Shopping for Clothes with Bliss

Bliss needed some "date" clothes. Her taste in everyday-wear dismays me, as I've mentioned before. She likes beat-up Converse sneakers, holey jeans, and silly T-shirts with pictures on them.

But we were in agreement that she needed something a little more upscale to wear on actual dates with actual boys, and she had such a date coming up on a recent weekend. It wasn't my pay week and I'm diligently trying to pay off my credit card, so I figured I had about $40 I could spend.

"Can we go to the mall?" she asked. Though my bargain-loving heart sank, I agreed. But first, I suggested, maybe we could try Plato's Closet, which is a "gently-used" store that seems to cater to young people. She didn't seem too interested, but (probably to avoid irritating me) she said she'd take a look.

We went in and she quickly gathered an armload of clothes and disappeared into the dressing room. At one point she asked me trade the jeans she had taken in for a size larger, and when I went up front I caught sight of my reflection in the glass door. I looked old. My hair looked bad, and my clothes had done that trick where they look fine in the mirror at home and terrible out in public. I also looked exhausted, which I was.

I went back to the dressing room and handed Bliss the jeans. Then I stood nearby, waiting for her, and began to feel bad about things in general. What kind of mother was I to send this beautiful young girl out on a big date in thrift store clothes? What kind of life do I live where I work so hard all day and don't feel able to buy her something new? The excitement of her date would probably be diminished for her by the knowledge that she was dressed in second-hand clothes, and that would be my fault. I got a lump in my throat.

Then Bliss came out of the dressing room. "Both the jeans fit," she said. "But should I get this shirt or the other one?"

"How much are they?" I asked. We added up the cost of everything she liked. Two pairs of jeans and three shirts came to thirty-eight dollars. I shrugged. "You can get them all."

"Oh my gosh, this store is AWESOME," she said, with stars in her eyes. "I want to come back here all the time!"