TRDC - The Fairy Princess Dress.

This weeks prompt: Write a piece - 600 word limit - about finding a forgotten item of clothing in the back of a drawer or closet. Let us know how the item was found, what it is, and why it's so meaningful to you or your character.

It's a good thing that I had thrown all the clothes into a pile in the middle of the floor outside my closet because when I flopped to the floor in "Muffin Top Despair" it softened the landing. Perspiration and frustration gave my face a glowing sheen as I rolled my eyes at my reflection in the full length mirror on the closet door. I puckered my lips and blew up my cheeks until I resembled the Pillsbury Dough Boy, which is exactly who I felt like. My oldest two daughters came wandering in the bedroom to see what I was up to and flopped into the pile of clothes beside me.

"Whatcha doin Mommy"

"Mommy is trying to find something to look pretty in so I can go on a date with Daddy and knock    his socks off."

"You gonna take his socks off?"

Giggles filled the room as they imagined Mommy wrestling Daddy to get his socks off. My big eyed 3 year old in all of her fashion sense that thinks snow boots, tutus and undershirts is the new "black dress" began to hold up some of the items discarded in the floor.

"What 'bout this? This pretty? This take socks off?"

Her chatter continued as my 5 year old began to look at the items still dangling from the hangers in the closet. She reached in the back and tugged until the velvety blue dress fluttered to the floor. Her fingers rubbed the soft, luxurious fabric and I heard her suck her breath in.

"Ohhhh Mommy, it's a princess dress"

"I can't wear that one sweetie, I've grown a bit since I wore it last time."


"Please Mommy, be a princess."

Her deep brown eyes pierced mine as I took it from her hands where she offered it as though it was some type of magic fabric. How on earth do you explain "Fat" to such young girls? How do you explain what they did to your bodies for 9 months and how nothing is where it used to be? Deciding to just humor her for a moment I began to slip into the soft folds. Slipping isn't quite the right word. Slipping into it is what I used to do 5 years and 3 kids ago. This was more like shoving biscuit dough back into a popped can. I finally got it all the way up but there was no way the zipper was going to budge an inch up the back.

"Mommy! You are beautiful like a fairy princess!! Look at you! I wanna be like you when I get big."

I refused to turn around and look into the mirror. Looking at my daughters eyes dance while they grabbed my hands to dance with them, I closed my eyes and dared myself to see myself as they did. The dress had once fit a more slender woman. A woman who had control over herself and a confidence that dared her to buy the low plunging tight blue velvet dress. A woman who sat across from the restaurant table from her newly married husband and dared to run her foot up his leg while whispering bold innuendos. I blushed as I recalled that night and quickly opened my eyes back to the moment I was in.

That fairy princess that my daughters danced around was really there. She was in that moment. As I took the dress back off and hung it back where it belonged in the back of the closet, I was tempted to berate myself a little more about how I had let things go. How after having my 3 daughters nothing was where it used to be anymore...then I realized that everything on me had to move to make way for how large my heart had grown. A heart enlarged and overflowing with the love I had for my children. I may not actually be a fairy princess, but as my fingers rubbed the fabric of the hanging dress I prayed silently that my daughter would indeed be just like me when she got big. That she would be someone's fairy princess in a blue dress as she was celebrated for being beautiful just the way she was.

*This story is NOT fiction...I AM a fairy princess.