Savage Land by Janet Dailey Page B

stylist was talking, a brush was vigorously going through Coley's hair. It was replaced by a comb and the styling began. With miraculous flips of the wrist, feathers of hair curled here and there, changing from wayward wisps to flattering waves. Her reflection no longer showed a thin, angular face, but a delicate and attractive face with an awed expression transparently obvious in the rounded eyes.
    'Aunt Willy, is that really me?’ Coley exclaimed, half fearfully.
    'Yes, dear,’ her aunt answered, her red lips smiling widely. ‘Gloria, it's perfect, absolutely perfect. You are a remarkable woman!'
    'So are you, Mrs. Granger,’ the stylist replied, basking unashamedly in the praise. Gloria whisked away the plastic cape from around Coley's shoulders and applied a healthy amount of hair spray to hold her creation in place. ‘You, little lady, are very beautiful. You deserve to be proud.'
    'Thank you, thank you so much,’ Coley answered breathlessly, not wanting to take her eyes off her reflection in the mirror.
    How long it took for Aunt Willy to be combed out, Coley had no way of knowing. She was too enchanted with the new ‘her’ to care. To Coley, in no time at all they were walking out the door of the salon and Aunt Willy was chattering about which shops they were going to and what types of clothes Coley was going to be needing. And Coley was swept, into another breathless whirl. It didn't matter what she tried on, pant suits, everyday shirtwaist dresses, party dresses, short sets, jeans—she looked gorgeous in everything. Once when she heard Aunt Willy tell the sales lady they wanted three more pairs of jeans and to show them some knit tops, Coley couldn't help feeling a twinge of guilt at the cost of all this.
    'Aunt Willy, this is going to cost too much money,’ she whispered.
    'Don't you be worrying about such things, Colleen,’ admonished her aunt. ‘You need the clothes and I'm enjoying every minute of it.'
    Coley was too. Never had she ever dreamed she could look as pretty as her reflection kept telling her she was. Each time she looked in the mirror she would reverently put a hand to touch her hair, the feathery, wavy strands that looked so carelessly wind-blown and free. But when she tried on the yellow whipped-cream dress with little cap sleeves and eyelet lace around the yoke and a pair of matching yellow low heels, she stood in front of the dressing mirror in a trance. She was beautiful, really and truly beautiful.
    'Yellow is your colour!’ Aunt Willy exclaimed. Her bracelets jingled loudly as she clapped her hands together in appreciation. ‘Miss,’ she called to the sales lady, ‘bring me that chiffon party dress, the yellow one on the mannequin.'
    'That will look very charming on her,’ the woman replied.
    'Aunt Willy, I don't really need another dress. This one is perfect,’ Coley finally managed to speak.
    'Nonsense. That's a perfectly good dress, but you're going to need a party dress. You should have several of them, bur we don't have a very big selection to choose from here. One or two will have to do for now.’ With her usual efficiency, Willy took charge of titling the chiffon dress on Coley.
    Aunt Willy was right. Coley looked and felt like a fairy princess in the dress. It floated in soft buttercup folds around her, softening the thinness of her body into an ethereal ray of sunshine, all golden and airy.
    'We'll need some accessories with that,’ her aunt murmured. ‘We'll go and pick those out as soon as you change, Colleen. With this dress, I think we've got everything you're going to need for a while. Change into that slack set, dear.'
    'Aunt Willy,’ Coley called hesitantly as her aunt started to turn away.
    'Yes, dear?'
    'I—I don't have a swimsuit,’ she stammered.
    'Oh, good gracious! I completely forgot about it,’ Aunt Willy exclaimed. ‘Of course you must have one. I guess I didn't think about you swimming.'
    'I—I don't know how yet,’ Coley answered, flushing