‘Yes,’ said Alexia. ‘And Jessica is mortified and refuses to ride any more and now Chessy is getting lessons from Anna. She seems quite happy. It shouldn’t matter as long as your parents are happy,’ she said, mostly to Chris.
‘You are a wise girl,’ said Chris, patting her hand.
‘I know.’
She smiled at Carlotta across the table. Carlotta winked at her. She loved Alexia more and more every time she saw her. Her spunk and courage, her acceptance of herself and her life was inspiring and made Carlotta ashamed for her years of complaining and not making the most of what she had in life.
*
The next day after school, Carlotta met Alexia and they went to Violetta's to look at dresses. Violetta, while initially surprised to see Alexia’s chair, was cool and Alexia loved her. They had spent the afternoon going through clothes and forcing Carlotta to try on different looks and outfits.
Alexia was delightful and she had loved the Zac Posen that Violetta had offered.
‘Take it. You can have it. I don’t want it,’ Violetta had said of the new dress with the tags still hanging from it.
‘Are you sure? I can just borrow it, I will look after it,’ said Alexia, her eyes wide.
‘No, really, I am happy it will be worn,’ said Violetta. ‘You just need some shoes, that’s all.’
‘I can do that. I will return the bag and earrings as well,’ Alexia said, her little face serious.
‘Nah, I don’t need any of it. Take it all,’ said Violetta generously.
‘No way,’ said Alexia excitedly.
‘Way,’ said Violetta, laughing.
‘You are so nice. Zac Posen is so cool.’
‘Well, you make it cooler. Make sure you send me a photo.’
‘Are you on Facebook? Maybe we can be Facebook friends and you can see all the photos,’ said Alexia shyly.
‘Sure, friend me,’ said Violetta easily.
Carlotta looked at Violetta gratefully and smiled. ‘Thanks,’ she mouthed, and Violetta winked at her.
‘You both coming to Christmas at Birdie’s?’ asked Violetta.
‘Yes,’ said Carlotta.
‘I can’t wait, I’ve never had a real Christmas,’ said Alexia. ‘I’ve being going nuts online with Dad’s credit card.’
‘Great!’ Carlotta made a face. ‘Now he can blame Jesus for his credit card bill as well as everything else. I’ll never hear the end of it.’
‘Oh voy, whatcha gonna do?’ asked Violetta in her best Yiddish accent.
The girls laughed together as they left Violetta’s apartment. As they headed out into the dusk, Alexia stopped her chair in the street. Carlotta turned to see she was no longer by the girl’s side. She rushed back to her.
‘Are you OK?’ she asked.
‘I’m better than OK. I’m just happy. I wanted to take a moment and take it all in, you know, so I can remember it.’
Carlotta looked at her, nodded and stopped also. She was happy too, she realised, and she stood by Alexia’s side and took it all in.
39
Violetta laid the last napkin down on the table. It was almost as good as Birdie used to do, she thought, and she straightened up the already perfect flowers in the middle of the table.
