Tiny Miss Beauty Pageant: A Short Story

The blue tulle dress in the clear plastic bag sat placed on the seat next to them with a small pair of nude heels sitting on top. It was a lot of fabric for not a lot of girl. Rebecca, a princess for today, was perched on the edge of a folding chair skimming the thin pages of Cosmo. Her mother’s oversized designer sunglasses were framed by bleach blonde tendrils all of which had been carefully placed, as today marked an important occasion. It was the day of the Tiny Miss Beauty Pageant and all the way from South Carolina was reigning regional champion Rebecca Mint and her mother. The duo had been up for five hours in their flickering fluorescent hotel room doing Rebecca’s heat-treated hair and show makeup. A compact resemblance of her mother, the six year old wore thick eyelashes and contouring on her cheeks to unnaturally
She sat in the second row, surrounded by mothers and fathers and sisters and brothers, all equal parts excited and irritable. Sitting with her legs crossed she shushed the much too noisy families as the lights dimmed. The back wall of the stage was lined with a thick black curtain that shifted when anyone walked behind it. The families settled into their folding chairs when a yellow spotlight hit stage left, where a beautiful, tall woman with curled hair and a pink sash on an emerald dress stood behind the podium. Her white gloved hand held a index card, off which her glossed lips read an announcement,
“Good afternoon, and welcome to the Tiny Miss Beauty Pageant! Thank you all for coming out today, quite a host of gorgeous girls are waiting backstage!” She cleared her throat and smiled as the black fabric behind her moved, “Now before we begin with the introductions, I regret to inform you that one of our contestants must recall from today’s show due to a medical emer-- illness, an illness--” The woman was cut off by a thin hand parting the black