Double Take by Melody Carlson Page B

returned to the closet and peeled off the clothes, this time putting on some of Madison’s skimpy undergarments. It felt strange, and she could not imagine ever letting anyone—certainly not the whole television world—see her in these things. Then she put the blue dress back on.
    Now that looked better. Except for her bare legs, which, unlike the TV women’s, were pale. She picked up the black hose again, deciding she didn’t care if she was less fashionable than Madison. If she felt more covered in these stockings, that was her choice. Instead of the high-heeled shoes, she picked out a pair of brown suede boots that were actually quite comfortable. Then she found a little purple sweater that she put on over the dress.
    She looked at her image in the mirror again and frowned. She looked nothing like the housewives of New York City. Knowing it was probably hopeless, she decided she didn’t care. Perhaps she would pretend that Madison had experienced some kind of life-changing revelation, that she had decided to toss fashion to the wind.
    Because she was missing her kapp , Anna looked through a collection of hats, finally selecting a bright pink one. Before she put in on, she braided her hair in two pigtails just like her mother used to do when she was a little girl.
    She laughed to see her reflection now. She would probably scare Garret off with this strange getup. Perhaps that would be a good thing. Just for fun, she put a shiny red belt around her waist, then looked through Madison’s jewelry collection. Finding a big brooch filled with lots of colorful jewels, she pinned it to the sweater and nodded with satisfaction. She looked a bit like a rainbow, or perhaps like one of the more colorful quilts that she sometimes helped to put together with the other women in her community.
    To this colorful collection of garments, she added the orange purse that she’d been carrying all day. When she emerged from the bedroom, Nadya, who was standing nearby pretending to dust, stared at her with a shocked expression. As if she couldn’t believe what she was seeing.
    “How do I look?” Anna asked, suppressing the urge to giggle.
    Nadya nodded with a bewildered expression. “You, uh, you look good, Miss Madison.”
    “Thank you!” Feeling Nadya’s eyes still on her, Anna opened the front door. “See you later,” she called, hoping she sounded more like Madison than she looked.
    Anna pushed the only button by the elevator and waited for the doors to open and close. Nothing happened. She looked at all the buttons with all the numbers and wondered what to do. Put in the card and push 26 again? She was about to dig out the notes, but suddenly the elevator started to go down all by itself. She felt a bit nervous but thought maybe the elevator knew what it was doing. It stopped and the doors opened. Thinking it must be the lobby, Anna started to get out.
    “Cool your jets.” A short, dark-haired girl gently pushed Anna back into the elevator. “This isn’t the lobby, silly.”
    “Oh?” Anna blinked at her. She had very short hair, big dark eyes, and was wearing a black dress topped by a bright jacket of yellow and red.
    “Didn’t you push it?” The girl reached over to the row of lit-up number buttons, pushing the one with an L on it, and just like that, the elevator began going down again.
    Push the L button , Anna told herself, to go down. L must be for lobby.
    “What are you wearing?” The girl stared at Anna curiously.
    Anna shrugged. “This and that.”
    The girl laughed. “It looks like a Madison Van Buren original.”
    Anna tried not to look shocked. Obviously, this girl knew Madison. But who was she?
    The girl looked more closely at her. “Seriously, Madison, it’s not a bad look. Kudos to you for trying something new.”
    “Thank you.” Anna nodded, wondering what kudos were.
    “Too bad you’re not interested in helping with Fashion Fling this year.”
    Anna frowned. What was a fashion fling? Throwing