“Don’t be ridiculous! Good girls don’t climb fences and run wild!”

I could hear the sound of my heart beating hard against my chest, almost leaping free, like the curly locks around my face.

And as always, her thumb flicked open the dreaded envelope, and pulled out a little scrap of brown paper which said, “Bake a dozen cookies and have a tea party with your dolls”.

I couldn’t play with dolls when I had guppies in the drain to catch, and a baby bird out back with a broken wing!

“Good girls dress nicely, play gently, and smell heavenly.”

I dropped the fishing pole I borrowed from Uncle Lim’s shed and slunk towards the house.

“Make sure you shower first, put on a new dress, and comb the knots out of your wild hair.”

I kept the only thing that was mine – remnants of a dream of another life, wild and free – where all girls are good.

Cover image by Sharath Kumar Hari on Unsplash. The copyright of this piece belongs to the author of this literary work.  

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