The Lilac Tunnel: My Journey with Samantha

The next morning, Grandmary asks Samantha and me to stay out from underfoot so Elsa and Mrs. Hawkins can finish preparing for Piney Point. I ask Samantha if she needs to pack a suitcase and she says that Elsa will take care of that. That’s when I realize that I haven’t really seen Samantha do any chores since I’ve been here. She has a servant to do everything from making her bed to packing her suitcase. That must be nice. But I wonder what it would feel like to have someone else packing my clothes and deciding what I’m going to wear. But a moment later, I know just how it feels. Grandmary isn’t going to let me wear my bloomers on the train. She asks Samantha to take me to meet their seamstress, Jessie, who is altering one of Samantha’s play dresses to fit me.

Samantha leads me up two staircases and down a long hall to the sewing room. There, I meet Jessie, a kind black woman. She stands to hold up a red-checked dress in front of me. She moves the fabric and says we can lengthen it a tad, and that’ll make it work quite nicely.

Jessie helps me try on the dress so she can measure the length. As I step into it and turn in circles, Samantha watches me, a smile playing at the corner of her lips. I bet she wishes she was trying on my clothing instead. Something tells me Samantha would wear bloomers every day if she could. And after trying on the heavy dress, with the pinafore on top and three layers of undergarments, I agree with Samantha. It’s a warm summer day outside, and I’m already starting to sweat.