitors?” the shy smile submerged to be replaced by the rabbit in the headlights.

“Yes. Nosy neighbours. It usually takes them a quarter of an hour to come up with a pretext, but they’re going to want to know who else we brought home with us this time.”

The doorbell rang and Aunt Miranda raised her eyebrows knowingly, adding an amused smile.

“I... I... I....”

“Look stunning, Michelle. They are going to love you. If I were meeting you for the first time, all I’d see was a pretty young girl. And even if they don’t, remember what I said in the car.”

“I don’t know if I’m ready for that yet “

“Then be a shy little mouse by all means, just not a scared one. If you don’t show any fear, they won’t think you’re hiding anything.”

“But...”

“Do you think you are doing something wrong? Wearing that dress, I mean.”

“No, but...”

“No buts. We don’t either, Richard, Chaney, myself. You need to get used to telling the world what you believe, not what that asshat of a brother of mine has been indoctrinating you with all your life. Now, shoulders back, back straight, deep breath and where’s that smile?”

I complied with her instructions, even allowing myself a smile at the way my aunt’s gentler series of commands contrasted with my dad's ranting. She opened the front door on the second ring.

“Hello Miranda.” The greeting came from a short dumpy woman whose speech, I would discover, had a tendency to start high before dropping to a sort of creaky, stretched out almost-stutter. She had a smile on her face that had all the mechanics and very little of the feeling. “I saw you were home and thought I’d return this.” She held out a spotlessly clean casserole dish.

The presence of her longsuffering husband and a couple of children about my age made a blatant lie of her words.

Miranda smiled her own plastic smile. “Hello Sandy, what a lovely surprise. You really didn’t need to bring this back so soon.”

“Well, I was done with it so I thought I might as well.”

“And you brought Jack, and Toby and Jean. That’s lovely. Would you like to come in for a cup of tea? I have a pot brewing.”

“Well, we wouldn’t want to impose.”

“Nonsense. Come in. This is my niece Michelle, by the way. She’ll be staying with us for a few weeks over the summer to keep Chaney from going stir crazy.”

“Keep you from going crazy, more like.” Sandy’s laugh came out as a high pitched hoot. “Jean was the same last year, if you’ll remember, when Toby went off on his cadets trip.”

“Mum!” Toby complained. Apparently just the mention of his name was enough to turn his ears red. Said ears showed signs of fairly extensive scrubbing, but whether that had been at his mum’s insistence or his, there being a potential new girl to impress, I wasn’t in a position to say.

“I don’t have any brothers or sisters,” I ventured, “so it’s a nice change to have someone my age to stay with.”

Chaney reigned in her smile a little, for which I was grateful.

“How long are you staying?” Jean’s voice was quieter even than mine. Her brother looked both relieved and upset that he was no longer the focus of my attention.

“A couple of weeks, I think.” I looked at my aunt for confirmation.

She nodded. “Maybe longer if you like, and if your parents don’t mind, but that’s what we agreed for now.”

“Maybe you’d like to come over sometime. I mean, both of you of course.” It was now Jean’s turn to blush.

Chaney was making frantic motions behind their backs, the gist of which didn’t take much interpretation.

“That’s really kind of you,” I said. “I should check to see what else we might be doing first though.”

Chaney rolled her eyes, but I wasn’t about to turn down an offer of friendship just because she didn’t approve. We got on okay – better than okay – most of the time, but we didn't see eye-to-eye on a lot of things, preference in girl's clothing being another thing to add to the list.

The neighbours stayed long enough to finish their tea, then made their excuses. Jean gave me a shy smile as she left. Toby was too embarrassed by the whole thing to do even that. Mind you, his dad had contributed exactly nothing to the encounter.

“Why would you even suggest you’d like to go over?” Chaney wanted to know once there were enough walls and doors between us and the retreating neighbours that we were relatively safe from being overheard.

“Because she knows how to be polite.” My aunt came to my defence.

“Whatever, Mum! Aren’t you the one who always says, ‘if you want to know what your wife’s going to be like in twenty years, get to know her mother?’” Chaney retorted

“Well, it’s not as much if I’m planning to marry her,” I said, coming to my aunt’s defence. “Besides, she’s not a bit like her mum.”

“I think that must have been your father said that in any case. Besides, if it were true, we’d never have seen Lonny married off yesterday.”

“Lonny’s more like Dad. It’s me you’re going to be stuck with for ever and ever.”

“Actually,” I interjected, “if that really is a basis for choosing who you’ll marry, I think your mum’s pretty awesome.”

“She’s bloody scary is what she is.”

“Chaney,” Uncle Richard rumbled. His one trigger was bad language.

“Sorry Dad, but she is.”

“She’s only scary to people who need scaring.”

“Like my dad?” I asked.

“Your dad's the exception,” Miranda said, “but he's the one who inspired me to stand up to all the bullies in the world.”

“Is that what you do? I mean I know you’re a lawyer, but I’ve never known what kind of law.”

“Probably because your father doesn’t approve.”

“She stands up for the little guy,” Richard said proudly. “Anyone who’s being pushed around by some corporation that’s all money and no morals, she’s in there like a wolverine defending her cubs.

“And she does terrify them. Believe me, if you have a legal problem, she’s the one you want on your side.”

“How did you two get back together then? I mean you hardly look like the likeliest of couples.”

“You have to remember your aunt wasn’t always the high-powered corporate sell-out she is now.” Richard gave his wife an indulgent smile and she snuggled up next to him, leaning her head on his broad chest.

“We were both politically active at university, in fact we met at a climate change rally – one of the first ones, do you remember?”

“That I do, my sweetness. We dropped out of university, joined a commune and put everything we had into standing up against all the injustice we saw around us. Got ourselves arrested a few times.”

“That made things awkward when I finally got round to qualifying as a lawyer.”

“How did you manage it?”

“Determination and not taking no for an answer. They finally figured that if I was likely to fight as hard for my clients then maybe they should give me a shot.”

“That was after Lonny was born, right?” Chaney asked, joining in on the conversation.

“Yes. Your mother changed after your sister was born. Once she had a daughter, it became all the more important to fight for her future and, whilst she totally supported the fights we were picking, she started to lose faith in our ability to win them the way we were fighting.

“I wasn’t prepared to give up on what I was doing, and she wasn't prepared to keep fighting one losing battle after another. We shared some pretty harsh words back then before we went our separate ways.”

“Then, the year after I graduated from law school, your dad sought me out. He and his friends were fighting their usual losing battle, what was it dear?”

“That patch of trees down by...”

“That's right. There was this firm of real estate developers who'd managed to bribe, steal or blackmail permission to build on a tract of forest in a region of outstanding natural beauty. The houses would have sold for a mint, but we'd have lost another piece of our natural heritage.

“I got permission from my firm to take the case pro bono and we sent them running with their tails between their legs less than a week later, thanks largely to Richard...”

“My friends in the commune knew how to dig up the dirt on those assholes...”

“Hey! No fair! How come you get to swear?” Chaney wasn’t one to let a chance like that slip by.

“My apologies, but they earned the title...”

“They did indeed. And I knew how to use the dirt your uncle gave me in court. After we won, we went out to celebrate and woke up the next day in a cheap hotel...”

“It was a pretty expensive one as I recall.”

“Maybe by your standards, but mine had climbed a social peg or two. Anyway we woke up in each others arms and decided we'd been idiots to break up the team all those years ago. We remarried and a few months later, Chaney came along.”

“It was seven months,” Chaney said. “Mum wasn’t quite showing when they tied the knot for the second time, but I'm the result of their little victory celebration.”

“We think you are, dear. Not that it matters. Richard started business as a private investigator, with my firm and mainly me as his primary customer and we haven't looked back since.”

“I set ‘em up...” Richard declared proudly.

“And I knock ‘em down.” Miranda looked her husband in the eye and they shared a high five.

“And living here...”

“Is part of the price we pay for playing the game. No-one would hire a hippie lawyer no matter how good she was.”

“So we made the great sacrifice of giving up the bohemian lifestyle we prefer in order to live in the lap of luxury surrounded by all the other moderately well off.”

“It doesn’t seem like much of a sacrifice.”

“Wait till you meet a few more of our neighbours.” Miranda said. “Jack and Sandy are about the best of them. He's an actuary by the way.”

“What's an actuary?”

“Someone who finds accountancy a little too exciting as I understand it,” Richard chipped in. “His one and only joke by the way, so if he tells it to you, be sure to laugh.”

“So,” Miranda said, rubbing her hands and standing up, “I think we’ve given the rest of the neighbourhood enough time to find jobs to do in the garden. Do you fancy a quick walk, Michelle?”

“Erm...”

“It’ll save us a string of visits later,” Chaney said, “and you’ll get to meet the rest of the kids around here. It’ll be worth it.”

It was. Some of the girls were a bit snooty, but most were quite friendly. Several made a comment about my hair with at least one saying she wished her mum would let her cut hers that short. I said I was thinking of growing it out, and that met a mix of responses evenly spread between the enthusiastic do its and the emphatic don’ts.

A number of the local lads asked me out, and I was grateful to have Chaney and my aunt and uncle nearby to run interference for me. They’d evidently done it before too, since almost without any effort, I made it through the afternoon without either turning anyone down or agreeing to something I might regret in the future.

The afternoon wore on. Uncle Richard wanted to know if I fancied eating hippy or decadent, so I asked what each entailed.

“Well, if you choose one, you’ll find out, won’t you? Whatever we don’t have tonight we’ll have tomorrow, so it’s more a choice of what we have first.”

We’d eaten really well at the wedding and I hadn’t done too badly out of Chaney’s leftover breakfast, so it felt like simple fair was the way to go.

“I’m happy to go hippy today,” I said.

“Black bean and tofu burgers it is then.”

“Don’t worry,” Chaney reassured me, “they’re better than they sound. Good choice too. It’ll mean tomorrow’s decadence will be loads better?”

“Why?”

“Fresh ingredients. Mum’ll do a shop after she finishes work tomorrow.”

“Mum’ll meet up with her daughter and her niece tomorrow afternoon and they’ll all do the shopping together, thank you very much.” Miranda said.

“Do we have to, Mum?”

“How’s your cousin ever going to get hold of any new clothes unless she goes shopping?”

“Why can’t she have my old stuff? I mean I’m never going to wear that dress again, and it looks better on her than it ever did on me.”

“When you’re right, you’re right, love, and we do need to make a bit of space in your wardrobe for your bridesmaid’s dress.”

“Can’t she have that too, Mum? I mean, it’s pink for crying out loud.”

“And it’s also silk. Your sister won’t like you getting rid of it so soon.”

“She’ll be fine once she knows who it’s going to. I mean it’d be staying in the family.”

“Except Lonny doesn’t know about Michelle yet, and we don’t really know if she’s here to stay, do we?”

She was here to stay, but I wasn’t about to interrupt the discussion, not if it meant...

“Well, if I need to make room for all that pink silk, I’m going to have to get rid of at least five of those dresses.”

“Four will be enough.”

“Four then. Hey, Shell, did you see anything else in my wardrobe you liked?”

“Er, there was one other dress that caught my eye...”

“Fine. Come pick out two more.” She grabbed my hand and dragged me towards the stairs.

“Excuse me, but we haven’t stopped talking yet. I don’t mind Shelley having some of your hand-me-downs, but she still needs some new things, and she needs someone who knows a bit about girl clothes to help her out, so you two are going shopping tomorrow.”

“With what?” Chaney asked.

“With one of my bonus credit cards, AND a budget. And you’re to help your cousin find things that she likes and that work for her, NOT just what you think she should have.”

“Yes Mum,” Chaney put her exasperation on show.

“You get an allowance too, sweetheart.”

“How much?”

“How much do you think you can fit in your wardrobe?”

“After Shelley’s picked out her four more dresses...”

“Three more dresses; four in total. And you have to put that pink blancmange away.”

“Why can’t we give it to Michelle if you don’t like it either?”

“I’ve already told you.”

“But Mum!”

“WHEN your sister is back from honeymoon, IF I feel it’s appropriate, I MAY have a word with her about it, but that’s an end to the discussion for today. Now, go empty your wardrobe a little. Michelle gets to choose three more dresses from the left-hand side and you can clear out as much as you like from the right. I’ll set your allowance by what room you have left over.”

“What happens to the stuff I chuck out?”

“Charity shop. What else?”

“Can Michelle have first dibs?”

“Well, charity begins at home, I suppose, but Shelley, don’t take anything you don’t like.”

“Where am I going to put it all?”

“Use the wardrobe in the spare room. That room’s yours for the duration of your stay, if you need to get away from us all for a bit, or if you want a night’s respite from your cousin’s snoring.”

“I do NOT snore!”

“Oh yes, Chaney. You remember that nightdress grandma gave you last Christmas?”

“Oh shit, yeah.”

“Chaney!” the warning growl came from the kitchen along with a whole bunch of smells that seemed too good to have anything to do with tofu.

“Sorry Dad,” Chaney yelled, but she’d already dragged me halfway up the stairs.

The second dress I’d particularly liked was also summer cotton. Loose fitting with a long tiered skirt and a bodice that could easily have been a separate blouse. It was all white and would do amazingly for the following day.

“Just don’t stand against the light,” Chaney warned me.

“Why not?”

She sighed and stripped out of her shorts and top. I was too stunned at having a girl undress in front of me to do anything about it, at least not before she’d pulled the white dress over her head and walked over in front of her window.

“Oh!” I said. “I see what you mean.”

I could see the outline of her entire body through the dress. I could even see hints of where her underwear was. Backlit, it really didn’t hide much, especially not in the places where I particularly needed it to.

She changed back just as unselfconsciously and handed the dress to me. A little digging about unearthed a cotton slip about the same length as the skirt. She handed that to me too.

“This’ll do away with the x-ray effect, but it’ll make the whole lot hotter too. Your choice.”

We hunted a bit more until I found a flamenco dress I had somehow missed before. A very full skirt with overlapping tiers of alternating red and black, and above the waist, a riot of red and black lace and flounces.

“Are you sure?” Chaney asked.

“I have no idea when I’ll wear it, but I have to have it.”

“You could take up flamenco dancing maybe. I have a pair of castanets to go with it somewhere.”

“Why did you buy it?”

Chaney shrugged. “Fancy dress party at Mum’s work at Christmas,” she said. “I told them what I wanted, they made it and I got to keep it. Sort of Christmas present from them.”

“Why a flamenco dancer?”

“Mum said something girly, and I guess I came up with this as a way of getting back at her. It didn’t work out though. Mum had a fun night with her colleagues and I got to wear that.

“You’re welcome to it if you’re really sure, but choose something practical for the last one or Mum won’t believe I didn’t just foist all the things I really don't want onto you.”

Aunt Miranda joined us while I was deliberating between two dresses. My last choice came down to green or blue. Apart from the colour, there wasn't much to choose between them, and that was the problem. I'd hold one up then the other and couldn't decide.

Miranda looked at the spoils I'd accumulated thus far and raised an eyebrow at her daughter, who shrugged and sighed.

“You might as well have them both,” she said after watching me for about a minute. “Chaney’s right. She's never going to put any of these on again, so you might as well get some use out of them, though I've no idea...” she fingered the flamenco dress. “Go on, hang them up in the spare room then head downstairs. Dinner is ten minutes from ready. Chaney, did you...”

The door shut behind me as I carried my swag to its new home. For all its small size, the guest room was well furnished. The wardrobe had a full length mirror inside one of its doors and I couldn't help pausing to admire my reflection. It was hard to believe it had all started a little over twenty-four hours earlier with a terrified little boy barely daring to put on a dress in an empty room, and now there was almost no sign of the boy at all. I would have preferred longer hair, but I didn’t really need it. The shy smile in the mirror belonged to a girl, and that girl was me.

“Come on Shell,” Chaney stuck her head around the door. “Dad’s just serving up.”

After Dinner and washing up, both of which involved the whole family, we settled down to rot our brains for a bit in front of the idiot box. Less of a box these days since they were all very tall and wide but not the least bit thick. Richard and Miranda snuggled on one sofa while Chaney joined me on the other, leaning her head on my shoulder. I surreptitiously crossed my legs in an effort to hide an involuntary swelling, but I doubt I fooled anyone.

With the choice of programs falling to the older contingent, Chaney and I sat through the news, but drew the line at whatever current affairs program followed next. Chaney cracked first, jumping to her feet and grabbing my wrist, leaving me very little choice but to follow.

“One last gift,” she said as she dragged me into her room.

I’d been expecting to spend the night in my underwear again, with the lemon skippies promising greater comfort than what I’d worn in the hotel. The lacy cotton nightdress Chaney had left on my bed proved to be the icing on a very delicious cake.

“My dad's mum is a little old fashioned,” Chaney said. “She's bought one of these for Lonny and me every Christmas since I can remember. Lon always loved hers and Mum insisted I wore mine to bed whenever gran stayed with us. She doesn’t visit anymore, so I write my thank you and it goes straight to the charity shop, which is a shame, because they’re not cheap.”

“How come you still have this one then?”

“Well, I don’t, ‘cos I’ve just given it to you.”

“You know what I mean.”

She grinned.

“Gran visited at Easter, so I had a wonderful week pretending to be Wendy Darling. I guess we never got round to getting rid of it after she went home.”

“I’d have thought Lonny would make a more convincing Wendy. You’re more of a Tiger Lily.”

“Yeah, but you know what I mean. I mean I ended up going to bed looking like something from a Victorian period drama.

“And now you get to do the same, except you're going to be like my sister and love it, aren't you?”

I grinned and pulled my dress off. It still felt weird undressing in front of my cousin even though I'd been doing it most of the day, or maybe because of it. Probably the weirdest bit was how natural it felt.

The nightdress fell almost all the way to my ankles and the material was a little thick for the sort of summer we were having, but I couldn't think of anything I'd have rather worn. Chaney’s idea of sleep wear consisted of boxers and a camisole, which was far more sensible.

We went through the whole pre-bed ritual, which formerly had consisted of using the loo and brushing my teeth, but now apparently included the liberal application of a selection of different goops. Even with the added extras, we were in bed and chatting about the following day when Miranda stuck her head in.

She smiled at me. “Not too hot?”

I shook my head and grinned back.

“I just talked to your mum and dad, just to let them know you were okay. After yesterday I wasn't sure if you'd want to.”

“I wouldn't have minded having a few words with Mum, but Dad would just have found a way to ruin it.”

She sighed. “I know what you mean. Still, you can call home tomorrow while your dad's at work.”

“Thanks. That’d be great.”

“Okay. Lights out, or do you girls still want to chat for a while?”

“You can turn the lights out Mum,” Chaney said. “We can talk just as easily in the dark.”

“Fine, but not for too long. I want you both up and about before I leave for work tomorrow.”

“Mum, it's the holidays!”

“Yes Chaney, it is, and I don't want you wasting them by spending half the day in bed.”

We didn't chat for much longer. It turned out Aunt Miranda usually headed into the office about seven thirty which meant our only chance of surviving the early morning wake up would be to get the balance of our beauty sleep at this end of the night. There was still a hint of light outside when we finally settled down.

The dream started with me in the flamenco dress. I hadn't yet worn it for real, but my imagination had a fair idea what it would feel like and what the castanets looked and sounded like, even though Chaney had yet to dig them out from wherever she'd hidden them.

In the dream I danced the flamenco, whisking my skirts from one side to the other, lifting them to reveal my nylon clad legs and my feet perched on a pair of high heels I had no idea how to wear. Chaney appeared dressed a lot like a matador with a long-stemmed rose in her mouth.

Then we were both running through a field together, both wearing her bridesmaid’s dress, except mine was pink and hers a powder blue. The sun was shining down on us and I could just about make out the individual blades of grass through the thin soles of my flats.

Chaney stopped running and pulled me into a spin. We were both laughing with the sky reeling above us. Somewhere along the way, Chaney’s dress transformed into her father's suit and we were falling. I landed on my back with Chaney smiling her amazing multi-megawatt smile down at me.

I awoke with a start. My underwear and the front of my nightdress were wet and sticky and I felt as breathless as I'd been in the dream.

I climbed out of bed trying to hold the stickiness away from me and anything else. It smelled sort of sickly and left me with an odd sense of offness.

I made it to the bathroom and stripped off my nightclothes, dropping them in the sink and filling it with water. Once I was naked it became obvious where the stickiness had come from because it was all over my stomach and upper legs too. I turned on the shower and hosed myself down before going back to the nightdress and skippies. The stuff was stubborn but I finally managed to get my things clean, only now they were dripping wet and I didn't have anything to wear.

A light tap sounded on the door. “Are you alright, sweetie?” Aunt Miranda called quietly through to me.

“Yes?” I wasn’t but I didn't want her finding out.

“What are you doing up at this time Mi... chelle?” She’d started pronouncing my name as Michael, but shifted part way through. “It's half past two.”

“I, er, I had a bit of an accident.”

“What kind of accident, sweetheart?”

“I don't really want to say.”

My aunt's presence disappeared from the other side of the door. I perched on the side of the bath and tried to figure out my next move.

“Open the door, sweetie.” She was back.

“I...”

“It’s okay, love. I know what's happened. I just want to give you something else to wear.”

I cracked the door and she passed through a shorter and lighter nightdress along with a light satin dressing gown.

“They're Lonny’s. She won't mind. I'll be downstairs when you're ready. Bring what you were wearing if you’d be so kind.”

I dressed and headed downstairs with my wet nightwear in hand. A quick look in Chaney's room showed my bed had been stripped.

“I don’t know what happened,” I said, handing her the bundle and watching her add it to the washing machine.

“First time?”

“What do you mean?”

“You had a dream and it all felt wonderful until you woke up.”

My face felt so hot from blushing I’m convinced there must have been steam.

“What’s happening to me? Am I turning into a girl?”

“What do you mean, sweetie?” She was stirring a pan of milk heating gently on the stove. She looked over at me and paused.

“That stuff came out of me. Is it the bit that makes me male leaving because I want to be a girl?”

“Oh sweetheart, wouldn’t that be something? No, it’s not. If anything it’s the opposite.”

“What do you mean?” I felt a cold trickle spreading through me.”

“Are you telling me you’ve never heard of a wet dream?”

“Yeeeaahnnoooo.” I kind of managed in a long drawn out attempt at incomprehensibility. I had heard the term, at school and stuff, but I’d never been able to make out quite what it was. “What does it mean?”

“It means you came to us at just the right time and I have a bunch of phone calls to make tomorrow. Is that really what you want, sweetheart, to be a girl?”

“Well, I mean, it's only been today so I don’t know for sure, but yes, I think so. It feels like I've spent my whole life squeezing myself into a shape that doesn't fit, but yesterday with Chaney’s dress and today with... well, with everything, it's just felt... right.”

“And what about when you go back home? Are you going to go back to being Michael?’

“No way. Not going to happen.”

“What about your dad?”

“He's just going to have to deal with it, the same way he's made me deal with his shit.”

My aunt handed me a mug of hot chocolate. “You're going to have to sleep in the guest room tonight after all, sweetie. Go on up. I'll follow you in a while.”

“What if it happens again? You know the er....”

“It shouldn't, but if it does, come and wake me and we'll deal with it together. For now, get back to bed and I'll see you when we all get up.”