So maybe Russell did her a favour. He was probably hoping she’d have to stop sewing altogether.
If her parents had demanded that, Lucy doesn’t know what she would have done, except it would have involved her finding a way to keep making things. Because making things – creating something out of nothing – gives her a sense of peace. Time elapses and she has no sense of it. She doesn’t even know where she is. It’s magic. And so she’ll hold on to it, regardless of what that might mean.
Each afternoon since, she’s worked her hours at the shop, then kissed her mother goodbye and stayed back a while. Not too long – an hour or two – then she goes home and eats the dinner left out for her, does her homework and goes to bed.
Since this change in her routine, Russell has once or twice appeared in the sewing space at the shop. She has sensed him there, but not looked at him. It’s not as if he can complain about her sewing at the shop – if he doesn’t like it, he can leave – so the only reason he’d come anywhere near her is to make her life miserable. Well, she’s not going to let him, as far as she’s able.
So this is how she makes her Christmas dress: working back at the shop; hiding it when she’s finished each day by rolling it back up as if it’s still just fabric and not her first ever creation. Each time she looks at it, she can’t stop smiling. And the day after she finishes it, she folds it up, wraps it in a plastic bag and takes it home, so she can carry it to school the next day and take it to Daphne in her lunchbreak.
Maybe it’s odd that Daphne’s the first person she wants to show it to – it probably should have been her mother or her friends. Except Daphne’s as interested in clothes as Lucy is, which makes her think Daphne will understand.
After the lunch bell rings, Lucy rushes to her locker and takes out her bag, then almost flies across the road to the charity shop. As she pushes open the door she sees Daphne near the jewellery cabinet, in conversation with a blonde lady who looks familiar. Maybe she’s seen her in the shop before?
Then the lady turns toward her and Lucy’s heart skips a beat. That’s …Christina Clarke! She’s seen her in magazines.
A few months ago she wore this gold Grecian column dress to a movie premiere and on most people it would have looked like a huge mistake, but on her it looked really chic. Christina Clarke can ‘wear clothes’, as her mother might say – it’s one thing to know how to buy clothes and put outfits together, but it’s another to know how to wear them in such a way that they don’t wear you.
But no – it can’t be Christina Clarke. Why would she be here? In the charity shop? Or in Sydney generally …
Oh.Lucy remembers seeing something on the news. She likes to watch the news because it reminds her there’s a world beyond her small life. Christina had to leave Hollywood because of some affair or something, and she was believed to be back living in Sydney. But round here? Lucy sometimes sees famous people in Mosman, but not movie stars.
‘Oh, Lucy!’ Daphne says, looking genuinely happy to see her, as she always does. It’s another reason why Lucy likes coming here. ‘What good timing – you can meet our newest volunteer, Christina.’
Christina smiles at her and Lucy feels like she might faint. She’s never met anyone this famous before. Although she’s still not sure it’s really,reallyChristina Clarke.
‘Hi, Lucy,’ Christina says. ‘I like your necklace.’
Lucy’s hand goes to her throat and the woven necklace she made herself out of fabric scraps gleaned from her mother’s alterations.
‘Thanks,’ she chokes out, then has no idea what to say next.
‘Christina is going to be here one or two days a week,’ Daphne says, saving her.
‘Gr-great.’ Lucy pretends to be interested in the belt rack near the door.
It’s so weird that she’s so nervous. She feels rude for not speaking properly but shecan’t. Does Christina always have to deal with people being this nervous around her?
‘What do you have there?’ Christina asks, pointing to the plastic bag. In the bright daylight the Christmas pattern on the dress is partially visible.
‘Um … Oh …’ As much as Lucy wants Daphne to see her dress, suddenly she thinks it will look so amateurish to Christina, who wears couture onred carpets.
‘Nothing,’ she says. ‘Just something I was going to show Daphne.’
Lucy hopes Daphne will rescue her at this point, but instead the older woman looks like she’s amused. ‘Come on, then,’ she says.
Christina looks almost excited, which makes Lucy feel even more nervous.
‘Oh – no, it’s all right,’ she says. ‘I’ll come back some other time. You’re both busy.’
‘Can’t I see?’ Christina says. ‘I love talking about clothes.’ She gestures to the bag and smiles. ‘I’m guessing that it’s something to do with clothes?’
Lucy wants nothing more than to impress her, which is why she also wants nothing more than to turn around and leave. Except that would be rude.
‘Oh … I really … Um …’ Lucy bites her bottom lip. ‘It’s just something I made. Daphne suggested the pattern. I wanted to show her how it turned out.’
Christina grins. ‘That’s so cool! Pretty please, can I see it?’
Christina Clarke is saying pretty please to her? Lucy glances at Daphne, who is still looking amused, which isn’t at all helpful.