The Secret Garden

by

Lisa Bon

Evadne stood in her sleek, silk slip before the mirror in one of the dressing-rooms in Madel's Department store, deliberating whether or not to buy the sapphire-blue dress she had just tried on. Sho loathed Madel's, with its rows upon rows of mirrored cuticlęs, where customers tried on dresses without benefit of privacy because there were no doors. But today she had braved the impersonal stares of other women, and in the frankly curious gaze of some of their wide-eyed childron, to try on the sapphire-hued gown she had admired in the window. She hoped Jeanne would like it. Jeanno was always careful to comment when Evadne wore something new but, Evadno wondered, had such comments grown merely perfunctory because of their threeyear association? She knew the dress would attract admiring (from the butches) and envious (from the femmes) glances from the other girls at the party Saturday night, but this was of small importance. Evadne wanted Jeanne to be proud of her. She reached for her street clothes, but her hands froze in mid-air as she heard her name.

"Evadne 1"

The voice propelled her backwards in time--thon hurled her forward again into the here and now. She recognized Van's voice instantly. The interim of six years--or sixty, for that matter--would ne ver erase it from her memory. Summoning all the poise at her command, she turned to look at Van. Dear Vanessa A bit more silver in her greying mir, a few more lines around her ice-blue eyes, but still much the same as ever. Evadne was so stunned that for a moment she forgot her surroundings-even the fact that she was standing thero in her pink, diaphanous potti coat.

"Vanessa Aydrens: What are you doing in this neck o' the woods?"

"I've been shopping for a new Easter outfit. Haven't seen anything I like yet, though." Van consciously averted hor

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