When I was five years old, my grandmother bought me a Sailor Moon dress. It was a dress modelled after the costume of the character Sailor Moon, and when I wore it, it made me look like Sailor Moon. The dress quickly became my favourite.
Back then, Sailor Moon dresses were popular among girls of my age, and one of my two childhood best friends also had one. She used to wear it every now and then, and as soon as I got mine, I was also eager to wear it. However, to my disappointment, my mother rarely allowed me to wear it.
“That’s a special dress saved for a special occasion,” my mother would say to me.
One day, I got the permission to wear my Sailor Moon dress to go to my weekly YAMAHA music class. I was overjoyed by this unexpected luck. I went to the class with my two best friends, and when we came back home, I wasn’t yet ready to change into my regular clothes.
My friends and I were going to play in the park. When my mother told me to change before playing, I refused. It was such a rare occasion to be able to wear my favourite Sailor Moon dress. I had to make the most out of it.
“I want to play in this dress!” I pleaded. “I won’t make it dirty, I promise!”
“All right,” said my mother at last. “But you heard my warning, didn’t you? If you break the promise…”
“I won’t, I won’t!”
Thus, I happily went off to the park with my friends – in my precious Sailor Moon dress.
Once at the park, we decided to play our usual “Help Me!” game. It was a game we played on the slide. One person would slide backward on the slide calling for help, and the other two would try to rescue her. We usually played the game barefoot.
One thing that I did not notice was that it had rained earlier that day, and the place was all muddy. As I climbed the slide up and down, my feet caught the mud on the ground and in no time, my friends and I were all covered in mud. We continued to play until the dusk.
When it was finally time to go home, I looked at my dress and realized how dirty it was. Then, I remember the promise I had made with my mother earlier. Knowing how strict she was with promises, I walked back home with my head down.
At the door, my mother saw my soiled dress, and as expected, she refused to let me in.
“You stand out there and reflect upon what you have done!”
And she locked the door, leaving me crying and standing on the staircase.
Why did I make such a promise? I thought to myself as I sat down on the cold staircase in front of the door. Why didn’t I just change into my regular clothes?
But I wanted to wear the dress longer! A voice replied in my throbbing head. I sighed.
It wasn’t the first time my mother locked me out, so I didn’t exactly panic. I knew it was a matter of time before she would open the door and let me in. Sitting on the staircase, every moment that had led up to this point of misery played back in my mind like a slow motion.
That day, my mother must have been really upset, since she didn’t come to open the door for a long time. I had started to think about what to do with my supper if this situation continued when the door finally opened, and my mother called me in.
This case was officially closed after I laid out sentences of apology to my mother. After this incident, I somehow became detached from my Sailor Moon dress, and I was never as eager to wear it as before.