ALICE FAYE

Alice Faye had beautiful eyes

wide and blue

with a little black line around the pupil

that accented them.


Every time I looked at them

I thought of that saying

"Eyes are the windows to the soul."




But it was her mouth that you had to worry about.


She was a sugar and spice person

and when she opened that pretty little pink mouth

you never knew what might come out.


She might tell you that you had a spot on your dress

and that your dress was ugly besides

or that she missed you

when we were apart

for a couple of days.


It was an up and down friendship.


You had to be careful around her.




One day she told me that my hairdo

which I spent a long time on at night

wetting it down

rollering it

making spit curls near my face

with bobby pins


looked awful on me

because my face was too chubby.


So I had Mom put it in pigtails


instead.


The next day she came to school

with my hairdo

and spent the whole day

tossing her head

flipping the curls with her hand

and looking gorgeous.


I didn't walk home with her

that day.


I was so mad!




But Friday night

she invited me to a sleepover

at her house


and Mom said I could go

so I packed my nightie and my toothbrush

in a paper bag

and we walked down Roland Street

to her house

hand in hand

with the setting sun warming our backs.




She shooed her little sister out of the bedroom

and we lounged on the beds

watching the white curtains

blow in the breeze

and discussed the boys

in eighth grade.


I was madly in love

with a blonde curly-headed boy

named BJ

and she was madly in love

with a brown-eyed wise-cracking boy

nicknamed "Bonzo."


We made fudge.

We giggled so much that her Mom

had to get up from the sewing machine

and come into the kitchen

to see what we were up to.


After she left

we fell on each other

screaming and laughing.




She showed me all the clothes

her mother had made her

and I fell in love with a sailor blouse

that had a wide collar trimmed with blue rickrack

and red buttons

so her Mom whipped one up for me.


The next day was Saturday

so we got up and she made me a pancake

which she knew I loved

and we ate together


then I hurried home

to help Mom with the cleaning.




Later that day

she came by

and she said to me


"Lynne, I didn't want to say anything yesterday

but you look awful in that sailor blouse.

You don't have the right figure to wear it.

It makes you look fat."


I stomped off

mad as a wet hen

because I loved that blouse

and now I couldn't wear it.


She had ruined it for me.






But by Sunday morning

I had changed my mind.

I wore my sailor blouse

just to spite her

and I didn't care if it did make me look fat

because I was fourteen

and I wasn't about to let another fourteen-year-old

run my life.




She drifted in just as we stood up

for the opening hymn


and stood next to me

and our two voices

rose up in song

together

and when we sat back down

she leaned over

and whispered to me


"I was wrong about that blouse.

You look sensational in it."




After church, as we were putting our hymnals in the rack

and gathering up our Bibles and purses

she said to me

"I notice you're having trouble hitting the high notes

in songs like Wonderful Grace of Jesus."


"Unlike yourself, who always hits them?"

I asked.


She nodded.

"I do seem to be able to."


We walked together out to the vestibule

and out the front doors

of church.


We were best friends.





****************************************

Music playing:Wonderful Grace of Jesus


This page contains copyrighted material

Story taken from my actual diaries

Go to Page 39

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