Finally, it’s Sunday. A day that I can actually have a rest after a week of non-stop learning and extra-curricular activities. A day that I could wander around my home aimlessly and no one is going to stop me. Well, these are my plans for every Sunday. This has been my weekly routine since I was young. I wasn’t expecting something else to happen. But last Sunday was different, something extraordinary happened.
I remembered I woke up at noon on that day. I wasn’t planning to do something meaningful, just something random. I was starving so I went to my mom’s bedroom to ask for lunch. I thought she was staying in her bed watching Korean dramas as usual. However, she wasn’t there. Instead, there seemed to be something under her blanket. It was wiggling. I stared at the unknown object,” Is it an alien? Are aliens invading the world? Am I dying?” Things nonsense like these kept sticking in my brain. I felt my heart beating rapidly, faster and faster. And my palms started sweating, my eye were also full of tears. I was in a panic!
Although I was scared, my mind was full of curiosity. The desire about discovering what it is was going on made me explode. Therefore, I took a step forward and carefully lifted the blanket. I rubbed my eyes, not believing the truth. It was my mom. My mom had shrunk into a size like a Barbie doll. I was thoroughly shocked at that time. ‘What is happening!” This phrase kept surrounding my mind.
Then my mom spoke in a squeaky voice. I leaned my ears near her, as her voice was so small. ‘Yannie, I will be staying in this size until this evening,” she started speaking. ‘I know that you are so confused now. Well, mother had been hit by a spell when I was small, which I will be shrunken to any size at any random time. And my spell will disappear in this evening. So I want you to take care of me today, just today. You know being in this size isn’t too convenient, right?” I simply nodded and was still confused. But then mom smiled and I accepted this “challenge”.
First, my mom told me to cook us brunch. Instant noodles, the only food I could handle. As I was preparing the meal, I suddenly realized that there were no suitable utensils for my “tiny” mom. Luckily, mom, who was sitting next to the kitchen sink told me to take out my doll house that I used to play with when I was in kindergarten, and use the utensils originally for my dolls, and now for her. I was really amazed when those utensils totally fitted my mom’s size! When the meal was prepared, I carefully “diced” the noodles into sizes that suited my mom and placed them in my doll’s pot, my mom’s bowl for a day. Even though I made the kitchen messy, I was still relieved that I could successfully fill both of our stomachs up.
After the meal, my mom told me to do housework, which I seldom do. But since she insisted that I should do it, I still obeyed at last. I placed her in the pocket of my jacket, where she was safe and could stick her head out to command me to do the right things. First of all, we did the washing up. I was really afraid that I would break the dishes, so I did my job extra carefully to avoid any damage of dishes. Then we mopped the floor. I accidentally spilled the water for mopping and nearly slipped down. It was such a relief that mom didn’t slip out of the pocket! After a few hours of “hard” work (it usually takes only an hour for my mom to do so), I finally finished the tasks and I was nearly exhausted to death.
Soon, I realized that it was nearly evening (as I woke up late that day). Mom’s size increased little by little. And at about seven, she finally turned back to normal. I was grateful that my normal mom was finally back. I hugged her tightly immediately that she nearly went out of breath.
At night, my mother thanked me for taking care of her for the whole day. Although I was unwilling to do the housework at first. I was still thankful that I could learn to do housework and cook for others under this special circumstance.