It was green. The guy in the shop said lime green but I called it flash green, because if I ran really fast past you wearing it, all you would see is a flash of green. I tried it on and ran around the shop for a while shouting “flash green, flash green!” The shop assistant wasn’t impressed, but he didn’t understand what I meant. He just kept saying “Lime green, I really think it’s lime.” What a dope.
I stood in the charity shop mirror and looked at myself, took it all in. There was a jacket, the most beautiful jacket I had ever seen. The back of it went right down to behind my knees, like a proper grown up suit. There was a flash green dickie bow too. And the trousers, wow. They had pleats down the front and a silk stripe that went all the way up the side. They were too good to be true. I was going to be the best dressed twelve year old at the disco.
“I’ll take it!” I shouted loudly at the sales man, even though he was right beside me. I gave an old lady at the other end of the shop a fright but I didn’t care, I was formal and I liked it. All this for €20, it was meant to be. I had finally fallen in love for the first time, and it wasn’t with a girl, it was with a suit. And that suit was green. Flash green.
I kept it under my bed in a bag. Every day after school I would open up a tiny corner at the top of the bag, just to see a quick flash of that green, that amazing green. Then I’d quickly close it again, after that if I opened it too wide the colour would somehow fade and the magic would be gone.
Posters for the disco went up around the school. It was going to be in the main hall and the local girls school was invited. My first chance to ask a girl to dance with me. Finally the moment I had been practicing for all my life. I would watch the old movies and see how the gentleman would approach the girl, slowly, not menacingly, and politely ask her “for this dance.” He would then gently take her hand and float her around the dancefloor like they were skimming across a shiny frozen lake. I was ready.
When the night arrived I slipped on the suit. It was a little big but as I looked in the mirror I said “fits like a glove” to myself, like they sometimes say in the movies. I was the green James Bond. I was the green Fred Astaire. I was awesome.
I could hear the music playing from the bottom of the school path. It was thumping loudly and my stomach flipped. Maybe the girl of my dreams was already there, wearing a pretty dress, just waiting for her knight in flashing green. “Well m’lady,” I thought “I am on my way!”
Suddenly I felt something hard hit my back and I fell straight into a puddle. I heard a group of people laughing as they passed me, lying there in the muck. “Fucking weirdo” I heard one of them say.
I lay there for a minute longer, thinking about my suit and how great it was, then got up and walked home.
– Lucy Montague-Moffat