Lourdes’s clothing allergy

       Elly arrived with Lourdes in tow, Elly with the scent of a recently-snuffed cigarette.  “She’s got quite a fan club at the mall,” she said.  This seemed to embarrass Lourdes a bit, a feeling that was overcome by hunger.  “Rice with pollo,” she said, plowing into the plate Sherry set before her.  “Gracias.”

        “De nada,” Sherry said, proud at knowing this much Spanish.

        Dareen noticed that Lourdes’s bikini top and shorts had undergone some modification, by Elly no doubt.  The advance of the poor girl’s clothing allergy had required yet more cutting away of covering.  The bikini top had tinier strings now.  They were now hardly thicker than a single thread.  And the micro-shorts, already so low-rise that Lourdes’s butt crack almost showed even when standing, had been cut on the sides, some fabric removed so that one could see the bare sides of the teenager’s hips, interrupted only by a sturdy cord of denim across the top and the bottom.  The shorts were so tiny anyway that the cords were only about six inches apart.  Looking down, she saw Lourdes’s flip-flops had changed; they were now a little dressier, with thong straps even more slender than the basic Old Navy ones she had been wearing.  Dareen wondered how long this could go on, how long the girl’s outfit would stay legal.

        A couple of days ago Elly had told Dareen that when picking Lourdes up from her job at the bikini store a policeman had stopped them and made a comment about Lourdes’s minimal clothing.  “You shouldn’t go around like that, Miss, it’s almost against the law.  I have to warn you.  Don’t take this the wrong way.”  Elly took it very much the wrong way, though was smart enough not to get into a fight with a cop.  It got Dareen thinking.  She did an internet search and found the city ordinance regarding indecent exposure.  The nipples had to be covered, and the “genitals”, which when she did a further search, turned out to be the vagina plus the anus.  She printed the ordinance out and gave it to Lourdes, much to the girl’s embarrassment, but Dareen explained that it was necessary in case another cop gave her a hard time.  “Just show them this and they’ll know you’re totally legal.  And proper,” she added.  Lourdes reluctantly folded it up into one of the tiny pockets in her shorts.

        Indecent exposure wasn’t Lourdes’s only problem.  School would start in only a couple of weeks.  The weather would get cold.  The bikini store in the outdoor mall would close.  And then what?  Dareen knew it was on the girl’s mind, as well as the mind of everyone else.  It was an unspoken problem that everyone was working on in their heads.