Lou Lou and Pea didn’t have far to go to Marvelous Millinery. The hat shop was just a few blocks from Lou Lou’s house. It was near Sparkle ’N Clean, their local boutique and laundry, and La Fortuna Candle Emporium, known simply as “the candle shop.” The friends took their time on the way, enjoying the sights and smells of their neighborhood.
“Mmm, fresh tortillas,” Lou Lou said as they passed the Castillos’ house and got a whiff of dinner preparations.
“Look, Lou Lou! They’re working on the Bonanza mural!” Pea pointed at people with brushes and cans of paint, hard at work transforming a bus station wall into art. At one end of the mural, the artists were almost finished painting the city’s founders, Diego Soto and Giles Wonderwood. Diego was an explorer from Puerta Madreselva in Mexico, a village named for its abundance of honeysuckle. He was the inspiration for the Bonanza honeysuckle and also Pea’s great-great-great-great-uncle. Giles came from Barnaby-on-Pudding in England, a famous millinery town. To honor Giles, it was Bonanza tradition to make and wear hats like the ones Pea was working on now.
“I can’t wait to see your hats and my honeysuckle in the mural!” Lou Lou said. After they completed the historical side, the mural artists would paint their vision of the upcoming Bonanza celebration on the other side.
One of the artists saw Lou Lou and Pea and waved.
“¡Hola, Sarah!” the girls called to the owner of the local community crafts studio as they hurried along to the hat shop.
When Lou Lou and Pea arrived at Marvelous Millinery, the milliner, Mr. Vila, was busy placing different hats on a mannequin’s head in rapid succession.
“No, no. Maybe brown, brown. Yes, yes,” Mr. Vila said to the mannequin. The milliner had a habit of repeating one-syllable words. It sounded a bit odd, but he wasn’t mad like some hatters, just marvelous.
The mannequin’s face was stuck in a permanent plastic smile, so Lou Lou couldn’t help thinking he’d be happy no matter what hat he wore. But Mr. Vila finally settled on a purple cap.
“Hola, Mr. Vila,” Pea said. The milliner, engrossed in his hats as usual, jumped at the sound of Pea’s voice. He turned to look at her and raised his black, bushy eyebrows. Mr. Vila was tall, with a shiny bald head. He’d once told Lou Lou and Pea that he thought hair was overrated because there were so many beautiful hats to wear.
“Greetings, Peacock,” said Mr. Vila, using Pea’s full name. Only Pea’s parents and Lou Lou were permitted to shorten Peacock to Pea. “Hello, Lou Lou,” Mr. Vila added. Lou Lou knew that Mr. Vila loved to say her name since it was already a one-syllable word repeated. Unlike Pea, Lou Lou insisted that no one call her by her full name, Louise.
“Hi, Mr. Vila,” said Lou Lou. She remembered it was still PSPP, so she asked politely, “How are you today?”
“Very well well, thank you,” replied the milliner. “Particularly now that I’m finished with this bowler.” Mr. Vila held up a tweed hat with a rounded top.
“Looks lovely! I brought some finishing touches for my swinger hat.” Pea showed Mr. Vila two ribbon rosettes.
Mr. Vila nodded. “I must say, Lou Lou, your friend is quite talented at making hats hats. I am lucky to have such a hardworking apprentice to help me prepare for the Bicentennial Bonanza.” The milliner absentmindedly plucked the purple cap from the mannequin’s head and put it on his own.
“You’re too kind, Mr. Vila,” Pea said modestly.
“And how is your honeysuckle going, Lou Lou? Or should I say ‘growing’?” Mr. Vila chuckled at his own joke.
“Positively perfectly!” Lou Lou replied, not bothering with modesty. “We’ve planted different varieties from around the world along one side of Limonero Park. It’s been a lot of work growing the honeysuckle from seed in the greenhouse, moving the plants to the park, and all of the regular pruning and watering, but it’s going to look muy bonita, if I do say so myself!” Lou Lou glanced at Pea out of the corner of her eye to check her Spanish. Pea’s heritage was half Mexican and she was fluent in Spanish, unlike Lou Lou, who was still learning. Pea smiled and nodded.
“Fantastic!” Mr. Vila clapped his hands. “This is sure to be the best best Bonanza ever!”
“What were past Bonanzas like, Mr. Vila?” Pea asked. The birthday Bonanza celebration for Lou Lou and Pea’s city was a special event that happened every ten years. Lou Lou and Pea had been babies during the last Bonanza and didn’t remember anything about it.
“Quite nice nice, but nothing like this year, I imagine. It’s the Bicentennial Bonanza, after all. And a two hundredth birthday only happens once in two hundred years!”
“Plus, we’re hosting!” Lou Lou added. The different neighborhoods in the city took turns hosting the Bonanza. Lou Lou and Pea’s neighborhood, El Corazón, was lucky that its turn fell on the city’s two hundredth birthday. “That makes it extra special.”
“Very true true!” replied Mr. Vila. He touched his head and discovered the mannequin’s cap. “Oh dear! I’d forgotten that I’d taken this from you.” Mr. Vila returned the cap to the mannequin’s head. “I’m sorry, good good fellow. How embarrassing for me.”
“It’s okay, Mr. Vila. As the designer Yves Saint Laurent said, ‘Isn’t elegance forgetting what one is wearing?’” Pea had a new book of fashion quotes, and she was excited to use them.
“Yeah, and as Fanny Flower said, ‘Worms can do wonders for the soil.’” Lou Lou wanted to contribute her own horticulture quotes, but they were more difficult to find than fashion quotes, so she’d started making them up. However, her quotes often didn’t quite fit the situation.
Pea and Mr. Vila both blinked at Lou Lou, but Pea quickly broke the awkward silence. “I’d better get to work!” She and Lou Lou went into the little workshop behind Marvelous Millinery’s showroom. Pea retrieved her hat-in-progress and placed it on the workshop’s wooden table while Lou Lou looked around. She’d been there many times before, but each time there were more hats stacked from floor to ceiling on shelves and in various cabinets. Even though the room was nearly overflowing with hats—each one a unique creation—Pea had them immaculately organized by color, size, and style. Lou Lou moved to admire the red section, bumping into a shelf on the way and nearly causing a yellow-hat avalanche.
“What do you think, Lou Lou? Should I add one ribbon rosette or two?” Pea asked, holding up the felted hat.
“Two,” Lou Lou replied. “You can never have too many ribbon rosettes.”
“I agree.” Pea examined the hat with keen eyes and chose the best spot for the silk flowers, right above the brim on the left. She picked up her needle and thread and attached the flowers with a few stitches. Lou Lou clapped her hands.
“It’s a masterpiece!” she said, pushing curls from her face and leaning closer to get a better look at the hat. “So many colors. You’ve really captured an impressive spectrum of roses.”
“What should I name it?” asked Pea. Like boats, flower varieties, and great works of art, all of Pea’s hats had names.
“Maybe something related to the flowers,” Lou Lou said. “That one’s clearly a Sunrise Luxury.” She lightly patted the apricot-colored rosette and identified the rose variety. “And that’s one of my favorite varieties, Lady Rouge.” Lou Lou pointed at the red rosette that Pea had just attached.
“How about if I name it Lady Lou Lou’s Luxury?” Pea suggested.
“I love it! But you don’t have to name another hat after me,” Lou Lou said, although she secretly hoped that Pea would ignore this advice. Pea had already named two hats for her friend. A top hat covered in pink tulle was Lou Lou’s Tutu, and a head-wrap-style one made from sari material was Bombay Bazaar.
“Está bien. You’re my best friend, after all. And I’ve made so many!” Pea gazed proudly at the hats. “Just a few more to go. I need to have enough for every person in El Corazón who is involved in the festivities. And that’s a lot of heads!”
Lou Lou laughed. “Should we go to the candle shop now?” she asked.
“That sounds like a fabulous idea,” Pea replied. She began carefully putting her hat-making supplies into a bin labeled with her initials. Lou Lou wandered back into the showroom and saw a petite woman with bobbed gray hair and a pretty red blouse greeting Mr. Vila.
“Abuela Josie!” Lou Lou ran to hug Pea’s grandmother Josefina Flores. At the sound of her abuela’s name, Pea emerged from the workshop to join in the hug.
“Hola, mijas. I was hoping I’d see you here.” Abuela Josie smiled, and her brown eyes crinkled at the sides. Pea’s abuela looked a lot like Pea except for the blue eyes, which Pea had inherited from her father’s side of the family.
“Did you come to see my hats?” asked Pea.
“I always love looking at your newest creations! But I’m here for another reason, I’m afraid.” Abuela Josie reached into her bag and took out a black suede hat with a thick silver chain around the bottom of the crown. The hat was definitely old, but it looked well cared for except for the big chunk missing from the crown. She handed the hat to Mr. Vila.
“Oh oh! My my!” said the hatter.
“What happened to it?” asked Pea.
“I left it at the city farm and stables overnight, and I suspect an animal decided it would make a good breakfast. It wasn’t in perfect shape to start, but it’s unwearable now. It’s my lucky vaquera hat!” Abuela Josie put one hand over her eyes. “I can’t perform at the Bonanza without it! No sé que voy a hacer.”
In her youth, Abuela Josie had traveled to rodeos across the country as a professional stunt-riding vaquera. She was most famous for her one-foot-drag, around-the-world, belly-flip combo, a stunt that Abuela Josie would perform for the first time in twenty years at the Bonanza. She said she was too old to pull off the belly-flip part, but she’d been hard at work practicing the one-foot-drag, around-the-world combo.
“Don’t worry, Abuela Josie! I’m sure Pea and Mr. Vila can fix it. Right?”
Mr. Vila coughed and Pea looked worried. Lou Lou immediately felt bad for sounding so confident.
“I’m not sure how…” Pea trailed off as Abuela Josie’s face fell even farther.
“Your abuelo, descanse en paz, gave it to me at the start of my vaquera career. I don’t think I can pull off the stunt without it.” Lou Lou and Pea knew that Abuela Josie was already nervous about performing her stunt after so long. Without her lucky hat, she’d be even more so.
“It will be hard work, but I’m sure we can do it,” Pea said. She was smiling, but her fists were clenched.
“Gracias, nieta. Lo sé, lo único que puede hacer es su mejor.” Abuela Josie gave Pea another hug. “Now I must be off to the shoemaker before he closes. My riding boots desperately need new fringe.”
“I was just about to go out for supplies, so I’ll walk with you,” Mr. Vila said. “We need to make at least fifteen more fedoras, ten more homburgs, perhaps nine nine cowboy hats, seven berets…” Mr. Vila was still listing hats and numbers as he and Abuela Josie hurried out the front door.
When they were gone, Pea turned to Lou Lou with wide blue eyes. “I don’t know how to fix this.” She stuck her hand through the gaping hole in the hat’s crown. “The hole will be nearly impossible to patch well. I can’t match the black suede since it’s so faded. I’ll let down Abuela Josie and she won’t perform at the Bonanza!”
Lou Lou put her arm around her best friend. “Don’t worry. I don’t know much about hat-making, but I’ll try to help. We’ll figure it out together!”
“I suppose you’re right,” Pea said. She still sounded concerned, but at least she’d unclenched her fists.
“¡Perfecto!” said Lou Lou. “It’s not a hatastrophe, Pea! Now we’d better get to the candle shop. PSPP is almost over!”