Betty coughed, and then burst into tears. Her throat felt as if she had swallowed sand, and she imagined her mascara dripping and scattering like polka dots onto the dress. She tapped at the tears with her fingers, but then Georgia reached into her ivory satin clutch and handed Betty a folded handkerchief. Betty dabbed beneath her eyes, and then Georgia yanked her to sit on one of the matching twin beds they’d used for sleepovers. “You’ll see Doris soon; you won’t be far from her at all once you’re in Skokie.”
Betty shook her head.
“That’s not why you’re upset, is it?” Georgia reached her arm around Betty’s shoulder. “You’re going to be fine. You made the right decision.”
“Did I?” Betty gasped. “Maybe it’s not too late for me to go to college. I could say there’s been a change of plans, defer my admission. Do you think they’d still take me? I could go forward with my original plan.” Or at least a version of her original plan.
“Is that really what you want? Guests are starting to arrive.”
Even Georgia didn’t want to hear her misgivings. Betty kept her truths inside, where they disquieted only her. She fiddled with the one-carat-diamond engagement ring, not yet accustomed to its weight on her finger, or the intensity with which it sparkled.
Footsteps echoed down the hall. Nannie stepped into the doorframe. Four feet eleven never looked so tall.
Georgia stood and blew Betty a kiss.
The doorbell rang.
“Everyone should be going around back to the patio. It was right on the invitations,” Nannie said. “Georgia, would you answer the door and redirect the guests? I know it’s only a dozen or so, but I don’t want everyone traipsing through the house.”
“Of course, Mrs. Stern.” She leaned down to Betty’s ear. “You’ll be fine. Better than fine. You always are.”
The closeness should have comforted her, but her best friend’s confidence was unsettling. “Fine,” Betty realized, was subjective. Georgia sauntered away in her ivory satin slingbacks, her calf muscles still defined from a summer of tennis. She left the door open.
“Let me see you.” Nannie waved her hands so that Betty would stand. “Turn around.”
Betty didn’t turn. Instead she stood tall, with her back straight and her shoulders square. Her three-inch satin pumps meant she towered over Nannie, and it was Betty’s only advantage, even if imagined.
Nannie would have none of Betty’s resistance. Dressed in a royal-blue dress she’d made herself, along with a matching felt pillbox hat that had small white feathers on one side—the same ensemble she’d worn for Betty’s high school graduation back in May—Nannie tugged her in a swift but gentle motion away from the window, in front of the oval gilded mirror that hung above the dresser. Betty, Georgia, and Doris had always pretended it was the magical mirror from Snow White, even when they were too short to see into it.
“You’re beautiful.” Nannie sighed as she smoothed the front of Betty’s hair, which was unnecessary considering the can of Aqua Net that had already been sprayed on it. But the soft touch of her grandmother’s hands forced Betty to close her eyes and wish that when she opened them it would be June again, when she could relive the summer. A silly thought, a girlish whim really, but one more couldn’t hurt.
Nannie withdrew a small red ribbon from her pocket, tied it into a bow no bigger than the tip of her little finger, and then pulled a straight pin out of her hat. In one quick motion she pushed aside the neckline of Betty’s wedding dress and pinned the red ribbon to her brassiere strap.
“I don’t think you need to protect me from the evil eye,” Betty said.
“Kinehora, kinehora, poo-poo-poo.” Nannie sputtered the Yiddish words and spit the sounds that would ward off evil spirits coming to siphon Betty’s good fortune. “You know if you think things are going well and we forget to say ‘kinehora’ then something bad will happen.”
“I know.”
“Every bride wears a red ribbon. This way you look imperfect to the evil spirits. It’s extra protection.”
“Nannie . . .”
“All people will see today is a beautiful girl in a beautiful dress marrying a handsome boy.”
Betty rolled her eyes.
“Fine, he’s not so handsome. But handsome isn’t always so good.”
Betty turned away, the summer nipping at her heels, urging her to run. “I’m not so sure about this anymore.”
“I’ll tell you a secret. I had the jitters before I married Zaide.”
“No!”
“Yes. I was moving away from my parents. From everything I knew. Marriage is a whole new way of living, and I had no idea if I’d be any good at it. Or if I’d like it,” she whispered. “But if you tell Zaide, I’ll deny it.”
Betty smiled, the lump in her throat receding.
“The jitters will go away, and you’ll have a husband you can build a life with.” Nannie placed her index finger beneath Betty’s chin. “You are a very lucky girl.” She cleared her throat, and her low, firm voice cleared as well. “And do you know what else?”
“What?”
“He’s lucky too.”
Betty swallowed, blinking as fast as a hummingbird flaps its wings. But even with Nannie’s hand on her arm, and her grandmother’s attempt to soothe her, the distance between them had already grown to miles.
Nannie affixed Betty’s cap-style headpiece and pushed bobby pins against Betty’s scalp. The veil skimmed the back of her shoulders. “There. All finished. Now, look in the mirror.” She prodded Betty toward the rest of her life.
“You’re getting married. For heaven’s sake, smile.”
Betty did as she was told.
Chapter 1
BOOP
Summer 2017
Boop Peck had looked everywhere for her favorite lipstick. It wasn’t in the bathroom, or in her purse, bedroom, or pocket. She shuddered at the injustice: Boop remembered her first telephone number—359J—but not the whereabouts of
