Maxzyne Meets the Mannequins

Hurry! Pick a hat before she comes back out!”

Maxzyne spins the revolving hat rack. She skims over white bonnets with ribbons and pansies, straw hats with sunflowers, paisley, soft-brimmed newsboy hats, slouchy denim sun hats, neon visors, and baseball caps with “Cubs” and “Sox” logos.

“My dad took me to a Cubs game once,” she recalls. She tries on a cap and faces the brim backwards. “They had great corn dogs!”

“Just hurry, Maxzyne!”

“Okay, okay. Here’s one. What do you think?” Maxzyne tucks her braids into a woven, brimless, round hat with a flat crown. She wrinkles her nose at the round mirror. “Nope, this is so not me.”

Caught up in the search, Elise giggles. She reaches for a navy scout cap. She carefully tucks her blonde ponytail inside, shaking her head and mimicking Maxzyne. “This is so not me!”

Maxzyne ignores Elise and tries on a white sailor hat. She salutes her own reflection in the mirror. “Well, this would go with my swimsuit. But it’s really not ‘artsy,’ is it?” She shakes her head. She spins the display, spies a black, flat cap with a small brim, and puts it on. “Elise, I think I—”

From the other side of the hat rack, Elise plucks a safari helmet from a high hook. She arranges it over her ponytail and secures the elastic band under her chin. Then she leans forward, and Maxzyne laughs out loud.

“Elise, you look like Animal Apprentice!” she shrieks. Then she immediately claps her hand over her mouth. Together, they drop to the floor. They scurry under a rack of clothes in a muffled fit of giggles.

“What do you mean?” Elise whispers. “Real animals don’t wear hats, do they?”