I can’t forget the day when my father’s friend and his family were invited to our house for dinner. It was the worst day of my life in every possible way. Everything that could go wrong went wrong that day.

Before the guest arrived, I went upstairs to my room to change my dress and freshen up. Just then I heard the doorbell ring. My brothers had gone for an errand, so I was left to open the door. I rushed down to open the door without realising that the dress was still in my hands. I tripped after stepping on its folds, which naturally disbalanced me and I run into a wall. I quickly shook my head to clear it, though it was throbbing with pain.

As I pulled open the door, I managed to control the expressions on my face in the best way possible, trying to hide the fact that I had nearly had a concussion. I let the guests in and even managed a smile as I showed them the way to the drawing room. I walked back to the front door to close it, but slammed my fingers in between.

With great difficulty, I managed to stop a scream from escaping my throat. Luckily, my father arrived at that moment along with my brothers and went straight to the guests. I quickly ran upstairs to the bathroom to cry my heart out.

There, I saw one of my fingers bleeding. I quickly wiped it, but the next moment I realised that, unknowingly, I had wiped my blood-covered finger with my new white dress.

Well, how long it took me to clean my dress and wear another one is another story. Anyway, I changed and went to sit with the guests. After a while mum asked me to bring juice for the guests. I obediently got up and went into the kitchen.

I returned with the drinks, walking carefully into the room, trying to balance the glasses without spilling. I was just giving the final glass when their little girl hit my foot with her sandals and the glass slipped and the drink landed onto her mother’s silk clothes. Very embarrassed and dismayed, I ran out of the drawing room and locked myself in my room.

I was trying to compose myself just then I realised that I had forgotten to take out the brownies from the oven. Mum had asked me to do this earlier before the guests had arrived, but I was getting into one mess after the other that I totally forgot about it. I started panicking, so I rushed back downstairs and pulled out the dessert just in time.

Can you guess what happened next? Well, I burnt myself by trying to pick the hot tray from the oven with my bare hands! I immediately put cold water on the burnt area while tears welled my eyes. Just then mum entered the kitchen to set the dinner and saw me in a distressed state. She rushed me, asking what the matter was.

I had no answer. How could I tell her all that had been happening to me that evening? Shaking my head, I went to my room and tried to calm my mind again. I didn’t want to think about everything that had happened in the last one hour, so I decided to start afresh again. My face had become tear-stained, so I freshened up, feeling much calm now.

Unfortunately, my happiness didn’t last long. It was dinnertime, everyone was cheering except the lady I had spilled the juice on.

I, along with my brothers, started setting the table, and as I was putting the rice dish, the little girl, or I better say the little monster, pulled the spoon from the rice dish before I had even kept it down. This startled me and some rice from the dish spilled into the curry bowl on the table. Hot drops from the curry flew in direction of the girl and landed on her hands and arm. She cried so loud that I felt my eardrums would burst.

Everyone became worried and started to tend to her. Her mother and my mum took the girl to the washroom and washed her arm and hand with cold water, while the rest of the people, including my family, looked at me as if I was the evillest person on earth.

I felt embarrassed, so I thought it was best for me to sit at some distance from the guests, because definitely it was not my day. Therefore, without doing and touching anything else, I sat on the sofa and turned on the TV while everyone tried to pretend nothing had happened and get on with dinner.

After what seemed like hours, the guests got up to leave. Breathing a sigh of relief, I got up to say goodbye, but I didn’t see that the woman’s purse was lying just beside the sofa I was sitting on. I got tangled in its strap and fell badly in front of all the guests. My brothers and the little girl burst into laughter, while my parents and guests froze in horror, seeing me lying face down on the floor.

Mum quickly came and helped me get up and asked me to go to my room. I was more than glad to escape before anything else could go wrong and land me in trouble. It was the worst day of my life with everything that could go wrong went wrong. I hope I would never have to go through something like that ever again!

Published in Dawn, Young World, September 18th, 2021