"It's fine," he said. "Compared to what everyone else is wearing, you're conservative. I wouldn't worry about it." Then he paused and said, "But you might want to iron your shirt."
"My shirt? I was nervous about the leggings. You're worried about my shirt?"
"Well, Isaac is doing the laundry," he said. "It's wrinkled."
He had a point. Everything is wrinkled. We got a new dryer a year ago, and that's when the problem started. Isaac refuses to put the dryer on the permanent press setting. He likes to leave it on "regular" which is great for towels and sheets and stuff like that, but it leaves us looking like we just rolled out of bed.
One of the last mornings of the school year, Henry walked out of his room, looking annoyed and well, wrinkled.
"All of my shirts look like this," he said, pointing to the shirt on his body that appeared as though he had been wearing it for a week straight.
I told him I was sorry. I said that while he was at school, I'd put all of his shirts into the dryer on the permanent press cycle, get the wrinkles out, fold them, and put them back in his drawer or hang them up.
He didn't respond.
I was busy doing something. A few minutes later, Henry appeared from the basement. His shirt looked brand new!
I ironed it," he said, reaching for his cold lunch.
In the seventeen years I have been Henry's mom, I have never known him to use an iron.
"Did you turn off the iron?" I asked.
"No," Henry said with a deadpan delivery, "I left the iron on."
"Henry!" I yelled.
"And I put it face down on the ironing board."
He picked up his backpack, opened the door, and left for school.
A few minutes later, Isaac stuffed his new bright yellow shirt into his backpack, the one he was planning to wear at school for a bit but will never wear at home. He has a few shirts he wears full-time, and this new one isn't one of those.
Later in the day someone sent me a text. It was a picture of Isaac at a worksite, wearing his new shirt, which was a big deal. I was happy to see it.
But then I looked more closely.
And just like all the other shirts in our home and the one I was wearing today on my walk, it was wrinkled.