MaryEsther looked at herself in the little mirror she kept in her apron pocket.
"Do you think I am still beautiful?" she asked Louise.
"What?"
"Wake up, Louise. I asked if you thought I was still beautiful? Am I? I need to know."
Louise stretched and adjusted her prescription stockings.
"Of course, you’re beautiful. Why do you ask?"
"I just saw in the paper that there’s going to be a beauty pageant at the fairgrounds next week. Maybe I should enter it."
"Why?" asked Louise.
"The winner gets a savings bond and a kiss from the mayor. What do you think of that?"
"You mean Charlie Fletcher would kiss me if I was the winner?"
"I mean he would kiss me if I was the winner. That’s what I mean. So I need to know...Am I still beautiful?"
Louise thought for a moment. This was becoming complicated.
"Why can’t we enter the contest together? Then we could both have the savings bond, and Charlie could kiss both of us."
"That’s a good idea. It would be much more fun if we both did it. And you’re beautiful. I always thought so. Especially when you get all those hairs between your eyebrows and use your wrinkle cream."
"We’ll need new clothes. That will cost money."
"Not if we go to the Salvation Army store. They always have fancy dresses."
"In our sizes?"
"Hmmm," said MaryEsther. "That could be a problem. I think it might take two of them to get around me."
"That’s a brilliant idea! We’ll each buy two dresses and sew them together.There’ll be lots of room."
"But we’ll need make up. What will we do for make up? We don’t wear any. Just cornstarch to get rid of the shine. We’ll be under all those lights. Remember Nixon. We’ll need color."
"Let’s ask Shirley at the funeral home. She does everyone up so good."
"Yes, Shirley will make us look like beauty queens. Oh, I know we’ll win for sure now."
As the ice cream truck passed the house, MaryEsther and Louise could be seen smiling and snoozing, possibly even dreaming of glittering crowns, applause, and a kiss from Charlie Fletcher.
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