Highly Commended: The Dress Up Box by Barbra Vertigan

Category A: Older Adults (65+) Highly Commended (2024), Golden Tales Short Story Competition
Author: Barbra Vertigan

Fancy feathers, glittering wings

Crowns of gilt, enchanted rings.

A dress that floats and swirls and swings,

These and other wondrous things

Bring to life the world of dreams.

‘Grandma I’m a musketeer!’ Alexis dances out of the spare room and into the living area in a vivid swirl of pink and blue ruffles, a jaunty plumed hat sitting rakishly atop her bright, coppery head. Cheap clip-on earrings dangle and tinkle, bangles and beads clack as she steps forward lunging a plastic sword at an imaginary foe. Behind her, her older sister Amalie, in a sequined  ‘Frozen’ blue dress and golden crown glamorously drifts down the hall, lazily fanning herself and singing ‘Let it Go’ from the movie.

These two little girls aged seven and nine are fully in the moment. The Barbie Musketeer and the Frozen heroine are constructing a story between them. A musketeer who rescues her imaginary prince and the sister who helps her. Later they will sit and watch both movies on DVD. They will dance to the music as the films end. Loud commentary and frequent pauses of the films will ensure There will be a supply of snacks and drinks, at least some of them healthy.

My granddaughters are teenagers now. The dress up box was their magic carpet. The movies too, of course, but those acted out stories often happened without a movie as backdrop. Music was important. Fashion shows, royal balls, concerts, adventures in faraway places, doctors in hospitals, magicians and witches, all these and more came out of the dress up box.

A wizard with a magic wand

A fairy from beyond the stars

A girl who dances for a queen

An astronaut who flies to mars.

The dress up box, enchanted box, a portal to a world of dreams.