Vanity

Walking upstairs to her bedroom, Lisa Blum imagines what her night is going to be like as she slides her freshly manicured hand up the polished wood banister. She daydreams of her date arriving at her ornately carved entry doors, his arms filled with vibrant roses, dressed in a sharp black Armani suit. He takes her by the arm and leads her to the passenger side of his expensive sport car. She lifts her dress and elegantly slides down into the leather seat. Inside the large foyer of her house, metal vines wrap around the rungs of a long winding stairway. She passes by the framed family photos hanging in the hallway, all poses displaying her various stages of life as the only child of a wealthy couple. Large windows adorned with tasteful draperies partially block the view of the passing boats along the intracoastal way. She stops for a second to notice her mother lying by the pool under a giant, tan umbrella shielding her from the radiant Palm Beach sun. It upsets Lisa to see that her mother has returned from a long vacation and did not bother to see her. I take it mother does not care enough to say hello, she thought. Oh well, at least I get to go out for an exciting night; she will be jealous. Having justified her reasoning, Lisa skips off to her room ignoring the bitter feelings she has towards her mother.

Lisa enters her oversized room with lavender walls matching the silk comforter on her bed and heads straight to her walk in closet. Lisa’s clothing and shoes are organized by style, designer, and color. Her wardrobe accessories are neatly arranged in crème color armoires. Umbrellas of different size, shape and color are neatly lined in her closet. Lisa admires her extensive collection and envisions different outfit choices for each umbrella. The majority of her collection consists of umbrellas her father has brought home from places all around the world. She sits down on the long narrow bench in the center of the closet and wonders which dress she should wear. She decides that wearing a new outfit is necessary for the occasion because in order to have a good time she must look her best, and partly because it will help ease the displeasure she feels from mothers recent return.

As the day before her date night progresses, she continually wonders what is going to take place. She feels as if she is living her entire life waiting to be escorted by a man with a resume her parents would approve of. Although she has feelings for the young man who asked her out, all she can help to think about is who is going to be there and what will the other guests think of her date, as if he was a paid companion. Feeling guilty about these thoughts, Lisa decides to search her mother's closet for an impressive outfit that surely no one else would be wearing. She hesitantly creeps back through the hallway and peers through the windows that overlook the pool, hoping her mother catches her sneaking off to the master bedroom closet as if it was off limits. Without surprise, Lisa’s mother has not appeared to have moved since she last saw her. Again disappointed by her mother’s disregard, she hurriedly sets foot into her parents’ monstrous suite and rushes straight for the closet. She snatches the newest edition to her mother’s wardrobe, with the price tag still attached, and muses, I have no need to worry about returning the dress like most other teenage daughters borrowing from their mothers, she will not even notice its disappearance.

With only two hours remaining until her date is due to arrive, Lisa becomes overwhelmed with a brief surge of adrenalin, then saunters back to her room for what she always considers the most exciting part of the night. She lays out her entire outfit, jewelry and all, on her bed and steps back to take a final look. Perfect, she thinks, feeling less pleasure and thrill than her normal reaction. In her bathroom she plugs in her curling irons into an outlet and sits down in a heap onto the stool in front of her vanity mirror as if these rituals were monotonous chores. She runs a giant, wooden brush through her hair, slowly letting the bristles massage her scalp. Starting from the bottom to the top, Lisa rolls her hair around individual curling rolls and watches the steam rise quickly to the lights in the ceiling then disappear. Next, she begins the procedure of applying her makeup, starting with one eye then the other, carefully imitating the makeup consultant lessons over the years. Afterwards, she unrolls the curlers in her hair and dresses very carefully, not to ruin her makeup. She stands admiringly in front of the tall hanging mirror, assesses her final appearance, and leaves her room with a quick turn down the stairs, fighting the temptation to glimpse out of the hallway window.

Lisa carefully sits in her living room, trying not to wrinkle the back of her dress, and picks up the latest fashion magazine. She quickly flips through the pages, looking disinterestedly at the photographs. She looks up at the massive clock hanging above the fireplace over and over, but only a minute passes. Lisa carefully removes her shoes and rests her legs on the antique table in front of the couch. Now in a more comfortable position, she waits thirty minutes, then an hour. After the second hour passes, she realizes that her date is not going to arrive. Lisa wonders, has a man just stood me up for the first time in my life? Is this the feeling girls experience when they are unwanted by a guy? She glances up to the clock for the last time, recognizing that the event has already started without her and begins to weep. She does not bother to wipe away her tears as they swell in her eyes and run down her face in black unattractive streaks. She collects her shoes and the stray pieces of jewelry she slowly disassembled from her outfit, and returns back to her room. Although she was disappointed at first, a wave of relief passes over her as she ascends the stairs. In front of the lengthy mirror in her bedroom, she turns and unzips her mother’s dress, letting it fall to the ground. Lisa leaves the dress on the floor and climbs into her bed. She turns out the lights of the lavender tinted chandelier hanging from the ceiling and immediately falls asleep having nothing left to think about.