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him brownies were perfect.
When we walked in the door, the little girls
danced around me, then each one
grabbed a hand to lead me to the family room.
Even the house made me feel
happy. It was old, made of stone and clapboard
on the outside, a kind of
overgrown cottage. On the inside it had polished
wood floors, bright colored
rugs, comfy chairs, and lots of pretty stuff
like flowered wallpaper and
silver candlesticks.
hThe family room was at the end of a hall and
next to
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the kitchen. In a whirlwind of five minutes, I
learned the names of an
assortment of Barbie dolls, baby dolls, and
stuffed animals, along with
important telephone numbers, and what was and
wasn't allowed. Then Dr. and
Mrs. Delancy drove off, and the girls and I
settled down to play Barbies.
After that we colored and then played a board
game, but most of the night was
spent being princesses.
R Mrs. Delancy had given Meg and Emma a box of
cosmetics. Some containers
appeared to be her old stuff, while others were
designed for little girls.
Before leaving she had said that the girls were
allowed to put on the
cosmetics, as long as everything but the nail
polish was cleaned off before
bed.
à Sitting on the closed lid of the toilet in the
downstairs bathroom, we took
turns getting powdered. My face got so many
coats, I looked like I had run
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into a sack of flour. Blush was applied. When
Meg didn't think my cheeks were
pink enough, she spit on the container of red
granules, ground her finger in
it, and pressed it into my cheeks. Emma, who
tended to follow her older
sister's lead, did the same. Glancing at myself
in the mirror, I saw a circus
clown with round red patches for cheeks.
: I let them apply my eye shadow, purple on one
lid, green on the other, since
they couldn't agree which was best--Emma herself
wore green and Meg, purple.
All
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%7Å„ three of us put on bright pink lipstick. Each
of the girls had a fake-jewel
tiara to wear. They made me a paper crown, which
was crusted over with glitter
and a little lopsided. I bobby-pinned it on.
Exhausted from all this beauty work, we took a
break and ate brownies. The
girls asked to put on their nightgowns--because,
of course, they were
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gownsa--then we returned to the first-floor
bathroom to put on glitter nail
polish.
"Wow, we're so pretty!" I said, hardly able to
keep a straight face, as we
stood in front of the vanity mirror admiring
ourselves.
L"Yes, we are," Emma replied seriously.
The girls asked to watch a video. When they gave
me very specific
directions, I realized that this was a bedtime
ritual. We had to sit on the
love seat, not the sofa, spread the blue afghan
on our laps, and lower the
lights just so. I was told I could put my feet
up on the coffee table "like
Mommy." The girls snuggled against me, one on
each side, lifting my hands so
that my arms would be wrapped around them. We
were so comfy, I was afraid I
would fall asleep.
F We had been nestled together for about twenty
minutes, the girls' curly
eyelashes fluttering closed beneath their
crowns, when I remembered the rule
about removing
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Î makeup. Just as I put the video on pause, I
heard the front door open. I
glanced at my watch: ten o'clock--I thought that
Mrs. Delancy had said
midnight. The hall light came on, footsteps
sounded on the floor, and a moment
later, Flynn entered. He stopped about ten feet
from his sisters and me,
studied us a moment, and burst out laughing.
That woke them up.
("Hello, princesses."
F"Hi, Flynn," Emma said, sitting up.
r When she threw open her arms, he leaned down
and gave her a hug. Meg opened
her arms, and she, too, got a warm hug. I
wondered what would happen if I
tried it, but, of course, I didn't.
6"Are we pretty?" Meg asked.
¬"You are beautiful," Flynn replied. "I've never
seen three such beautiful
princesses."
`"Have you seen many princesses of any kind?" I
asked, and he laughed.
0"What are you watching?"
,"Barbie," replied Meg. "Swan Lake."
"Ar classic," Flynn observed. "Are you enjoying
it, Hayley?"
h"Actually, I was," I admitted. "How was your
movie?"
:"Okay. It was a chick flick."
L"Well, what do you think this one is?"
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@He smiled. "A baby chick flick."
V"We're not babies," Emma cried indignantly.
He held up his hand. "Sorry. Sorry, I know that.
You're big girls." To me he
said, "I guess you had them almost asleep before
I barged in."
^"That's okay. I need to wash off their makeup."
" "I have to keep it on," Emma insisted. "I want
to have princess dreams."
Â"You will," Flynn assured Emma. "Just look at
your Cinderella light as you
fall asleep. Come on."
^ It was obvious that Flynn was used to taking
care of the girls. He led the
way to the downstairs bathroom, then got out
cold cream, a box of baby wipes,
and a fresh washcloth--"in case we have to
scrub," he said to me. He set to
work on Meg while I washed Emma. "Sit still,
Meg, I've got just one hand."
l I peeked sideways at him, fascinated by the
deft and gentle way he removed
the makeup. When the girls were both fairly
clean--their lips still shone
pinkish--he turned to me. "Next."
"What?"
¶"Don't tell me. You're going to throw a hissy
fit because you want to keep
your makeup on."
"Well, noooo."
6"I'll wash you," Emma said.
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^"And me," Meg insisted. They each took a cheek.
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\ "No, not her eyes, not with that!" Flynn said,
catching Meg's hand. "Close
your eyes," he told me, then carefully wiped my
lids. "Jeez, how many layers
did you girls put on?"
Ø When he had stopped wiping my eyes, I opened
them and found him looking
intently at me. For one long moment we gazed at
each other. It seemed as if
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