The Butterfly Costume

One Halloween my grandmother bought me a Cinderella costume, it was simple but I thought it was beautiful. I was over the moon. When my Mom came to pick me up, I showed her my costume but she didn’t seem to think much of it. She said “take a look at the costume that I made for you.” She showed me a yellow leotard, yellow tights and big yellow wings with blue sequins sewn on.  On Halloween day at school, we children put on our costumes and lined up in the cafeteria. There were cowboys and monsters and astronauts and more. At one point, I realized that everyone was looking at me. The children and even the teachers were mesmerized by my butterfly costume, especially the wings. It was quite a remarkable change from any other day. I was a shy and rather awkward child, usually made fun of or else ignored. So to have all eyes staring at me in amazement was astonishing. I remember feeling sad for the kids who usually made fun of me. They were speechless. But their eyes were glued to me in wonder. I wanted to say to them “it's only a costume, I’m not better than you, I’m just the same as anybody,” but I didn’t have the words.