Devonne Brown

Image generated with AI.

Mavis eyed the red dress in her closet. The flowing skirt, bell sleeves, and boat neck made it modest enough to wear anywhere with a touch of mystery and sophistication. The problem was the red, proper etiquette dictated red shouldn’t be worn to a funeral. 

Bennie would have loved the dress though, he designed it for her after she’d lost fifty pounds, and surprised her with it on her birthday. It fit her like nothing she’d ever owned before. He told her she looked like her inner goddess when she wore it. She would wear it to his funeral.

Bennie had been her friend and hair dresser for twenty years. He made his own exquisite costumes for his drag queen performances and sometimes clothing for a few clients, if he liked them. He brought Mavis a purple kimono to one of their appointments, “I threw this together last night and thought of you. Wear it around the house, it will bring out your inner majesty,” he told her.

So, she did. And it did. She never felt more beautiful than when she wore that simple kimono of purple polyester around the house doing chores and piddling about. She felt like a queen. 

When she’d reached her fifty pound weight loss goal, he was ecstatic for her. “Sweetheart, you deserve something special,” and presented her with the most beautiful red dress and pillbox hat. “You do have the right shoes? None of these cloggy sensible things. I want to see pointy toes sticking out from under that hem,” he told her.

Of course she did. She lied, but she’d have them before the dress came into the house. Black kitten heels with pointy toes, shoes she could walk, dance, and make Bennie proud.

When Bennie met his untimely end with a heart attack in his sleep, the whole town mourned his loss. Mavis grieved the loss of her friend and selfishly thought, “Damn, who’s going to do my hair now? He’s the best. Shit. What a thing to think,” she thought. Mavis was angry with herself and angry for Bennie for dying on her. How dare he do this when she needed him. He wasn’t just her hairdresser, he was her friend too.