Synopsis:

In chapter four Bobby has fun playing 'Mommy and Baby' with Cori until Terri bursts into Cori's room with some shocking news.

Story:

Bobby's Rainy Day Adventure
Copyright 2005 by Heather Rose Brown

CHAPTER IV

"Cori, what are you doing in there?"

Cori's voice was only slightly muffled by the closed door between us. "I'm just trying to find something for us to change into so we can play 'Mommy and Baby'."

I stared at the door, trying to decide if I was more annoyed at having it swung closed barely inches from my nose or worried about what kind of clothes Cori was going to pick for me. The girl in the full length mirror on the back of the door returned my stare and folded her arms tightly across her chest.

I turned my back on the reflection. It was weird enough wearing girl clothes, but looking at myself and seeing a girl was a little too much. "How long are you gonna take?"

The closet door squeaked open. "All done! I think I found something you'll love, Bobby. Turn around and take a look."

When I turned and saw what Cori was holding, my legs nearly gave out. "It's...it's my dress."

"Bobby!" Cori dropped the dress in a heap and was at my side with her arm around the back of my waist. "What happened? Your face just turned white."

"It's the dress. It's my dress. I mean...I dunno what I mean. I feel kinda wobbly."

Cori led me over to her desk, rolled the office chair out and helped me sit down. "Just rest here for a minute. Should I call Mom?"

"No, I'll be okay." As I waited for the wooziness to pass, Cori crouched down by my side and laid a hand on my shoulder. "Bobby, what just happened, and what did you mean that was your dress?"

"I dunno what happened. I just saw the dress and..." I tried to swallow, but my tounge felt like it was stuck to the back of my throat. "Cori, you gotta swear not to tell ANYONE about this."

Cori looked at me for a moment before she crossed her heart and then held out her pinky. It took me a second to realize what she was doing before I wrapped my pinky around hers. Her eyes were unflinching and her voice steady as she spoke. "Bobby, I swear not to tell another living soul anything you ask me to keep private, no matter what."

I hadn't expected a pinky swear, but it was exactly what I needed to be able to share such a secret. "A few weeks before my fifth birthday, me, my mom, my Aunt Marie and my cousin Cassie had been shopping at the mall when my mom had asked me what I wanted for my birthday. At first she thought I was playing around when I said I wanted a dress just like my
cousin had been wearing."

"So your mom got you a dress for your birthday?"

"No. Mom was afraid my dad would freak out if he saw her bring home a dress for me. But when my birthday came around, Aunt Marie and Cassie arrived early and asked me to open their present before the rest of the guests got there. I was so excited when I saw the dress that I didn't bother going to my bedroom to change and just started trying to pull it on over my clothes."

"And your mom was okay with it?"

"Yes and no. She didn't seem so much upset about me being in a dress as she was worried about how Dad would react. I musta begged her for nearly ten minutes before she finally let me wear it. Even then she made me promise to take it off before Dad got home. A lot of what happened after that is a bit of a blur. I remember having some of the kids that came to my birthday asking why I was wearing a dress and a couple of them giggling. But mostly I remember having fun...until Dad came home from work early."

My heart thudded against my ribs as I remembered what came next. "I ran up to him, gave him a big hug and asked him what he got me for my birthday. His eyes nearly popped out of his head when he eventually recognized me. Next thing I knew he was yelling and tearing off my dress. I'd thought he'd gone crazy and was gonna tear me apart!"

Cori was blinking tears from her eyes as she crouched down and hugged me. "Oh Bobby...I had no idea."

As I hugged her back, the scared, shaky feeling faded until it was almost unnoticeable. "It's okay. I'd completely forgotten about that day until I saw the dress. There's no way anyone could have guessed this would have happened."

Cori was smiling when she pulled away, wiping her cheeks with the back of her hand. "I guess playing 'Mommy and Baby' ain't such a good idea. You wanna try something else?"

I had to think about this for a minute. After Cori had told me about the game, part of me was curious about it. But there was another part of me that was saying this really didn't sound like a game a boy would want to play. "Ermmm...I guess so."

Cori tilted her head slightly and gave me a puzzled look. "You don't sound too convinced. I'll tell you what. Lemme get this dress put away and you can think of a game for us to play. Okay?" Without waiting for an answer, Cori turned on her heel and scooped the dress from the floor in one smooth motion before wandering back into the closet.

Since she hadn't closed the door this time, I followed her into what looked like a small, crowded room. The only way I you could tell it was a closet was because of all the clothes either hanging from racks or folded neatly on shelves and in cubbies. I noticed some of the cubbies had doors and I began opening one of them.

Before I had the door open more than an inch, Cori swung around and slammed it closed. "What do you think you're doing?"

"I...I'm sorry, Cori. I was just looking."

The tension in Cori's shoulders eased as she let out a sigh. "Well, you can look, just not in there. Okay?"

"Sure." As curious as I felt about what was behind the door, I wasn't ready to ruin the start of a good friendship by being nosy.

Cori turned away and hung up the dress she had brought out. "So, have you thought of a game yet?"

"Actually, I was wondering if...umm...what I mean is, would you mind if we still played 'Mommy and Baby'?"

Cori looked at me over her shoulder and she fussed with the dresses. "Not if it's gonna make you faint."

"I didn't faint. I'd just felt...weird. And the game didn't make me feel that way. It was the dress."

"Hrmmm. I guess we could play it without getting dressed up."

"Actually, I wouldn't mind getting dressed up. To be honest, I was wondering..." my throat tightened until the next few words came out in a squeak. "Could I wear the dress?"

Cori slowly turned towards me. Her mouth opened and closed a few times before she finally found something to say. "Are you sure?"

"Yes. At least I think I am. What I mean is, I think I need to. It feels...important."

Cori pressed her lips into a thin line as she stood in front of a rack of frilly dresses, deep in thought. "I think I understand. But if you start feeling fai...I mean weird, we'll stop playing and find some other game. Does that sound fair?"

I couldn't tell for sure if I was nervous or excited, but the happiness growing inside overshadowed everything else I was feeling. "Sounds more than fair."

"Okay Baby." Cori began tugging at the bottom of my shirt. "Arms up."

I pushed my shirt back down. "Whoa, what are you doing?"

"Mommy's changing you. Can't have you wearing your play clothes under your dress."

"But, you'll see my underpants."

"Technically they're mine, not yours. And they're panties, not underpants."

I could feel a blush climbing up my neck. "Well, whatever they are, I'd feel embarrassed if you saw them."

"That's okay. We can work around that without a problem. But you're gonna hafta trust me."

I had barely known Cori a day. How could I trust her? And yet, I already felt like I'd known her forever. For the first time in my life I had an idea of what it must really mean to have a best friend. I let go of the shirt and lifted my arms.

"That's my little girl," Cori chirped as she pulled my shirt over my head. My stomach clenched when I heard the word 'girl', but I was about to wear a dress, so I decided not to comment on it and instead started taking off my undershirt.

"No no, Baby. Leave the cami on."

"What's a cami?"

"It's this thing you're taking off; short for camisole. Hold on a sec, you've got the shoulder strap tangled in your hair." Cori pulled my hands away from the cami and untangled it from my long hair before pulling it back down.

"There we go. Allll better." Cori's sing-song voice sounded so silly, I couldn't help giggling. "Awww, you're such a happy baby, ain't you? Now can you be good for Mommy while she finds your dress?"

"Yes, I be good, Mommy." I could feel the blush reaching my cheeks as I shifted into baby talk.

"Good girl!"

It only took a minute for Cori to find the dress again. "Here we go, Baby. You all ready to look pretty?"

I nodded and smiled, too nervous for words.

"Okay, arms up again."

My heart was thumping so loud as Cori lowered the dress over me, I could barely think. "Oh Mommy. It's...it's..."

"It's adorable, Baby. You look so CUTE in pink and white." Cori turned me around and the dress was pulled tight against the bottom of my ribs as she tied a bow behind my back. "I never realized until now how much lace this dress has." My ears grew hot with embarrassment as Cori fluffed out the bottom of the dress. "And I love the way the attached petticoat poofs out your skirt."

"Petticoat?"

I turned back around and saw Cori smiling warmly. "Looks like Mommy's got a lotta new words to teach you. A petticoat is sorta like a skirt that goes under your dress."

"You gotta wear skirt under dress? Dat sound silly, Mommy."

"I never really thought of it like that, but I guess you're right. Speaking of which, we better get you out of those jeans and sneakers."

"Uhhh..."

"Don't worry." Cori turned away. "I won't look."

I turned around as well. My hands were shaking a bit as I waded through the layers of petticoat before I found the top of my jeans. By the time I had the jeans around my ankles, I realized I should have taken my sneakers off first. I groaned when the butterfly bows Cori had tied on them turned into knots.

"You done yet?"

"Almost...sorta."

"What's wrong?"

"My jeans is stuck 'cause I can't get my sneakers off."

"I see. Sit down on the floor and Mommy will help."

"What do you mean 'I see'?" I twisted around and saw Cori grinning at me. "Hey, what are you doing looking? I'm naked!"

Cori's grin turned into a frown of honest confusion. "What do you mean? How can you be naked when you're wearing a dress?" Cori bent close and whispered, "don't forget, you're supposed to be talking like a baby."

"Because I...ummm...well, it hard to explain." Trying to translate what I was thinking and feeling into baby talk was getting pretty tricky. "I just feel kinda naked."

"Are you changing your mind about the dress? It's really okay if you don't wanna wear it."

"No, I okay. I really like this dress."

"I'm glad, Baby. You look so sweet in it. Now can you sit on the floor for Mommy so she can help you with the rest of your play clothes?"

After I sat down, Cori undid the mess I'd made of laces, popped the sneakers off my feet and pulled the jeans the rest of the way off. "These socks are going to have to go too, Baby."

She already had one sock off by the time I asked, "Why?"

"Because I have much prettier socks for your to wear that match your dress." Cori shoved the sneakers into the back of the closet under the dresses hanging on the rack, then bundled up the socks, jeans and shirt in her arms as she stood up. "Now sit there like a good girl and Mommy will be right back."

As I sat in the middle of the closet listening to Cori rooting through her dresser drawers, questions started popping up in my head. The biggest question was, what was a boy doing sitting on the floor in the closet of a girl's bedroom wearing a dress? Before I could make sense of the question, let alone think of an answer, Cori was back.

"Here we go." Cori knelt down and unrolled a pair of pink socks with white lace around the cuffs. "Now hold up your feet so Mommy can put on your socks." The soft, silky material made my feet tingle as she pulled the socks up to my ankles.

After digging half a dozen shoes out from where she had tossed the sneakers, Cori pulled out a shiny white pair with silver buckles and brought them over to me. "I knew I still had these Mary Janes." Cori smiled as she pulled the thin straps across my feet and buckled them on. "Okay, we're all dressed. Can you stand up for Mommy?" Cori had her hands under my arms and started lifting me before I had a chance to stand up.

"Hey, how'd you pick me up like that?"

"I guess I'm stronger than I look. That's probably from the gymnastics classes I take, and the self-defense classes I took over the summer probably didn't hurt. I learned about balance and leverage from both of them. But I didn't really pick you up, I just helped you to stand."

"Oh."

"Plus, you're really not all that heavy."

"I am too. I mean, I ain't fat, but..."

Without warning, Cori swung one arm behind my knees. My feet were suddenly out from under me and I was falling backwards. I barely got out a screech of surprise before I found myself in Cori's arms. "You ain't heavy at all, Baby."

"What in the world are you doing?"

Cori kicked the door closed as she carried me out of the closet. "Taking you to your stroller."

I stretched my neck to look around the bedroom. "Ermmm...I don't see no strollers."

Grunting a bit, Cori lowered me onto the office chair by her desk. "This is your stroller right here. Now hold on tight, 'cause we're almost late for your appointment and Mommy drives a little crazy."

Making car idling noises, Cori put her hands on the back of the chair. I barely had a chance to grab the seat before she swung me around and began racing around the room. By the time we screeched to a stop, my throat was sore from screaming at near misses with the bed, dresser and other bedroom furniture and my stomach ached from laughing in between.

"Cori! Bobby!" Aunt Joan yelled from the other end of the house. "Quiet down in there. I'm in the middle of an important phone call."

"Sorry, Mom."

"Sorry, Aunt Joan."

I was still giggling when Cori rolled me in front of a small cluttered table with a mirror attached to the back. "Whew, we made it just in time, Baby. Now you sit here and behave while I go find the beautician."

Before I could ask Cori what she was talking about, she had dashed off to the closet. A few moments later she came strolling back into the bedroom wearing a pink bathrobe. "Ah! Mademoiselle eez finally here for her appointment, no?"

I was having difficulty keeping a straight face listening to Cori's fake accent and watching her swinging her hips and shoulders as she approached. "What are you supposed to be?"

"Oh, you cut me to ze heart. Do you really not know me? I am ze great beautician, Madam Corina, and zis," Cori swung her arms dramatically, "eez my world famous beauty parlor!"

"Beauty parlor?" Cold fear trickled down my spine. "You mean, like hair cutting and stuff?"

"Cut your hair?" In the mirror I could see Cori lifting several lengths of hair from the back of my head, examining each one carefully before going to the next one. "I must zay, with zo many zplit ends, a trim might be called for. But to cut it off? You might as well ask ze master gardener to tear ze petals from her prize roses."

"So, you ain't gonna cut it?"

"No no, today eez not ze day for ze cutting of ze hair." Cori picked up a wide toothed comb from the table and began parting may hair down the middle. "No, today eez ze day for fashion, flair and fun!" Cori gathered all my hair on the left side of the part into her right hand while she rooted through a shallow plastic bowl full of hair bands with her left. After a moment of searching, she dug out a couple of pink ones and wrapped one of them around the hair bunched up in her hand.

"You're making a ponytail on the side of my head?"

"Actually zis eez, how you zay it, a peegtail." Cori gathered the loose hair on the right side of my head in the other hairband. "Ah, one of my greatest hairstyles, if I do say so myself. But," Cori opened a drawer on the side of the table and pulled out a pair sparkly pink ribbons, "for zuch a pretty leetle girl in her pretty dress," wrapping the ribbons over the hairbands, she tied big bows on each side of my head, "we need zomething a bit extra zpecial. Ah, eet eez perfection, no?"

I could hardly breathe as I watched the transformation. Even with my hair pulled up, it was still long enough to tickle the base of my neck as I turned my head from side to side. But the length wasn't what felt so shocking. "I...I look just like my cousin Cassie."

"Ah, your cousin likes ze peegtails?"

"Yes. At least, she did the last time I was allowed to see her."

"You mean at your fifth birthday party?"

Before I could answer, Teri burst into the room. "Cori, Bobby, we've gotta go. Take off that bathrobe, Cori. I've got your raincoat right here. Bobby, I've got one of Cori's spare raincoats you can borrow."

Cori backed away as her sister started untying the sash on the bathrobe. "What do you think you're doing busting in here and bossing us around?"

"I think I'm in a rush and don't have time to argue. Bobby's mom has been in an accident. Mom's outside starting the car and she asked me to come in here and bring you both out."

It felt like all the air had been sucked out of the room. I could barely breathe. "My mom...in an accident?"

Terri gave me a worried look as she helped her sister out of the bathrobe. "That's what the hospital said."

"What happened?"

Terri helped Cori shrug into a short pink raincoat. "I don't know. All my mom said is your mom was in the hospital before she told me to bring you two out to the car." After zipping up Cori's coat, she held out a longer version to me. "Cori wore this raincoat last year, so it should fit you just right. Come here and I'll help you put it on."

My legs refused to move. "You mean...MY mom was in an accident?" The impossible words were making my head buzz.

Terri closed the distance between us, lifted my numb arms one at a time and slid them into the sleves of the raincoat. "I guess it must be pretty hard to believe." Crouching down until we were eye to eye, Terri zipped up my coat. "Don't worry. I'm sure everything will be okay."

Terri took Cori and I by the hand and began leading us out of the bedroom, but my legs still didn't want to work and I stumbled just as we stepped out into the hallway. Without warning, Terri picked me up and I suddenly found myself riding on her hip.

"Hey, whatcha doing?"

"What's it look like?" Terri grinned at me as she took Cori's hand and lead the way down the hall.

"But I ain't no baby. I can walk on my own." I felt an itch of annoyance when Terri's grin grew.

"I know you can." Terri shocked me by kissing me on the forehead. "But this'll be faster and easier." Terri shifted me on her hip as she opened the door and let Cori pass through. Icy needles of rain stung my bare legs when Terri carried me outside.

"Wait a minute!"

Terri was in the middle of locking the door. "What's wrong, Bobby?"

"I gotta get changed. I'm wearing Cori's dress."

Cori ran ahead and slid open the side door to an idling mini-van as Terri carried me down the short path to the driveway. Terri slid me off her hip into the van before before climbing in herself. "Mom, is there time for Bobby to get changed?"

Aunt Joan turned in the driver's seat, "I really don't think..." Her mouth froze in the middle of her next word. "Bobby, what are you wearing?"

My heart dropped into my stomach. "I was...I mean we were just playing and...umm...you see..."

Cori put her hand on my arm. "It's my fault, Mom. We were playing 'Mommy and Baby' and I'd suggested Bobby try on that dress I usually wear when me and Terri play."

To my surprise, Aunt Joan didn't seem upset with either of us. She just smiled and nodded at Cori before turning to me. "Sweetie, can you stand up and take your coat off for me?"

Barely managing to keep my knees from knocking, I carefully stood up and slowly removed the raincoat.

"Oh Bobby, you look JUST like the picture your mommy had sent me."

"She sent you a picture of me...dressed like this?"

"Oh yes, we've been friends for a long time. Speaking of your mommy, we really need to get going. Terri, could you help Cori and Bobby with their seat belts?"

I sat back down and let Terri buckle me in. "But, shouldn't I get changed first?"

Aunt Joan smiled at me in the rear view mirror. "Sweetie, your mommy is going to want to see you, not what you're wearing. Trust me, you'll be fine."

Notes:

After a long break, Bobby's adventure finially continues! Thank you everyone who encouraged me to continue this story. A special thank goes to my editor, Jill, who's helped me so much with this series.