Later that night, back at home, after her parents went to sleep the little girl picked up her very beautiful yellow dress from off of the floor where her father had thrown it after she came home from school with it all dirty. She made her way quietly to the basement laundry room. She then looked over the machines and found the soap and dryer sheets on top of the clothes dryer.
She then read the tag and did just like she learned in class, she opened the washing machine and tossed in her very beautiful yellow dress and with a little prayer pushed the wash button. When it started she jumped a little because she didn’t realize how loud it was, she always heard it from upstairs never standing right next to it in the middle of the night so she went to the top of the steps and sat down and waited.
After a little bit she got a little sleepy listening to the low hum of the washing machine and just as she was about to nod off to sleep she twitched awake with a jerk and she didn’t know why so she sat really still and listened. She leaned her head a little and yep she heard it again. It was her father he must have heard the washing machine and he was coming downstairs and making his way down the hallway. And she got scared!
Her father was angry, really angry. “What are you doing up!? Why is the washing machine going!?” He hissed at her so as not to wake his wife.
She was afraid, deep down afraid and as little as she was, she felt even littler and it hurt in the pit of her stomach. But when she looked up at her father, with her big beautiful eyes, trying to hold back the tears the look on her father’s face changed.
He asked softly “What is going on?”
So she told him about her dress. The most beautiful yellow dress ever. The dress that made her feel safe, the dress that made her feel pretty, the dress that made her feel smart, the dress that made her want to be nice to everybody around her.
She even told him about her young helper at school and how she was young but “she didn’t let me get away with nothing!” And how the young helper really seemed to care and made her feel good about learning in class.
She told him how well she had been doing in class and it all just came out, everything, about the bully getting her dress dirty, about how she heard the teacher talking about her, everything, and she was sobbing and sniffling all along the way.
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