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A wedding dress is free online. Under what circumstances would a woman, and one man, wear a free wedding dress from a stranger? Follow the dress as it graces the lives, filled with heartbreak and joy, of the novel’s diverse and captivating characters. Each chapter of The Secondhand Dress is a complete story following the dress as it is shared.
The last story is a holiday wedding impacted by a natural disaster and a community that joins together to heal.
Timely, contemporary, and diverse, The Secondhand Dress is a sweet, uplifting, heartfelt read of women sharing and caring for each other, providing a tonic for these trying times.
The Secondhand Dress is 80,278 words long, with no on-page violence or sex, triggers include a stillborn child, remembrance of domestic violence, and attempted gun violence. Copyright 2023, Dianne C. Miller
Recommended Market Value $2.99 to$4.99.
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First Chapter and Synopsis
Lauren
“I found one, and it’s free,” shouted Sarah over the screaming in the room across the entrance hall of her family’s large suburban house.
“Who drinks pomegranate juice next to a wedding dress?” wailed Lauren. “Oh, for Pete’s sake, why not have some red wine and cranberry juice while you’re at it?”
Tears streamed down Lauren’s cheeks, running her carefully applied makeup, “The dress is ruined.”
“Hey, I didn’t mean to,” her younger brother sassed with a shrug, still holding his glass of juice next to the dress, which had been carefully draped across one of two large floral sofas facing each other in Lauren’s parents' tasteful living room tidied for the big day.
“It's two hours to the service.” shrieked Jean, Lauren’s mother.
“How much did we spend on that dress?” bellowed Lauren’s father. “Just put my money in the street and set it on fire.”
“It’s free,” Sarah continued to shout, running across the front hall from the dining room in her peach bridesmaid gown. “A dress; in your size, free on Online Market.”
“She is not wearing someone else’s used dress on her wedding day,” screeched Jean standing in front of the fireplace, already dressed in her sparkling mother-of-the-bride attire.
“I’m not paying for another one.” roared Lauren’s father from behind the other sofa.
“There’s a photo,” insisted Sarah. “It’s not bad.”
“I don’t care; it’s probably from a divorce; it's bad luck,” yelled Jean at full volume.
Lauren wiped her weeping red eyes and looked at the iPhone her younger sister thrust in her face.
“It looks a little like mine,” she murmured.
“Heck, go get it,” barked Lauren’s dad pacing the floor behind the butter-yellow flowery couch.
“Does this mean I don’t have to wear that stupid penguin suit?” sniped Lauren’s brother.
“Shut up,” everyone else hollered, in unison, at him.
“Where is it?” asked Lauren.
“No,” interjected Jean.
“It’s in the city,” said Sarah.
“No,” repeated Jean louder.
Lauren’s Dad walked over and took the phone from Sarah. Looking at the address, he said, “That neighborhood is rough.”
“No,” Jean’s tone went up a few more decimals.
“We’re doing it.” Lauren grabbed her make-up case, purse, veil, and white shoes.
“Dad, take him,” Lauren pointed to her brother in disgust, “stuff him into his suit and get everyone to the church. I’m not getting married in a cocktail dress.”
“Come on, Mom, you’re driving.”
“No,” Jean whimpered and pulled on a light jacket over her long dress.
Sarah took the phone from her father and handed it to Lauren as the two women rushed out the front door.
***
“I don’t like this,” repeated Jean for the hundredth time creeping the family’s SUV through the neighborhood to which Sarah’s phone had directed them.
“Take a right here,” instructed Lauren.
Turning down a tired street of row houses built in another century, Jean tried to maneuver around the parked cars and narrow lanes. The porches on the clapboard houses leaned, and miscellaneous objects from rusted cooking grills to flat-tired bikes dotted the postage stamp-sized front plots. Lauren looked hard for the address on the phone.
Lauren called, “Look out,” as a little boy ran between two cars and into the street. Jean slammed on the brakes, barely missing the child.
“Don’t these people watch their children,” exclaimed Jean. “That’s why they’re all criminals; no one raised them properly.”
Jean inched slowly down the street, following Lauren’s directions.
“I don’t like this; it’s too dangerous. They’re all crackheads and gangsters. We’re leaving.”
“This is it,” announced Lauren. “Stop!”
As Jean protested, Lauren opened the door with the car still moving, and Jean was forced to stop.
Before Jean could utter another objection, Lauren rocketed out of the car and up the rickety steps of the tidy but modest home.
Looking across the street, Jean noticed more unattended preschool children playing on the steps of a semi-detached, two-story house in desperate need of repair, and she shook her head.
The children played rough, pushing and shoving. There appeared to be no adult in charge, and Jean’s face contorted in judgment. She turned to search the front door of the tiny home Lauren had just entered, hoping she would be out quickly. She worried if she should double park and go in after her.
Jean turned back in time to see a boy who looked about five-years-old grab a toy from a smaller girl and push her down. The curtain in the house's front window shifted, and the little girl cried.
Within seconds, a full-figured, middle-aged woman appeared in the home’s doorway. Swiftly stepping off the stoop, she snatched the stolen toy from the boy, returned it to the girl, scooped the boy up, sat him on the top step, pulled out her phone, and tapped it.
Then she turned the phone to face him and raised her hand with her fingers spread to show the number five. And then she crossed her arms across her chest and spoke strongly but not harshly to the boy, checking her phone every few minutes.
After five minutes, the woman bent down and looked right into the little boy’s eyes, talking firmly. Then she pointed to the little girl.
Shamefaced, the little boy sauntered down the steps and made what appeared to be an attempt at an apology, five-year-old style.
Jean had to smile. How many times had she scolded hers, telling them, “When I’m gone, you’ll only have each other.”
The woman across the street looked up, and her eyes met Jean’s. Jean smiled and nodded, and the woman’s face widened and warmed. She smiled and nodded back. The woman turned to offer one more admonishment to the children and went back inside. The curtains rustled and readjusted once again.
Jean turned to see Lauren bounding down the steps of the wooden house with a huge bridal keepsake box.
Throwing open the car's back door, Lauren thrust the box in and jumped in after it.
Breathless, she announced, “Not a divorce. They’re moving to a nicer place up-town, and it doesn’t have any storage space.”
“Have you tried it on?” asked Jean.
“No, start driving.”
“What if it doesn’t fit?”
“Start driving!”
Lauren pulled off her coat, then her jeans and top, and yanked off the box lid. The satin dress popped out like a prankster’s coiled snake in a can. Flopping around in the back seat, Lauren hoisted the dress over her head and down her torso. She shimmied forward and, with before-unseen contortion skills, she managed to zip up the back of the dress.
“It fits,” she beamed.
“To the church,” Lauren commanded as Jean pulled off her coat while driving to reveal her lavender mother-of-the-bride gown.
Jean and Lauren pealed with laughter as Jean swerved the car onto the expressway. Elated, Lauren fumbled through her make-up case for eyeliner and yanked on her crinoline while slipping into her shoes.
The mobile dressing room sped down the highway towards the packed church of waiting guests.
Synopsis:
- The journey starts when juice is spilled on a bride’s gown only hours before the service. The bride and her mother push the limits of their comfort zone to obtain the dress.
- A friend encourages a bride to take the dress to a destination wedding. The bride comes to terms with her role in the lives of others.
- A grandmother reveals a previously untold story of her lost love, and a mother tells her daughter she can accept her as she is.
- The dress is worn by a young woman with an unexpected pregnancy. Her situation rekindles heartache from her parent’s past.
- A middle-aged couple attempts to create a blended family on a cruise ship vacation, including a wedding performed by the ship’s captain.
- A heartbroken widow finds closure to the sad demise of her husband at the seniors’ prom event.
- A Quinceanera is made possible by a large, resourceful, loving family.
- Attempting to create the perfect Instagram moment, a mother must use clever deceptions to pull it off.
- A young couple with no ties to the community marries with the help of a church congregation.
- After an elaborate ceremony in another country, a couple renews their vows on a mountaintop.
- An environmental protester doesn’t wear the upcycled dress as she planned.
- A young man convinces an older woman to marry him.
- Aging hippies that never married need the help of their son-in-law to make their union legal.
- A young woman just out of the armed services finds support and help from the many veterans in the community.
- The dress is worn as a costume in a community theater performance that ends with a terrifying incident.
- Forced to attend a debutante ball to help her aunt, a young woman discovers the benefits of old-fashioned etiquette.
- After the sudden closure of a bridal boutique, five brides devise a way to share the dress over one weekend.
- A trainer of therapy dogs gets a run for her money with a new recruit.
- A photoshoot for a rainbow baby turns into a chance to make history at the local museum.
- The theft of a bolt of silk cloth leads to the cancellation of a wedding.
- A double wedding goes awry.
- A family member’s stroke forces a wedding to take place in a hospital room.
- An attempt to expand a photography portfolio with pictures in the park is a story on the evening news.
- Six recently divorced women have a divorce party with it winding down at the police station.
- The dress is worn in the finale for a fashion show that helps bring mother and son closure.
- A murder mystery night causes a couple to reevaluate what they want from their lives.
- A man wears the dress in a Bride’s March to honor his mother.
- Bridezilla torments the family while her dress is worn in a Halloween zombie parade.
- A woman orders her dress two sizes too small with the intention of losing weight to fit the smaller dress.
- A social media stunt barely avoids catastrophe.
- An older couple reunites after fifty years and continues their passion for helping others together.
- Two music teachers come to the rescue of a young girl without a confirmation dress.
- The neighborhood diner is forced to close due to gentrification, and their beloved comfort foods find a new home.
- Dressed as a birthday party princess, a young woman reassesses what she wants to do with her career.
- A sexy dress plays second fiddle to a more important family connection.
- A dying man wants the official records to document his love.
- A Christmas wedding is derailed, thwarted by a natural disaster, but the community comes together to heal and celebrate.