Cinderella's Dress

by Shonna Slayton

  “Tell me about these men.”

  Kate closed her eyes, picturing the two strangers. “A few weeks ago, there was a man who came to me at Harmon-Craig wanting to buy the rag dress.” She paused. “Um, I put that one in the window first.”

  She rushed on. “He was big and frightening. The same man who tried to take the dress. And there was a different man standing across the street from your house one day. I remember him because he had no umbrella and it was raining and he stood there getting wet.”

  “The rag dress on display, too?” He rubbed his forehead. “No matter now. Let’s fix things best we can.”

  They both looked into the living room. Elsie was slowly pushing herself into a sitting position.

  Kate took the tea in to Elsie. She would stay with her until Johnny arrived.

  Elsie smiled. “Katja.” She took the tea and then noticed the disheveled room. “Goodness, our house is a mess. Mama will be after us to clean.”

  So, she was to be Katja again today. “Don’t worry. Mama is fine. I’ll tidy while you have your tea.” Kate answered in Polish, hoping she used the correct words.

  Elsie sipped her tea. Her eyebrows furrowed. “My heart is heavy.” With a hand on her chest, Elsie searched Kate’s face. “You are testing your heritage? To see if it is a blessing or a curse?”

  Kate hesitated. Testing her heritage? Is that what she was doing by placing the dresses in the display windows? And showing poor Elsie what she had done? She licked her lips. It was possible part of her wanted to see what would happen.

  Did other Keepers test the dresses? She wondered if Babcia was testing out her heritage when Elsie stepped in and interfered.

  Kate moved in closer and spoke with a calm voice. “The dresses are in trouble. Can you tell me how the magic works so that I can help? What does a Keeper need to do when someone is trying to take them?”

  Uncle Adalbert paced around the room, absentmindedly returning it to order. Although he looked busy, Kate knew he was listening to every word.

  Elsie’s eyebrows rose. “Dresses! Ludmilla will take. She thinks like a wishing well or magic lamp. Nie.” Her face softened as she looked at Adalbert. “Ball gown helps to find love. Wedding dress to keep love.” She focused back on Kate. “Ball gown is special. Reveals true intentions. Kolodenkos get in the way of the evildoings of the Burgosov clan.”

  “Adalbert said the magic can be unpredictable.”

  “Who?”

  “Adalbert.”

  She frowned, trying to recall the name. Adalbert, watching Elsie struggle, put down the papers he was stacking and sat beside her.

  “Dresses are weak now. Magic failing.” She shook her head. “Keepers make mistakes.”

  Husband and wife gazed at each other with intense eyes, Adalbert trying to share a million memories in one look. Elsie struggling to pick up those memories.

  Reluctant to break the moment, Kate forged ahead. “What mistakes? And what happened?” She didn’t think the dresses were weak. Not after witnessing the fire. If anything, the dresses seemed more powerful now than when Elsie first brought them.

  Elsie said, “Kolodenko treasures are legendary in Europe. No one knows for sure they exist, but treasure hunters continue to seek them. Loch Ness Monster—is it real or a legend? Kopciuszek—a real princess or a fairy tale?” She reached to set her empty teacup on the table, but her fingers let go and the cup fell onto the carpet.

  Adalbert leaped forward to retrieve it while Elsie rubbed her fingers in frustration.

  “She was real and so are treasures. Some have been lost over the years. Most recently, a necklace.” Her face clouded over.

  Kate checked to make sure her necklace was hidden under her shirt. No need to upset Elsie with it again.

  “Desire for treasure can bring out the worst in people.” She blinked rapidly at Kate then looked away. “Even I have done things I regret, Katja.”

  “I know, Elsie,” Kate said, pretending to be Katja. “But it will work out. My…uh, granddaughter will be the next.”

  Elsie’s face carried a mix of emotions. Hopefully, she would be able to sort through them and find peace.

  “Must keep dresses hidden.”

  There was a knock on the front door, and both Kate and Adalbert jumped even though they were expecting Johnny. Aunt Elsie looked queerly at them and got up to answer it.

  “Oh, Uncle,” said Kate. “I almost forgot—there is a rush job for you. I was supposed to stay here until you fixed it. Mr. Oliver even gave me cab fare.”

  “A rush job? Why didn’t one of the girls do it at the store? Mr. Oliver knows I won’t take a rush job.”

  “Maybe someone requested you.” Kate found the package and gave it to him.

  “Hmm.” Uncle Adalbert seemed to mull that over. Then he got up to greet Johnny. He lowered his head, and they spoke in quiet tones.

  Kate hugged Aunt Elsie. “I will do what I can for the dresses. I won’t let you down.”

  “Do widzenia, good-bye.”

  Adalbert held the door open. “If there is any sign of trouble do not go in. Instead, go to a pay phone and call me. Kate?”

  He waited for her to meet his eyes.

  “Be careful, and do not do any foolish thing. Dresses are important, but not worth your life.”

  “My life?” Over a dress?

  “I know not what these men would do.” He lowered his voice. “They tied up an old man and woman and were not gentle. I am sorry I cannot go with you, not with Elsie like this.”

  Adalbert and Johnny shook hands. “Call me when you get to a phone. My heart will not rest until I hear from you.”

  “Sure thing, Adalbert.” Johnny looked quizzically at Kate.

  “What about the rush job?” she asked.

  Adalbert handed it back to her. “Tell Mr. Oliver I cannot. Carol sews as well as I. Besides, I am afraid this may have been a ruse to keep you out of the apartment. They’ve been watching, and they know I do jobs for Harmon-Craig and that you deliver them.”

  Kate’s eyes opened wide. Could there be thieves in their apartment right now?

  Chapter Thirty-four

  “I’ve got cab fare,” Kate said. “I’m supposed to use it to rush this order back from Uncle Adalbert.”

  “Let’s use it. We’ll worry about the order later.” They walked down the Oberlins’ quiet street until they reached a busier one.

  Johnny took care of hailing a cab and opened the door for Kate.

  She breathed out slowly, stealing glances at Johnny’s silhouette. His jaw was relaxed, but his eyes looked worried. How much does he know?

  The street leading up to Kate’s apartment looked like it did on any ordinary day. Ladies in their stylish spring hats walked along chatting to one another while children, home from school, roller-skated on the sidewalk. Ordinary. Nothing out of place. Peaceful.

  “How much of this do you believe?” Johnny asked. He opened the lobby door.

  “What do you mean? What did my uncle tell you?”

  “About the dresses once belonging to the Polish Cinderella.”

  “He told you?” She frowned. “That is so unfair. He didn’t want Aunt Elsie to tell me anything for years.”

  “He had to. I wanted him to call the police, and he needed a reason for me not to. I thought he made up the story.” He paused. “But you’re telling me you think it’s true?”

  “Pretty incredible, isn’t it?” She tapped at her bottom lip. “Aunt Elsie can be all over the place in her mind, but for this one thing, she has always been consistent. I thought at first that the whole Cinderella talk was the start of her health trouble, but really, it was the one sane thing about her.”

  They rode the elevator in silence. The operator simply smiled at Kate. Grinned, actually, looking pointedly at Johnny. She would have enjoyed the man’s subtle teasing had she not been wondering what would meet them on the other side of the doors.

  When the elevator opened, they saw that the hallway was deser
ted. They walked slowly, with Kate leading Johnny to her apartment and listening for any telltale signs that someone was inside. She froze when he saw that the welcome mat Mom insisted on keeping outside the door was crooked. Mom would never have let that go by.

  “Someone’s been here,” Kate said, straining her ears for any sounds from inside. Nothing.

  “You go back to the lobby. I’ll check it out.” Johnny gave Kate a little nudge back to the elevators.

  “No, if you’re going in, so am I. Besides, I have the key.”

  Johnny turned the doorknob. “Looks like we don’t need a key.” He put his ear up to the door. “I don’t hear anything.”

  “Maybe they’re gone already.” Kate whispered hopefully.

  “Or maybe they’re hiding out waiting for you or your mom.” He again nudged Kate away. “I’d feel better if you were out of the way. They don’t know who I am. They won’t be expecting me.”

  While they stood arguing, the door swung open, and Johnny stumbled into the apartment. Before Kate could do anything, the tall thug grabbed her and pulled her in. He slammed the door. Another hulking man, the one she had seen outside in the rain, had Johnny’s arms pinned behind his back.

  “How is your car?” asked Johnny.

  Of course. The accident was a diversion. They had been acting together all along.

  Johnny struggled to get away and winced as the man twisted his grip tighter.

  Oh, Johnny, I’m sorry to have gotten you involved in this. I should never have put the dresses in the window.

  “We have been waiting you,” said the tall thug in faltering English. “We look for fancy dress. The old man, he hide it from us.”

  Kate tried to wriggle away, but his grip held fast. “You know what happened to it. You’re the one who set it on fire,” Kate said, hoping he didn’t know the dress was back. Her mind raced trying to think of how they could escape. The movies made everything look so much easier, but her assailant was strong. Too strong.

  “Tak, that dress is back in window. Rumor must be true. We thought Kolodenkos lie about special powers of dress. A Keeper must give it away, or it disappears. We want you to give it to us. You can touch dress, so you must be a Keeper.”

  Kate’s eyes grew wide. She wasn’t a Keeper. At least, not officially. She had the necklace, but Elsie hadn’t performed the ceremony. The necklace might have kept her from receiving the same shocks the men had.

  “Also, there is more fancy dress. We were told to bring back two. Where is second dress?”

  “There is another dress at the store. Also guarded by security.” Kate lifted her chin, trying to look brave. Of course, the second dress she was referring to was the rag dress.

  “You get for me. Or I hurt old man and woman.”

  Kate gasped. “You wouldn’t!” Behind the burly man, she could see Johnny struggle to break the other guy’s grip. They would.

  “I am tired of waiting,” he said.

  “I can’t get them while they’re using them at the store. You’ll have to wait until the windows are finished.” She pulled on her arm, testing her captor’s grip. “I’m not in charge, and there’s extra security now, thanks to you.”

  “When?”

  “I don’t know,” she hedged. “Whenever the boss says so. I can’t march in there and take out the dress any more than you can.” She figured this guy would understand the demands of a boss.

  He nodded and backed away, letting her go. “We wait little longer. When window dress comes out, we take two dresses.” He picked up a book from the coffee table. “I see your father is missing from wartimes.” He sat on the sofa and kicked his feet up on the table, crossing them at his ankles. He flipped through the book.

  It was her diary! How dare he?

  “I can help you find him.” He paused before meeting her gaze. “If you help me.”

  Kate stared back at him. Curiosity overcoming her fear. “How can you find him? No one knows what happened.”

  The man shrugged like he didn’t care one way or the other if they worked out a deal. “We have the shoes. Didn’t prince find princess using shoes?”

  With that, he flicked his head at his compatriot. That man shoved Johnny to the ground and then the two men left the apartment. “Make no move to police. We watch you.” He slammed the door.

  Kate lunged for the diary to see what she had written. “Lock the door!” she cried, even though she knew a locked door wouldn’t keep them out if they wanted in. In her diary, she had written several entries about her dad going to war, the telegram, and Floyd’s efforts to find him. How could the Burgosovs do any better? It was a trick. They had found her weak spot and would use it to get the dresses.

  “I need to call Uncle Adalbert.” She fumbled for the phone on the hall table, knocking it off. With shaking hands, she dialed.

  “Kate? Are you all right?” he asked when he answered.

  “Yes, a bit shaken up. They were here when we arrived.”

  “I told you not to go in. Your mother would never forgive me if something happened to you.”

  “We didn’t intend to. They were sort of waiting for us.” For the first time, Kate noticed the state of the apartment. Clothes were strewn about. A chair had been knocked over. Cupboards and drawers were left open, contents spilling out. “Looks like they tore through our place, too. I better fix it up before Mom gets home. She’ll want to call the police.”

  “What about the gown?”

  “I haven’t looked yet. I wanted to make sure they were long gone.”

  Johnny was watching out the window onto the street. “There they are. One is getting into a cab, and the other is standing across the street. He’s watching the building.”

  “What happened?” asked Adalbert.

  “They want me to give them the dresses. He said they could help me find my father.”

  Silence.

  Finally, Adalbert spoke. “How can they do that?”

  “He said they have the shoes.”

  “Oh, child,” whispered Adalbert. “You still believe your father will be found alive?” There was a pause. “I don’t know about any shoes. Elsie has never mentioned them. Only the dresses.”

  “But if they did have the shoes, could they use them to find my dad?”

  “You would have to ask Elsie. I have never seen any.”

  Again, there was silence. Kate envisioned putting on a pair of glass slippers and feeling them guide her to her dad, either his grave, or an unknown rehabilitation clinic, or a hideaway in the Italian hills. All the places she had wondered if he might be.

  “What are you going to do?” asked Adalbert.

  Kate ignored the question, since she didn’t know the answer yet. She needed to know if the Burgosovs had the shoes, or if the man simply read about her hope in her diary and used that knowledge to win her over. If she had to choose between the dresses and her father, there was no dilemma.

  “Johnny says one man left in a cab, and the other is across the street watching the building. How do I get to the dress?”

  “Empty out the hope chest. There are two panels near the bottom that can slide out. My friend marks sliders with notches. Do this to take out the safety. Press down on the bottom using equal pressure. It has a spring load and should pop open.”

  “Okay. I’ll have to put the phone down.” Kate laid the receiver beside the phone on the hall table. In her bedroom, she pushed aside the mess of clothes and papers littering the carpet. Three of her grandmother’s eggs were smashed on the ground, knocked over, and stepped on until they were tiny pieces. Her breath caught. For years, she had been so careful not to break those eggs.

  Regaining focus, Kate knelt in front of her hope chest to find what the Burgosovs had left behind.

  She located the marked panels. They were difficult to nudge out. She broke a fingernail before the first one gave. Now that she knew how the panels came out, the second one was easier to remove. Next, she worked on the false bottom. She pushed and th
e wood gave way. When she eased the pressure, the board pushed back. Using two hands, she pried the false bottom off. Inside was a familiar brown wrapping paper. Her heart skipped a beat. “Here it is!”

  Johnny picked up the phone “There’s something there,” he said to Adalbert. “A package.”

  Kate reached for the phone. “Now what?”

  “Find some way to get it to the store. Safest place for it right now. I don’t want to put you in danger any longer.”

  Kate hung up the phone. Johnny was staring at her. “What?” she asked.

  “Cinderella, huh? I’m starting to believe it. Those aren’t the kind of guys who look like they’re into fashion. But if the dresses are that rare…”

  “Uncle Adalbert and Aunt Elsie brought the dresses with them from Poland. They belong to the Kolodenko royal family. Elsie says there is magic involved.” She shrugged apologetically. It sounded crazy saying it out loud.

  Johnny didn’t laugh; he just held her gaze.

  “Adalbert is trying to contact the family. He wants to give the dresses back, but Elsie thinks, or she used to, that I should be put in charge of keeping them.” Her voice caught. “A family tradition.” She didn’t go on to talk about how she had made a mess of things. She began to tidy up the apartment.

  “And those two thugs? Who are they?” Johnny put the cushions back on the couch.

  “Strangely enough, the descendants of Cinderella’s stepsisters.” Kate squinted as she said it. She was starting to sound as odd as Aunt Elsie. All she needed was Floyd home and making the crazy sign.

  “That’s what I call a long-standing feud.” Johnny finished with the cushions. “Well?” he asked, palms up and pointing to the package.

  “Well, what?”

  He laughed. “Don’t you want to see what all the fuss is about? Open it. I’ll stand guard to make sure he doesn’t move.” He positioned himself by the window. “He’s not going anywhere soon. A street vendor is setting up and he got in line for a hot dog.”

  Her pulse quickened. Of course she wanted to see the dress. She paused and closed her eyes for a brief second. When she saw Cinderella’s wedding dress, she wanted to be fully in the moment. Because, well, this was Cinderella’s wedding dress. She knelt beside the hall table with the bundle on her lap.