Change Is Coming

Wedded Bliss Chapter 2

I own no rights to Meet Me In St Louis characters.

Once the new year began the Smith household was a flurry with preparations for Rose's wedding. Warren and Rose decided to get married at the beginning of April, two weeks before the Worlds Fair was to come to town. Esther Agnes and Tootie were excited for the wedding but at the same time were very sad because Rose was going to move into an apartment with Warren in downtown St Louis after the wedding.. eventually Warren and Rose planned to move to New York once Rose found a suitable job in that area.

One day the Smith family women went into town to go shopping for wedding dresses. Esther was going to be the maid of honor, Agnes would be a bridesmaid and Tootie was going to be the flower girl. Tootie was incredibly picky about what kind of dress she wanted to wear. It was nearly impossible to find a dress that suited her.

"How about this one?" Esther was with her younger sister in the dressing room holding up a yellow dress with a pink pinafore underneath.

Tootie shook her head. "I don't like yellow. It doesn't look good on me."

"Well how would you know? I don't think I've ever seen you wear anything yellow."

"I just don't like it."

"Won't you just try the dress on?" Esther begged. She hated when her sister was uncooperative.

Tootie still resisted.

'This is going to take forever.' Esther thought to herself. She held up another dress, a green one this time. "How about this one?"

Tootie still shook her head. "Green will look horrid on me Es."

"Your Christmas dress is green and you look fine in that." Esther reasoned.

Tootie pouted. Esther blew a strand of hair off her forehead in frustration.

There was a knock on the dressing room door. "Have you girls made a decision yet?" Mrs. Smith called from the other side of the door.

"No. Mama." Esther replied

"May I come into help?"

Esther was looking forward to getting a second opinion from her mother on the dresses she'd picked out. "Yes Mama."

'Lord knows, Tootie is driving me crazy.' She added silently to herself.

The door to the dressing room opened slowly and Mrs. Smith entered.

"What seems to be the problem in here?"

Tootie looked at her mother and said pointedly. "I don't like these dresses."

"Well how do you know you don't like them if you haven't tried them on yet?"

"I don't like the colors. Yellow and green don't look good on me."

"Hold on just a second, none of us have ever seen you wear anything yellow."

"That's exactly what I told her." Esther said.

"Won't you just please try the yellow dress on sweetheart?"

Tootie shook her head. "The green one will look horrid on me too."

"Well I'll go put these back on the rack then and look for something else." Mrs. Smith said.

Mrs. Smith left the dressing room and returned five minutes later with two other dresses one blue and one purple. "How about these?"

Tootie looked at the dresses, regarding each one seriously.

"Okay Mama, I'll try both of these on."

'Finally, we're getting somewhere.' Esther thought to herself. She was anxious to start trying on dresses of her own.

Esther went outside the dressing room while Mrs. Smith helped Tootie change. Agnes came out of the dressing room that was next to Tootie's. Her dress was yellow… similar to the one that Tootie had refused to try on.

"How does this look Es?" Agnes asked.

"That color looks nice on you. I only wish Tootie wasn't so resistant to trying on the yellow dress I picked out for her. You two would look so cute if you matched."

"I can try to convince her if you like." Agnes said

Esther shook her head. "She says she won't look good in yellow."

"Well how she know? I've never seen her wear anything yellow before."

Esther shrugged. "Well, apparently there's no changing her mind. Hopefully she likes the blue dress that she's trying on now. I'm anxious to try on my own dress."

"Okay Esther, I'm ready now." Tootie called

"So is Agnes" Esther replied

Mrs. Smith opened the door.

"Agnes, dear that dress looks lovely on you."

"Thank you Mama. Let's see how Tootie looks in her dress."

Tootie stepped out from behind her mother.

"So do you like this dress?" Esther asked

Tootie nodded. "I think we should buy this one. It looks really nice on me."

Esther was relieved that Tootie would not be arguing with her anymore. She went into her own dressing room to try on her own dresses. One dress was blue and the other was purple. Her mother helped her to change and her sisters would be her critics. Once she was in the second dress she asked Tootie and Agnes which one they liked better.

"Purple!" They both agreed.

Esther smiled. "I like this one too."

Satisfied with all the decisions they went to pay and then went home to eat dinner.

After dinner Rose noticed her sister looked sad.

"What's wrong Es?"

"Well it's just that I was talking to Agnes and Tootie on the way home and we all agreed we're all going to miss you when you move out."

"It's certainly going to be different not living here anymore. I think it will be a hard adjustment for all of us."

Esther felt her sister's arms wrap around her, she took comfort in her embrace.

"Don't you fret. You three can always come visit us whenever you want."

"Do you think you and Warren will stay in St Louis or live in New York?"

Rose smiled. "Quite honestly when Daddy first told us his job was transferring him I was really excited to move because I knew that would mean I would be closer to Warren. I have a feeling that we'll probably stay in St Louis at least for a few months. Warren knows people in New York that would be willing to hire me.. hopefully it won't take me too long to find a job."

"I love you." Esther whispered.

Rose kissed her sister on the forehead gently. "I love you too."