The Magical Dresses

By Inaaya Singhal

Once upon a time there lived a beautiful princess named Bella. Her father Charles was the king of a vast land. Charles’s wife Elizabeth died from a disease so Bella grew up all by herself as her father was busy ruling the vast kingdom so he didn’t have time for his daughter. One day her father gave her some beautiful dresses and said to her privately that those dresses were no ordinary dresses but were magical dresses. He said that the dresses were bestowed with special powers; like the golden dress would make her dance, the silver dress would make her laugh, the red dress would make her sleep, the orange dress would make her fly and pink one would make her look even prettier than what she was. One day she thought of taking a stroll in the forest and she wore the orange dress that would make her fly. She saw that a hunter was aiming his arrow at a bird. She immediately swooped and took away the bird and saved its life. The bird was grateful to Bella and thanked her. Bella returned to the palace thanking her magical orange dress which helped her save the little bird’s life. That evening a message came from the neighbouring kingdom that Prince Stephen was celebrating his birthday and everyone was invited for the celebration. She decided to wear the pink dress for the ball. When she saw prince Stephen she immediately fell in love with him and so was prince Stephen. He was enchanted by her beauty. Prince Stephen welcomed Bella and offered to dance with her. They danced like no one was watching. A few days passed by, they told their father that they were in love and wanted to get married. With the consent of their parents, they both got married and lived happily. One day Bella was really sleepy in the morning as she could not sleep the entire night. A peacock was screaming in the garden. Bella wore the red dress and went in a deep sleep and slept for the entire day. A few months later Bella delivered a beautiful baby girl and named her Alice. One fine day when Bella was away, Alice saw the magical dresses in her mother’s storeroom. Alice was thrilled to see the dresses but unaware of the magic behind them Alice decided to wear the golden dress.

She was astonished to find herself dancing right away. She didn’t intend to dance but the dress made her dance constantly. When Bella came back home she saw Alice wearing the golden dress so she was speechless for a minute. She told Alice to remove the dress right away as it was not meant for her. Alice found it fishy so she thought for a while and asked her mother, “mother are you hiding something from me”. Bella said to her “No!”. When her mother went to the kitchen Alice opened the cupboard and saw that the golden, pink, orange, silver and red dresses were labelled as magical dresses. Then Alice got to know about the magical dresses and said to her “mother I know what you are hiding the magical dresses for me”. Now Bella had no choice but to reveal the secret to her daughter but she told her not to tell anyone about it. Alice wanted to have those magical dresses. Bella told Alice that she would gift it on her birthday. Alice’s birthday came and Bella gifted her some other magical dresses. Alice tried the green dress which would make her play, the yellow dress would make her cook, and pink dress would make her run. Alice was really happy when she tried them. One day Bella’s foot was hurting so she couldn’t cook food. Now Alice would not like the food that butler used to cook, so Alice wore her yellow dress that could make her cook scrumpcious food. Alice made fried rice and munchurian. The food was so delicious that Bella forgot about the pain. Then that day Alice’s father knew that something is wrong. He was amazed to find out that his daughter cooked the food who was only six years old. The next morning when Alice and Bella were muttering about the magical dresses, Stephen quietly heard all their conversation. On a Sunday evening, Alice asked for some money from her father without telling him that she wanted to buy more magical dresses from her secret shop. Stephen didn’t ask anything and gave her the money. She went to the secret shop of magical dresses. Stephen followed her all the way to the store of secret magical dresses. Her father hid outside the shop and saw that she was buying some dresses. She bought a blue dress which would make her powerful, a purple dress that would make her study. After buying the dresses she went home and tried the dresses on and her father saw her wearing the purple dress due to which she immediately started studying. Stephen could not believe his eyes. Alice never studied on Sundays so Stephen asked his daughter that “Are those magical dresses are real?” Alice asked her father,“How did you get to know about it?” Her farther told her the whole story, “so are these dresses real?” asked Stephan “yes those dresses are real but promise me you won’t tell anyone about it” said Alice. Stephan promised Alice that he won’t tell anyone about it. Then Alice immediately went to her mother and said that her father knows about the dresses. Bella asked,” which dresses?” “The magical dresses” replied Alice. “Oh no!” exclaimed her mother. She was shocked to hear that Stephen knew about the magical dresses. One evening Alice went for a walk in the garden and she wore the blue dress which would make her powerful. Alice wore that dress as had gone for a stroll all by herself in the jungle. A bully came to her and pushed Alice aside and hit her head. Blood started oozing out. Alice was very brave and strong so she got up and hit the bully on his face. People like the hunter and the bully knew that there was some magic which both mother and daughter knew. They told everyone in the town about the magical dresses, so after all these incidents the magical dresses was famous in the whole town. Alice went back home and told her mother what happened in the garden. So when Alice’s mother saw that Alice was bleeding she immediately opened the medical kit and cleaned her daughter’s face and gave her delicious dinner when Alice’s father came from work he noticed that Alice got hurt so he asked Alice that how she got hurt? So Alice told the whole story. His father told them they are going on a trip tomorrow and his wife realised that they were really famous for the magical dresses and told her husband about it and Stephen replied that we are going out of town and nobody knows us out of town. Tomorrow morning they were in the airplane but they didn’t know that they are also famous in the other towns so as the plane landed there were reporters everywhere and asked them about the ‘magical dresses’ they no longer hid the secret. They revealed the secret to all the reporters. Later they were known as the magical dress family and they lived happily ever after!

By Inaaya Singhal