One weekend morning when I was five, I woke up as usual in our tiny half-dilapidated apartment. My father was still deep asleep, but both my mother and little brother were already awake. I heard them talking quietly in the next room, and I guessed that my brother was having his morning cuddling time with my mother.
As I became fully awake under my blanket, I thought I wanted to stay there a little longer, enjoying my private lazy moment before joining the family’s structured day. I especially wanted to indulge in my own play time before my mother started giving me instructions for the day, which usually involved my detested study time.
Nothing was more delightful than playing with my dolls when it came to my favourite solo activity. With a smile on my face, I reached for my toy box carefully not to make any sound. But the box was empty. I remembered that all my dolls were in the next room, where I had left them the previous night after playing with them.
“Bummer!”
I crawled back to my blanket and lay down, thinking hard what to do now. If I stayed there quietly, my mother would think that I was still asleep and I could enjoy some time for myself. But without my dolls, I couldn’t have fun really. On the other hand, if I went to pick up my dolls, my mother would see that I was awake and she would tell me to get changed and have breakfast, then eventually make me sit for my study time. I wanted to avoid that scenario at all cost. I lay on my bedding still, torn apart by the dilemma.
Finally, after what felt like eternity, I made up my mind to go and pick up my dolls from the next room. After all, it was pointless to stay in bed doing nothing. I wanted to play with my dolls!
So, I quickly ran to the next room, grabbed my dolls from the floor, and without words, I dashed back to my blanket. Within two seconds, I was back with my dolls. But of course, both my mother and brother saw me, since my dolls were right in front of where they were sitting.
“Oh?”
I saw them look at each other in surprise as I picked up my dolls from the floor. As I slid myself back under my blanket, I heard them talk about me.
“Oh?” said my brother again expressing his surprise about what had just happened.
“That was your sister,” replied my mother. “She was in a great hurry, wasn’t she?”
Then they started talking about something else, and I started playing with my dolls. Happy.
But that didn’t last for long. Soon, my mother came to me just as I had expected.
“Aren’t you getting up, Sweetie? I know you’re awake!”
“No, I’m not awake!” I said immediately. “What you saw just now wasn’t me! That was somebody else!”
My mother laughed and told me to get changed so that we could eat breakfast. As I saw her going back to the next room, a deep sigh of disappointment came out of my mouth. I wanted to play with my dolls more! But there was no crying over spilt milk. I reluctantly crawled out of my blanket and walked to the next room to start my day.