Free Enchanting Lily by Anjali Banerjee

would have to help Ida on her own.
Something pretty and unique. A shape. Hope. The impossible.
    “I have an idea for you.” Lily brought out a yellow andblack chiffon dress that tapered in at the waist. “I’m not sure about the size, but I have a feeling it will highlight your beauty.”
    Ida’s face lit up. “Beauty?” She seemed to hold on to the word as if it were a life jacket keeping her afloat.
    “Yes, um…” Lily looked over at the cat, who was busy grooming her face. Her fur shone silver in the pale autumn sunlight. “The cat pointed this one out.”
    Ida’s eyes widened. She glanced at the cat, then whispered to Lily, “The kitty talks to you? I knew it.”
    “Well, she doesn’t talk, exactly, but we communicate by…squinting. Yes, squinting. The cat squints at a dress—”
    “And you have to pick it!”
    Lily nodded, feeling foolish for lying. “This is a silk chiffon sunshine dress from the fifties. Grecian style with the pleated bodice. The back zipper was probably added later.”
    Ida flipped the dress over. “How interesting about the zipper. So the cat thought this would make me beautiful?”
    “Highlight the beauty already inside you.”
There, that sounded better.
“Each piece is one of a kind, so I don’t have other sizes.”
    “I’m not worried.” Ida winked at the cat, as if the two shared a secret, then lumbered toward the fitting room.When she finally came out, the dress had transformed her in an indefinable way.
    “Heavenly,” Ida said, standing stiffly in front of the mirror. She had begun to take shape. She curved in at the waist. She had discernible cleavage. Her ankles showed. They were surprisingly thin.
    She sucked in her belly, puffed out her chest. “You can fix the waist, can’t you?”
    Such a thing could be done, but the dress needed more fabric. “That kind of silk is hard to find these days.”
    “Can’t you order it in?”
    “It would be difficult. Dress fabrics aren’t like shades of paint that you can mix. The colors won’t match up.”
    Ida rested her hands on her hips, then let out a long breath. “Ah, well, maybe I could buy the dress as is. I’ll lose weight. I’ll go on another diet, but not that Atkins one this time.”
    Lily knew diets rarely worked. What needed to change was one’s lifestyle. Grief could work wonders, for example, to help a woman grow thin. “It’s entirely up to you,” she said.
    “Let me think about it.” As Ida went back to change, Lily wondered if she should have tried harder to make the dress fit. Could she have offered alterations, but what would she have done about matching the fabric?
    Ida stayed in the dressing room so long, Lily began to worry. Finally the door squeaked open, and Ida shuffled out, still in the dress, her face red. “I’m afraid I can’t, um, get this thing off. The zipper is stuck.”
    “Turn around. Let me try.” Lily pulled at the zipper, but the dress seemed fused to Ida’s body. “No dice, I’m afraid.”
    Ida’s chin trembled. “Try again.”
    Lily tried again and again, without success. A cool breeze wafted over her, although the door was shut. The hair rose on her arms. “We’ll figure this out,” she said, stepping back. “Maybe try pulling the dress up over your head?”
    “I tried that. It’s stuck on my hips.”
    Lily had been certain the dress would fit. She tried the zipper several more times. Ida tried pulling off the dress to no avail.
    “There’s one thing we can do, but it’s a bit radical,” Lily said finally. The cat sat upright, nose to the air. Her ears twitched as she looked around, then she shot an upward glance at nothing.
    “What do you have in mind?” Ida said, her eyes pleading.
    “Stay here.” Lily headed back to the office, her heart pounding, and rummaged in her desk drawers. She grabbeda pair of fabric scissors and returned to the shop. “I’m so sorry, but I can’t see an alternative. I’m not sure how to go about doing this, but