In Want of Womanhood

I saw this little tray at my dad and step-mom's house sitting on a little antique vanity table and it looked so picturesque that I took a picture with my phone to think about using it in my story.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I sit gazing in the mirror feeling that I still possessed some childish features in my face from the little freckles on the ridge of my nose and the slight pudginess in my cheeks that could still be called baby fat. But I hadn't been a baby in 16 years and at seventeen I wanted to gaze into my reflection and see this elegant grown up woman looking back at me. A woman who has every hair perfectly in place and eyes that can make a man go weak at the knees. My hair usually disheveled and my eyes are plain and not likely to make a man go weak in the knees. But tonight is a special night so I picked up my ivory comb and tried to untangle my hair and make it look more womanly tamed. I put a tad of my mother's perfume that had the wonderful fragrance of wild lilies and sweet mint. My mother only wore it on special occasions and tonight she was letting me wear it. Wearing mother's perfume made me want to feel grown up. I then pulled my hair up in a twist as I had watched my older sister do a thousand times and hoped no one would notice that a few strands fell out around my face. I pinched my cheeks in the way my sister had shown me so they would look more rosy and clasped mother's pearl necklace around my neck. I placed my hand over them rubbing the pearls ever so lightly with the tips of my fingers. Mother only owned two necklaces her locket, that carried father's picture and never came off her neck and this pearl necklace, it was the one she had married father in and was her only real luxury in life. She didn't even let Laurel wear them to her first ball but she was letting me and I knew how important that was.

"Emmy," mother's call to me hastened my step.

I looked at myself quickly and even snagged a glance in the small hand mirror to correct any little flaws I could and then got up from the vanity. 'I hope I remember this night forever,' I thought took a deep breath and adjusted my dress one last time and then left the room as my mother called for me again.