Lacey looked at herself in the mirror. "It's a real nice dress, I like it!" she said, turning this way and that. "And it's even got little red and white stripes on it! It really is a candy stripe dress!" She grinned at herself. "I guess it's actually a skirt with a blouse, but they match so it looks like a real dress. I'm glad it's not like the old-fashiony kind they used to have like in the picture - a 'pinafore' they called it. That sort of looked like Bo-peep or Little Miss Puffet - or is it Muffet? Whatever, that one was sort of like an apron that wrapped all around, with big fluffy petticoats! You couldn't see what a girl looked like with that."
She caressed her round, shapely rear and pulled at the waist and neckline. "It is a little tight," she said, cupping her hands over her breasts. "But this was the only size they had left." She ran her hands down along her sides. "That's okay, though. At least it reaches my knees. Wouldn't be good if it was short like this, the way I usually like it ..." She pulled up the dress six inches above her knees and grinned. "Oo la la!" she sang, and flipped the skirt up, flashing her white cotton panties. "Don't guess I'll be doing that much today!" She undid the top button of the dress, which exposed a little of the cleavage between her ample breasts. "There!" she said, "That's better, especially since I'm not wearing a bra. I guess it's okay if I bounce a little - nobody'll notice ... except for the guys!"
She fluffed up her long wavy blond hair, and clipped in the little pink barrettes that kept it out of her eyes. Her friend Alicia told her to wear them, because she said a lot of men like how that looks, cute and innocent like a little girl. And she knew it was true - she'd seen how men stare at her on the bus, especially when she was sucking on a lollipop. "Alicia is so smart!" she often thought to herself. "Of course I'm not really a little girl," she thought now, "not with these ..." She grasped her breasts and lifted them up to the mirror. "Nope, no little girl is this big."
She thought about makeup, but then decided that she probably shouldn't wear it in places like the hospital she was going to today. Her lips were naturally pink, anyway. She puckered a little kiss at herself in the mirror and giggled.
She was so glad she was paying attention in church that day when Pastor Ted was talking about doing service to the community. "That's what I want to do," she decided. "I want to do nice things for people!" And wouldn't you know it, the very next day Alicia told her about the hospital looking for candy striper girls. At first she thought it was something about candy canes, but Alicia told her no, they were high school girls who volunteered to help at the hospital, bringing people drinks and books and magazines, or helping out in other ways. The candy stripe name meant the dresses they wore. "Oh! I see now!" She called the number Alicia gave her, and they said okay - she could be a candy striper!
It was always high school girls. Well, that's exactly what she was - next year she'd be a senior. She should have graduated already, but she had to stay back in the seventh grade. The math was so hard! She just couldn't get it, even though a nice eighth-grader named Jason would come by after school to help her. He'd try to explain it to her while she sat on his lap staring down at the page and listening to him. He used to keep his hands on her chest while she sat there, so she wouldn't fall off of his lap, he said. He was so nice! But the lessons hadn't helped, and she stayed back. Now the other kids are going off to college or working somewhere and she's still in high school. Oh well.
But the summer was going to be so cool! She'll meet the other kids and the hospital people at the school at 8:30 and they'd go to the hospital for a tour and their first day of being candy stripers. She could hardly wait! After that they'd decide when they want to go to work every day. Well, actually, she supposed the hospital people would decide that; whatever was okay with her. "And I really like this dress!"
* * * * *
The first day was just a tour around the hospital, finding out where things were, like the drinks and plastic cups, and the places where the books and magazines were kept. The girls weren't allowed to do the things that nurses do, of course, but Lacey was glad that she'd be allowed to go around talking to people, make them comfortable, things like that, try to make them happy even though a hospital is not a really happy place to be. And these were all things that she could do, she certainly didn't need math for that. The patients in the rooms seemed to like her, especially the older men - she liked them, too, they reminded her of her grandfather, the one who was still alive. Most of them smiled when they saw her; one of them even patted her rear - so cute!
Lacey got a big surprise when she and the other girls were led into one particular room, meeting the three patients there. They were older guys, and they seemed very happy to see the girls, smiling and looking them up and down as they filed into the room.
"Mr. Slocum! Is that you?" Mr. Slocum was from Lacey's own street at home, down at the end of it. He lived there in a big house with his sister, Mrs. Losik - she had moved in with him years ago when her husband died, and just stayed. Mr. Slocum never got married, so they just lived together now, two old people who happened to be brother and sister. A lot of people thought that was weird, but Lacey thought they were nice. They were always nice to her, anyway.
So here he was in a hospital bed now, with both of his hands bandaged up like he was wearing white boxing gloves, and one of his ankles was bandaged, too.
"Lacey? Is that you, sweetheart?" he said, looking at her with surprise. "Well, how about that!"
She ran over to his bed. "Hello, Mr. Slocum! Gosh you look like you got hurt real bad. What happened?"
"Oh, an accident with my damned backyard grill," he said. "The bloody tank was loose and flamed up when I turned it on. Both my hands got pretty burned, and I twisted and busted up my ankle when I tried to run away from it. Real stupid of me!"
"Oh gosh, I'm so sorry," said Lacey. "I hope it doesn't hurt too much now."
"Not too bad, they take good care of me here."
"Aw, poor Mr. Slocum!" Lacey pouted and stroked his hurt leg, but way above his knee, far away from the bandage.
A nurse called over to her. "Come along, Lacey, we have more rooms to visit."
"Okay," Lacey said, then turned back to Mr. Slocum. "I have to go now, Mr. Slocum," she said, "but I'll try to visit you later, okay?" She ran to the group, and smiled back at him and waved as she followed the others out the door.
Mr. Slocum's roomates, Al Johnson and Jerry Steinberg, had had their eyes on Lacey ever since she came into the room.