Anastasia at This Address by Lois Lowry

all day Saturday with a family wedding. But I'll plan to stop by briefly on Sunday, maybe just for a quick glass of wine.
    About two o'clock? I hope that's okay.
    My best,
Septimus Smith

11

    Anastasia frowned, and attached the back of the little pearl earring so that it would stay in her ear. She hadn't quite mastered earrings yet, the kind for pierced ears. It was very hard to find the teeny hole. But
there
—they were both attached, now.
    She looked gloomily into the mirror. There had been a time—was it only two days ago?—when she might have been completely dazzled by the sight of herself with those pearl earrings on and her long hair tied up on top of her head with the narrow satin ribbon.
    Now she just stared at herself and saw the face of a doomed person who within hours was going to be exposed as a fraud.
    Her mother appeared at the bedroom door in the flowered silk dress that she was wearing to the wedding.
    "I can't believe how gorgeous you look, Anastasia," she said.
    "Thank you."
    "Aren't you thrilled?"
    "Yeah, I guess so. Thrilled."
    Her mother looked puzzled. "Do you feel all right, Anastasia? You're not sick, are you?"
    "No. I'm okay." Anastasia looked at her mother. "You're not going to wear your hair like that, are you?"
    Mrs. Krupnik touched her hair. "I was planning to. What's wrong with it?"
    "Just that it's sort of old-fashioned. I mean, it's exactly the way you wore it when you graduated from art school."
    Mrs. Krupnik laughed. "I know. Your dad says it makes me look young."
    "Well,
that's
what's wrong with it, for Pete's sake. It makes you look too young. You're supposed to look like someone thirty-eight years old, not twenty-two!"
    "Come on, Anastasia, don't be such a grouch. Tell you what. If you hate my hair this way, I'll change it, just for you, just to cheer you up. How would you like me to wear it?"
    "Could you dye it or something? And cut it short?"
    "For heaven's sakes, of course I can't, not in half an hour. I'll pin it back. You have a phone call, by the way. That's what I came up to tell you. It's Daphne. She sounds distressed."
    Anastasia started down the stairs to the telephone. On her way she called, "And Mom, you should plan to wear dark glasses. It'll be very bright in the church, with Kirsten's white dress and everything!
    "What's up, Daph?" she said into the phone.
    "We'll be by to pick you up in twenty minutes. But I'm just calling you and Meredith and Sonya to warn you in advance that there's going to be a scene in the church."
    "How did you know?" Anastasia asked. She hadn't told
anyone
about Septimus Smith. "Who told you?"
    "My mom told me, of course."
    "Well, how on earth did
she
know?"
    "She doesn't know
yet.
It's when she finds
out
that there's going to be a scene."
    "What on earth are you talking about, Daphne?"
    "Frances Bidwell. When she stands up to sing, my mom is going to go berserk. I just thought I'd warn you, so you wouldn't be amazed."
    Anastasia sighed. "Okay, I'm warned. But I don't really think it'll be a problem, Daphne. There are going to be
other
weird scenes going on, believe me."
    "You don't think my dad's going to say Jeff's middle name, do you? My dad isn't going to say 'Neptune,' is he?"
    "Believe me, Daphne. It won't matter if he does."
    Anastasia said a quick goodbye and hung up. Upstairs she could hear Sam bellowing. "No one can see my tattoo!" he wailed. "It's all covered up by this dumb
sleeve!
"
    She sighed, and remembered that it had been only a few short weeks ago that she had been excited about this wedding. Even yesterday afternoon she had still been excited. But now it just seemed like a nightmare. She wondered if the bride and groom might be feeling the same way.
    ***
    Mrs. Bellingham was driving all four junior bridesmaids to the church. Anastasia had never realized before that there were so many details to sort out for a wedding. She had always assumed that everybody simply showed up at a church, or temple, or city hall, or whatever. Then