She looked into his eyes and relented. Nothing bad could happen with him at her side. She nodded to him and they went back into the mall. Joseph led her along a line of shops, past a candy shop Rebecca would like and a toy store with a host of flashing lights and buzzing noises that would have prompted Molly to squeal in delight. They're gone, she told herself.
She stopped at a window with a picture of a blonde woman dressed in pink denim pants that barely clung to her hips and a white T-shirt with a glittery butterfly covering her breasts. The woman looked off into the distance, her face painfully serious, which somehow heightened how beautiful she looked. Here was someone pretty who didn't seem to care about it. Samantha didn't think she could ever look like that.
Through the window she saw more girls her own age prowling the aisles, holding up shirts and pants against their bodies and discussing each item with their friends. Samantha turned away from the window, wanting to run back to the parking lot again. She didn't belong here amongst all these pretty girls in their expensive clothes. She should go live under a bridge.
Joseph took her by the shoulders before she could run. "Samantha, stop worrying. You're better looking than all these girls. They're hideous compared to you."
"You're just saying that to make me feel better."
"I'm not. There isn't one of them I'd rather have with me. Stop feeling sorry for yourself and let's go inside."
Joseph tugged her inside, catching her when she stumbled. She kept her head down to avoid looking at anyone else as she browsed the racks. She touched a few of the shirts tentatively, as though they would bite her. "Oh for God's sake," Joseph said. He yanked a light blue shirt off a hanger, then a pair of jeans, and finally a pink jacket trimmed with white fur. "Go in and try these on."
"But-"
"Just do it," he snapped. She put her head down and plodded into a fitting room. After she took off Mrs. Pryde's old clothes, she tried on the shirt and pants Joseph had given her. She looked into the mirror and stumbled back into the door. Is that me? she wondered in disbelief.
She spun around in the mirror, amazed at how well the clothes fit. Unlike Mrs. Pryde's old shirt and pants, these complemented the new figure Joseph had given her so that she could see womanly curves like the blonde woman's in the window.
She opened the door and found Joseph waiting for her. The look of awe on his face confirmed what she'd seen in the mirror. "You look wonderful," he said, his voice like a gasp.