Chained

by Eileen Brady

  Dina narrowed her eyes. A pink fingernail lightly caressed a loose curl. Her focus tightened, like a lioness on the Serengeti Plain noticing an antelope separated from the herd.

  “That’s so sweet of you, Jeremy.” She scrunched up her nose and squeezed his hand.

  He leaned into her perfumed space. “Anytime.”

  What the heck was going on? Did Jeremy have an ulterior motive for paying for dinner? My lengthy list of possible justifications ended when our drinks arrived along with a basket of crusty bread and a small plate of unfiltered olive oil for dipping.

  Almost immediately Dina monopolized the conversation with little stories about how someone hurt her feelings at work, how getting her nails done in a new salon turned out to be a disaster—basically, endless prattle.

  My mind wandered while she chattered away. Suddenly something Dina was saying resonated in my brain.

  “…so I’ve decided to wear my original prom dress. Don’t you think that would be fun? It still fits but it’s a little tight around…the girls, if you know what I mean.” All the men’s eyes followed as she gestured to her cleavage.

  “Lukey, you just have to wear your tux, too,” she added, a little petulantly, explaining to Jeremy and me why what good old Lukey wore was so important. “We both are members of the King and Queen’s court.”

  “In case you forgot, I rented my tux, Honey. Remember? I barely got it back on time.”

  A quick memory-sharing look passed between the two of them.

  Then I had a crazy idea.

  “You know, I’d love to see the two of you in your prom outfits. It would be so much fun!” I held my glass up in a toast and tried to sound super enthusiastic.

  A slight scowl swept over Luke’s face but before he could say anything, Jeremy chimed in.

  “I missed my high school prom. Had a bad case of mononucleosis. Always regretted it.” He directed his comments to Dina.

  I held my breath.

  “You know,” Dina paused dramatically, “if I took Jeremy as my date and Luke took you, Kate, we could get you both in.” She clapped her hands with excitement. “Jeremy would finally have his prom. But you have to promise at least one dance to me, you silly boy.”

  Luke’s hand tightened around his glass.

  Dina continued, oblivious. “I know they’ve got room because we’ve had a couple of last-minute cancellations. Did I mention I’m on the prom committee?”

  Jeremy and I shook our heads in unison.

  “There shouldn’t be a problem. I’ll just say Lukey and I had a last-minute fight.” She stopped to giggle, laid her hand on his arm, and lowered her voice. “Believe me, it wouldn’t surprise anyone.”

  Luke stared at her like she’d lost her mind. “Dina, I don’t…”

  Before he could finish, our server popped out of the crowd and announced, “Your table is ready. Would you please follow me?”

  We picked up our glasses, Luke and Dina leading the way.

  As I squeezed past Jeremy, drink in hand, I hissed, “Was all that prom stuff for real?”

  He maneuvered around a column then snuck a kiss behind my ear. “Hardly,” he whispered. “I went to both my junior and senior proms with my friend, Sarah. Just helping you out, like I promised. Dina fell right into my trap.”

  I squeezed his arm in thanks—except Dina wasn’t the only person who’d fallen into his trap.

  Jeremy had fooled me too.

  Chapter Twenty-four

  The following morning at the animal hospital before appointments started, I inadvertently dropped what turned out to be a big bombshell.

  “You’re going to the Oak Falls High School reunion?” Disbelief in her voice, Mari stopped what she was doing.

  My casual announcement to the staff got quite a reaction. You’d think I had just told them I was going to the moon.

  Cindy came right to the point as she edged closer to me. “Who’s taking you? Jeremy?”

  “No. I’m going with Luke.” I heard a gasp.

  “Luke?” Although Mari was across the room, she was able to shout Luke’s name so loudly, it reverberated. “How could you be going with Luke? He’s with Dina now.”

  Even Mr. Katt put his four cents in by catapulting past and glaring at me from behind the IV stand. I explained how the idea came up last night at dinner. My only reason for going, I told them, was to help investigate Flynn’s death. Finally everyone calmed down.

  I expected someone to ask me about investigative strategy, but instead there was only one unanimous question.

  “So, what are you going to wear?”

  Okay. I have to admit that a part of me I don’t let out much was excited about picking a dress to wear to the tenth-year reunion prom. Intellectually, I knew it wasn’t really a prom, but the lonely seventeen-year-old who sat in front of the television eating fudge ripple ice cream on her prom night was psyched. My inner geek never expected to get a second chance.

  That afternoon, over my half-hearted protests, Cindy hijacked me to go shopping, even as I insisted once again that I was going to this reunion to gather information, not to party. Together we drove to one of her favorite stores, a vintage/secondhand shop in Rhinebeck. Since arguing proved futile, I decided to put myself in Cindy’s fashion-savvy hands.

  “This is the store I was telling you about. I figured a vintage piece would be perfect. Get it? Vintage reunion, vintage threads.” We pulled over to the curb in front of a building that said Jillian’s Old and New.

  I don’t know what I expected but to my surprise it looked like a regular women’s store. Right away I noticed how organized and busy it seemed. Shoppers intently perused the racks searching for something out of the ordinary.

  Almost immediately a woman in her fifties greeted us at the front door. She was impeccably dressed in shades of silver and gray that complemented her dramatic white hair.

  “Good afternoon, ladies. I’m Jillian. How can I help you today?”

  My fashion consultant immediately spoke up. “Kate here needs an evening look.”

  Jillian gave me the once-over. I had no doubt she’d instantly nailed my dress size and everything else size. “That will be in the back and against the wall. We’ve got some fabulous dresses in stock. Let me know if you need any help.”

  Cindy immediately headed to the formal wear section. I trailed behind, curious to see the wide variety of styles, from the forties to the nineties. By the time I got there, she had started without me.

  “Look at all these gorgeous dresses,” she said while zipping through the rack at warp speed. “Too bad I don’t need anything.”

  “This one’s nice.” I picked out a poof of a dress with layers of overskirt that reached the floor. The princess dress made my inner teen smile.

  “Wrong color for you, puff sleeves, prominent darts on the bodice—absolutely not.” With that, she almost ripped it out of my hands and shoved it back where I’d found it.

  Reluctant to confess I wasn’t sure what was appropriate for the occasion, I pulled out another one. The pale green color was pretty. “What about this?”

  My office manager eyed the dress and me. “Absolutely not. Look at the ruffle at the neckline.” She flipped it up and down. “It looks like a clown costume. We’re going to find something that makes you look fantastic.”

  “I’d like to look fantastic.”

  “You will, believe me.” Cindy happily smiled and dove back into the sea of satin, chiffon, and rhinestones. So did I.

  With Cindy starting at one end of the rack and me at the other, we worked toward the middle, my friend pointing out the pros and cons of each piece. Ever since my college and vet school days I’d chosen utilitarian clothes over flattering ones. After all, when you spend most of your time in scrubs, you get used to loose pants and shirts that don’t require much attention. In a way, I
think I started hiding myself even back then, daring a man to work for what was underneath. I knew what looked good on other women but never got the hang of it for myself. Gramps had been both mom and dad to me from fifteen on, but a fashion buff he wasn’t.

  “Find anything?”

  “Not really.” I glanced over to see Cindy holding three dresses.

  “Let’s try these on.” Cindy steered me into the back, past a raised platform surrounded by a huge three-piece mirror. “Dressing rooms are in there. What kind of bra do you have on?”

  Bewildered I said, “Uh. White.”

  That answer didn’t earn me any fashion points. “You might need to buy a strapless,” she cautioned before shooing me into the back.

  Sure enough, behind a long curtain were five separate dressing rooms. I heard two women arguing in the one closest to me before the door flung open and a teenager pushed past.

  A few seconds later an older woman with a scowl on her face came out of the same dressing room, a pile of dresses slung over her arm. “Kill me now,” she said to no one in particular. I put an empty dressing room between us and entered the one on the far right.

  I had to admit Cindy had made some interesting choices. Not necessarily what I would have chosen, but I was getting used to that. All my female friends except Mari were always advising me on what to wear.

  “Yuck,” I muttered when I looked in the mirror wearing Cindy’s first pick, a shiny blush-colored satin dress with a tight bottom and a slit on the side. It reminded me of a weird bridesmaid dress you wear once and then try to give away.

  My appearance in the dress was met with stony silence. Cindy and the store’s owner had positioned two chairs in front of the viewing area like Project Runway judges.

  Cindy shook her head. “Nice color for you, but the wrong silhouette.”

  “We can do better, I’m sure.” Jillian got up and disappeared down one of the aisles.

  “Let’s see the next one,” my friend ordered.

  I was hurriedly sent back into the dressing room. The next two were also disasters, one bunching up around my hips while the other, although pretty, hung off my shoulders in a very depressing way. I was about to put my own clothes on and hit the racks again when someone knocked on the dressing room door.

  “Go ahead and try this one on.” Jillian anchored a hanger over the top of the dressing room door.

  Her pick wasn’t like the others I’d tried on. The strapless sweetheart top was fitted and embroidered with a silky lavender thread slightly darker than the rest of the dress. An ombre lilac chiffon skirt flowed to just below the knee finished by a beaded lace sash that sparkled at the waist. When I gazed in the mirror I was astonished at how sophisticated I looked.

  I waltzed out to the judges who greeted me with applause.

  “Beautiful.” Jillian popped up out of her chair and carefully checked the fit and hem length. “We don’t have to change a thing.”

  “Gorgeous, Kate. Elegant but still young. Jeremy is going to be floored when he sees you.”

  “We’re going to the prom. We’re going to the prom.” I whispered to my seventeen-year-old self. Three versions of me smiled in the mirror.

  “Twirl around so I can see how it moves.”

  I happily complied, watching the swirling skirt twinkle under the lights.

  Jillian walked back over to Cindy. “What prom is she going to?” The implication in her voice made it clear she thought I was a little old to be celebrating graduating from high school.

  “Kate is going to the Oak Falls High School class of 2007 reunion next week. The decorating committee is recreating prom night. It should be a blast.”

  A skeptical look crossed Jillian’s face. “I remember that year. I’d just taken a job at Fabulous Formal Wear in Saugerties. My boss wouldn’t keep his hands off me so I left in July, right after most of the local high schools graduated. Hopefully, there won’t be any fights this time.”

  “What do you mean fights?” I stopped in mid-twirl.

  “Three girls were in the store trying on dresses when a high school boy sort of burst in and demanded to see one of them.”

  “What happened?”

  “He asked to talk to her in private, so I let her stand right outside the front door. I had to stay just inside watching because she was still wearing one of our dresses. It was pale yellow that set off her blond hair. Later on my boss chewed me out about it, which is why it stuck in my memory.”

  “Do you remember the girl’s name?”

  Jillian gave me a look. “After all this time? No. But she did run back in the store crying her eyes out. I had to follow her around with a box of Kleenex so her tears wouldn’t stain the fabric.”

  “What about the guy?”

  This time Jillian nodded. “Him, I remember because his picture was just in the paper. The police say he was murdered. A really handsome guy.”

  I held my breath. “Can you—”

  “Flynn,” she interrupted. “She called him Flynn.”

  ***

  With my beautiful new dress safely tucked away in my closet, encased in plastic, I decided to call Mari and see if she remembered any drama surrounding that year’s prom.

  Much to my surprise, she knew exactly what I was talking about.

  “I’d forgotten that stuff until you mentioned it. Flynn was between girlfriends then, and everyone was surprised when he asked Shiloh Alberts to the prom. You wouldn’t believe what a big deal it was. Shiloh was a new student. Most of the kids didn’t know her. She certainly wasn’t considered part of the popular crowd. I guess it floored everyone, especially Angelica Landon, since she expected to be Flynn’s date.”

  “What do you know about an argument, just before prom night?”

  Mari didn’t say anything right away. I gave her time to think. When she finally answered she dropped another bombshell. “What I heard was that Angelica had been spreading all kinds of rumors.”

  “Rumors?”

  “You know… that Shiloh was a tramp…that she’d been kicked out of her old school for cheating on a test. Anything Angelica could think of to turn her classmates against this newcomer who’d stolen her boyfriend. She was furious and let everyone know it. Especially Flynn.”

  Emotions run hot and deep in high school.

  “What did he do?”

  She scrunched her face up. “I think he found Shiloh crying and confronted Angelica about it. Or at least, that’s my impression.”

  “That must have been awkward. Wasn’t Flynn Prom King? Who ended up being his Queen?”

  “The student body had already elected Flynn as King and Angelica as Queen. By the time the prom rolled around they were barely speaking to each other. Let’s see—Dina and Luke were part of the court…I can’t remember the rest. I’ll have to look in my yearbook.”

  “Do you think you could bring it in to work so I can see it? Having some kind of familiarity with the graduating class would make everything easier.”

  “Okay. I bought one every year. That ought to keep you busy.”

  “Great. And try to remember as much gossip as you can.”

  Mari didn’t sound that comfortable with the idea. “You want me to take a trip down memory lane? I’m ecstatic my teenage years are over.” There was a sad finality in her voice. “I barely made it out alive.”

  “Me, too.” Only relentless studying had relieved my agony.

  After we hung up I thought about all the angst of high school, and the crazy meaningless ups and downs that enveloped students every day. Between classes, wave after wave of raw emotion flowed like lava down the halls. Imagined slights. Painful encounters. Bottled up feelings. They all added up. Some of us carried those slights around for years and others never put them down.

  I’d assumed the handsome and popular Flynn had had it easy in high schoo
l.

  Maybe I assumed wrong.

  ***

  I had one more surprise that night. Perhaps Shiloh’s ears were burning because she phoned me right after I hung up with Mari. “Hi. I hope I’m not calling too late.”

  “No, of course not. I’m glad to hear from you.” I settled into my lounge chair ready to put my feet up and relax. Dress shopping was exhausting.

  Shiloh sounded a little embarrassed. “You said you wanted to talk. Well, I’m very close to your hospital and I have some free time. Only an hour, though.”

  “I’m sure it won’t take that long. Where would you like to meet?”

  “How about your place? Just one thing though, I’m allergic to cats.”

  Oops. Where would you find a cat in an animal hospital?

  “We can talk in my apartment, if you like. Just go to the back entrance of the hospital. You’ll see a Ford pickup parked outside my door.”

  “Alright.”

  “Are dogs okay?”

  She laughed. “Yes, dogs are fine. See you in about ten minutes.”

  ***

  Ten minutes later almost to the second, I heard a knock. Buddy sprang into action, barking up a storm. With a hand signal I told him to quiet down.

  Shiloh stood outside, her pale cheeks flushed pink from the cold.

  “Come in,” I told her. “This is Buddy.” My dog did his doggy duty by wagging his tail and sniffing at her shoes.

  After hanging up her coat and pouring us both cups of tea I got down to it. “What I was curious about were the dynamics of your high school that last year, as far as Flynn was concerned.”

  “Normal, I guess.” She thought for a moment. “We were all excited about graduating, that’s for sure. Flynn always talked about going to California, so when I heard he left I wasn’t that surprised. Most of the other kids were focused on finals and their SAT scores. I remember Rusty had been accepted to pre-med and Denny was, well, being Denny.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Denny was all about money. Always hustling.”

  “Still is, I guess.” I stopped to take a sip of Earl Gray tea.