Sitting in the one o’clock sun, she rebuilt her house, populated the yard with her father and brother and Calpurnia, put Henry across the street and Miss Rachel next door.
It was the last two weeks of the school year and she was going to her first dance. Traditionally, the members of the senior class invited their younger brothers and sisters to the Commencement Dance, held the night before the Junior-Senior Banquet, which was always the last Friday in May.
Jem’s football sweater had grown increasingly gorgeous—he was captain of the team, the first year Maycomb beat Abbottsville in thirteen seasons. Henry was president of the Senior Debating Society, the only extracurricular activity he had time for, and Jean Louise was a fat fourteen, immersed in Victorian poetry and detective novels.
In those days when it was fashionable to court across the river, Jem was so helplessly in love with a girl from Abbott County he seriously considered spending his senior year at Abbottsville High, but was discouraged by Atticus, who put his foot down and solaced Jem by advancing him sufficient funds to purchase a Model-A coupe. Jem painted his car bright black, achieved the effect of whitewalled tires with more paint, kept his conveyance polished to perfection, and motored to Abbottsville every Friday evening in quiet dignity, oblivious to the fact that his car sounded like an oversized coffee mill, and that wherever he went hound dogs tended to congregate in large numbers.
Jean Louise was sure Jem had made some kind of deal with Henry to take her to the dance, but she did not mind. At first she did not want to go, but Atticus said it would look funny if everybody’s sisters were there except Jem’s, told her she’d have a good time, and that she could go to Ginsberg’s and pick out any dress she wanted.
She found a beauty. White, with puffed sleeves and a skirt that billowed when she spun around. There was only one thing wrong: she looked like a bowling pin in it.
She consulted Calpurnia, who said nobody could do anything about her shape, that’s just the way she was, which was the way all girls more or less were when they were fourteen.
“But I look so peculiar,” she said, tugging at the neckline.
“You look that way all the time,” said Calpurnia. “I mean you’re the same in every dress you have. That’un’s no different.”
Jean Louise worried for three days. On the afternoon of the dance she returned to Ginsberg’s and selected a pair of false bosoms, went home, and tried them on.
“Look now, Cal,” she said.
Calpurnia said, “You’re the right shape all right, but hadn’t you better break ’em in by degrees?”
“What do you mean?”
Calpurnia muttered, “You should’a been wearing ’em for a while to get used to ’em—it’s too late now.”
“Oh Cal, don’t be silly.”
“Well, give ’em here. I’m gonna sew ’em together.”
As Jean Louise handed them over, a sudden thought rooted her to the spot. “Oh golly,” she whispered.
“What’s the matter now?” said Calpurnia. “You’ve been fixin’ for this thing a slap week. What did you forget?”
“Cal, I don’t think I know how to dance.”
Calpurnia put her hands on her hips. “Fine time to think of that,” she said, looking at the kitchen clock. “Three forty-five.”
Jean Louise ran to the telephone. “Six five, please,” she said, and when her father answered she wailed into the mouthpiece.
“Keep calm and consult Jack,” he said. “Jack was good in his day.”
“He must have cut a mean minuet,” she said, but called her uncle, who responded with alacrity.
Dr. Finch coached his niece to the tune of Jem’s record player: “Nothing to it … like chess … just concentrate … no,no,no, tuck in your butt … you’re not playing tackle … loathe ballroom dancing … too much like work … don’t try to lead me … when he steps on your foot it’s your own fault for not moving it … don’t look down … don’t,don’t,don’t … now you’ve got it … basic, so don’t try anything fancy.”
After one hour’s intense concentration Jean Louise mastered a simple box step. She counted vigorously to herself, and admired her uncle’s ability to talk and dance simultaneously.
“Relax and you’ll do all right,” he said.
His exertions were repaid by Calpurnia with the offer of coffee and an invitation to supper, both of which he accepted. Dr. Finch spent a solitary hour in the livingroom until Atticus and Jem arrived; his niece locked herself in the bathroom and remained there scrubbing herself and dancing. She emerged radiant, ate supper in her bathrobe, and vanished into her bedroom unconscious of her family’s amusement.
While she was dressing she heard Henry’s step on the front porch and thought him calling for her too early, but he walked down the hall toward Jem’s room. She applied Tangee Orange to her lips, combed her hair, and stuck down her cowlick with some of Jem’s Vitalis. Her father and Dr. Finch rose to their feet when she entered the livingroom.
“You look like a picture,” said Atticus. He kissed her on the forehead.
“Be careful,” she said. “You’ll muss up my hair.”
Dr. Finch said, “Shall we take a final practice turn?”
Henry found them dancing in the livingroom. He blinked when he saw Jean Louise’s new figure, and he tapped Dr. Finch on the shoulder. “May I cut in, sir?