The Dress That Never Was

It was a Friday afternoon. I hadn't left my room since waking up, so I didn't know what the sky looked like. My guess? It was probably painted with hues of blue and tiny dots of white. The house was as silent as a graveyard that even a whisper would echo loudly. I was playing chess on my phone when my sister called out to me. I don't know what it is with siblings calling their younger ones at awkward times. Just when I started a bullet chess game, my sister yelled out my name. It is as if she has a sixth sense for knowing when I'm super engrossed in a game and that is when she strikes.

"jusfavourrrrr!" She yelled out the second time.

"Calm down, I'm playing chess," I responded.

"Just pause it," she yelled back.

Let the record reflect, I have told my siblings multiple times that you cannot pause online games. It is simply not possible. How is that difficult to understand? You cannot pause online games! So, if they need me to run an errand, just do it before I start playing chess. My sister would have none of it that day, she kept yelling. I knew I was left with two options; let my eardrums get destroyed by her tiny voice or resign from the game and answer her. Unfortunately for my chess account, I chose the latter.

Grudgingly, I stood up and sluggishly dragged my legs to her room. The smile on my face when she saw me gave off the impression that she was happy that her spell worked on me. "What do you want from me?" I asked, looking directly into her eyes. Apparently, her friend was celebrating her child's birthday, and she wanted me to choose a dress as a gift. I have always been against the idea of buying things online. Of course, I have ordered gadgets online a few times, but when it comes to clothing, I stay away. It is a no go area for me.

They say you learn from people’s experiences. Twitter and other social media platforms are loaded with funny threads and posts about the perils of online shopping. Everytime I come across “what I order vs what I got” posts, I laugh my lungs out. The straw that made me vow not to ever order things online was when my brother ordered a brown leather jacket but got a low-budget mosquito-netted one instead.

On the other hand, my sister is an ambassador for buying things online. She prefers to buy things online than walk into stores. Her cell phone, shoes, jewelry, creams, and most of what uses were purchased online. She has always been this way for as long as I can tell. And I just knew that no matter how much I preached that Friday afternoon, she wouldn't listen.

After scrolling through so many options, we finally chose a pink dress. Just like the one Sofia The First wears, but bigger in size. I was surprised when she said the dress cost 25 thousand naira. According to her, baby clothes are expensive and truly, the one in the video was worth it. Since the online vendor was in another state, she told us that we would get our package the next morning. So, I got back to playing my chess and left my sister there, drooling over the picture.

The next morning was a Saturday. I didn't leave my house throughout the previous day, so that morning, I came out to steal a glance at my favorite friend, the sky. The sky looked lonely. There were no birds in sight and it was just there, minding its business. I went back inside, hoping that someone or something would brighten the sky's face with a smile before the end of the day.

Soon after, the delivery man brought our package to the doorstep. Whooosh! My sister was so excited. She couldn’t hide it and her smile gave her out . Moment of truth! As soon as she signed the paper, we took the package in to check it out. To our greatest surprise, we saw an entirely different dress. Although it had the same color, every other thing was different. My sister's mood nosedived. She went from happy Mario to sad and angry Mario. Not only was the dress missing some buttons, it also looked like it had been worn for years. We turned it inside out and saw that it was dirty. Heck, my sister paid 25 thousand naira for a rag.

She called the online vendor, and spent minutes yelling and yelling, but it was to no avail. I didn't know what to say. I was also angry and sad. Heaven knows I wanted to tell my sister that her stubbornness landed her into this, but I knew she'd transfer the aggression on me and I'd end up receiving hot knocks.

Thanks for reading.