The Dresses

“Well,” He starts. “ It’s not the newest thing around, but I still think it’d look quite beautiful on you, sweetheart.” Halman then pulls out a long dress, covered in a clear plastic bag. The dress’s blue silk dazzled in the light, with many intricate beads decorating the top of the chest and waist. It was an old-style, surely something you’d wear to a fancy party from 30 years ago. Irelle inspects the dress, holding it with careful consideration. “This looks gorgeous, Halman, but this looks really dated. When was this dress made?” Irelle asks. Halman continues fumbling through the closet before answering. “It was a gift from my mother.” He answers. “She used to wear it, I'd figure you wouldn’t mind a little hand-me-down gift.” Irelle opens the zipper, removing the plastic cover. When unveiling the dress, a pair of matching gloves slipped out from somewhere inside of it. The gloves held the same color and dazzling pearls as the dress. Irelle inspects the gloves and finds a brooch inside one of them.
The brooch, aged with dust and missing parts, was of old silver, encased in a circle of pearls. In the center of the silver was an engravement. It read Taina. Irelle shows it to Halman, his eyes widening. “Where did that come from? The dress?” he asks. Irelle nods. “You know, your mom has quite the pretty name. It’d be a shame if you didn’t keep this. You know, since her birthday is coming up.” Irelle hands the brooch to Halman, who takes it swiftly, and focuses intently on the engraved name. Irelle then continues to adore the blue silk dress, before being startled by the sound of Halman going through the closet with haste. He begins pulling out multiple dresses, each their own color of silk, with their own matching gloves. Removing the gloves from the plastic protector, Halman then rummaged into them, before pulling out the matching brooches from each dress. Irellle stood confused, wondering why this was such a fascination with him. “Halman, are you ok?” She asks. Halman removes a dazzling emerald brooch from a pair of green silk gloves before shaking it eagerly at Irelle. “I forgot about these. Each dress… I had bought a brooch for each dress she had.” he says.
Halman then pauses, his eyes focusing on something invisible as if thinking. He then quickly makes his way back to the closet, rummaging some more. Irelle puts down the blue dress and begins observing the other dresses. Each dress had its own theme of decorated jewels and pearls, along with its adorned matching gloves. Irelle couldn’t understand why Halman was suddenly obsessing over his mother’s dresses. Then, quite hastily, Halman pulls a black bag out of the closet. This one was of much bigger size than the other ones, as Halman quickly removed the zipper from the back. Emerging from the black bag was a white dress, bejeweled with multiple glistening stones. It was a wedding dress. However, this dress was not as aged in style as the shoulders puffed, with its own style of deep-set folds, as the skirt ruffled away into a long, elegant train. Halman twirled with the wedding dress, almost dancing with it as if reliving a special moment. Irelle laughs, breaking Halman’s fantasy. “It’s almost like you married your mother.” She giggles. “The way that you danced with it.” Halman paused before smiling. “Yes, ha..” He fumbled with his words. “I loved her very much, her wedding was one of the best moments of my life.” Halman then pulls the dress close to him, smelling the fabric. Irelle watches him with wonder. Something told her that perhaps these dresses had not belonged to his mother after all. It was a cover-up to hide something else. Someone else. Taina. Whoever that may be.