With my hands in my pocket, I was strolling leisurely down the street, towards Pearl’s Hotel. My eyes caught sight of a poster on the wall adjacent to me. Sure, I passed numerous posters while making my way through this route every day, but this one was vividly bright and colourful. I stopped and began reading the so-called beautiful, utterly indecipherable calligraphic words.

I never get it. Why can’t people write straight letters instead of making wines, twined, coiled and twisted around one another? Anyway, after a great deal of difficulty, I got the gist of what was written on it. It was the public invitation of a fashion show, which was organised at six in the playground, a block from where I was now. I glanced at my watch, the time was 5:30pm.

No, wait! I absolutely loathe fashion shows or even shopping for clothes, but the poster also mentioned something regarding a buffet dinner — free of cost!

Would I ever pass such an opportunity? Definitely not! I was already sick of what they had in the school canteen. Sigh. Like who eats tasteless boiled vegetables with a tasteless, half-burnt flatbread? Eww!

Well, I changed course and began trudging towards my new destination now — the playground. Barely quarter an hour had passed and I was there. My feet on the stony threshold while my eyes darted from left to right and back again, clearly mesmerised by the breath-taking embellishments.

On either side of the hazel-coloured gate, covered with twirling patterns of lush ivy, were two oak trees. Obviously fake, but astounding nonetheless! The ramp in the middle of the playground was outlined by bushy shrubs beautified by clusters of pale flowers on each of them. While my eyes hastily searched for the dining table, someone grappled my forearm from behind me. I stifled a quiet yelp.

“Oh! There you are. You must be Mary Ann. I’m Roger. Come on now. We don’t have to be late. I know the way around.” The ‘someone’ grabbing my forearm poured an abundance of words rapidly.

“I’m not ...,” I began to declare but he cut me off.

“Gossips aside, please. Just follow me,” he ordered.

He was literally hauling me. How come I follow him? I made a mental note to give him some mannerism classes afterwards. Anyway, I preferred silence, eager to know where I was being steered.

At last, we stopped in front of a chocolate-brown wooden door. A label on it read, ‘Models’.

‘Ugh, now what?’ I wondered and he pushed open the door.

When we entered the room, we, or at least I, was so surprised to see the models and their dresses. I literally froze for a second. Firstly, because the outfits were not what I had expected. Secondly, the models were not who I had in my mind.

The models were — animals. Legit animals.

Apparently, it was a fashion show, yes, but for pets — dogs, cats, hamsters, rabbits, birds, even a few fish. My eyes bulged out of their sockets. The boy who ushered me to the room handed me a script, which had all the names, introduction of the animals or I may say, the models, and left the room. There, I realised that the actual person to read out the script was not around and I was being mistaken for that person. I looked at the script and the models and sighed.

The closest to me was a cat, looking regal in his suit, like a gentleman or a gentle-cat, as a matter of fact. When he noticed me, he nodded grimly and started licking his paw.

After that, my eyes darted upon a dog. She was looking drop-dead gorgeous. Her sleek black dress swept gracefully along the floor when she was rehearsing her ‘dog-walk’. She smirked at me and I could not help blowing a kiss to her.

Just then, a small boy passed me, softly caressing a hamster, which was smaller than his palm. She looked prettier than any other ballerina I had ever seen, apart from the fact that she was snoring, not dancing.

At that moment, something fluffy sniffed my foot. I picked it up. It was a rabbit in a clown outfit. It leaped from my hands to its master, shy creatures they are.

Overall, the fashion show went great and surprisingly, it amused me too. Despite not being ready for what I was to do, I managed to play the host rather well, since I was really excited to see these cute animals looking so adorable and different.

And, of course, the exotic varieties of fruits and finger-licking good food was a plus point and I really enjoyed myself. I captured pictures of almost all these confident animals, excited to share this fun experience with my friends.

Published in Dawn, Young World, March 12th, 2022