Our Library of Wishes

00

✧.*  prologue : the wish  *⁠.✧

Cambridge, England

When she was a kid, she used to dream of a perfect life. Something straight out of a fairytale, sans the evil stepmother and sisters. A cozy house in the woods, along the stream where her morning would start with the melodies sung by the birds, the whirring of insects would fill her day, the tinkling sound of the water as it it glided over the rocks and sneaked between the stones would appease her and she would fall asleep to the notorious chirping of the crickets. A quiet life of serenity.

As she grew up a little, she realised how unfeasible it was. She couldn't live her life in isolation, detached from the world, surviving on whatever the forest roots had to offer. The current version of the world needed people to work, earn for a living and so, to keep up with its demands, she altered her dream. She still wanted a quiet life but maybe somewhere on a mountain, at a hill station where she would have her own humble, little cafe which she would run with the love of her life. They would be enveloped by the peaks and valleys, be warmed by the sunlight filtering through the canopy, caressed by the cool wind that would breeze over their skin and when it would rain, she would watch it with peace painted over her face from behind the windows as her partner would wrap them both in a blanket and she would snuggle against him.

Oh, she was so naive, weaving and harbouring innocent, lucid dreams, wishing to thread a perfect, uncomplicated life, minding her own business and going with the flow.

She was so fucking naive to be completely oblivious to the monstrosity called life that knocked into her a few years later, sucking the dreams out of her and pushing them to some faraway place where she couldn't reach and it made her wonder if they ever even existed to begin with. They were lost and forgotten like ancient civilizations, their remnants buried too deep to be found.

The reality was bleak and harsh.

Out of everything she had envisioned, she could've never imagined to see herself as a single mother of a five year old girl living in a foreign country and everyday finding herself in a position to make some hard choices. But that was the truth, her truth and she wasn't the one to run or hide away from it.

She also never thought she would be arguing with someone to not bet with her even though she was pretty sure she would win. Life was wild.

"I still stand on what I said and yet I'm not going to make a bet with you." She said determinedly, removing the cookie tray from the oven.

"Come-on, make a bet!" Maya urged. "100 sterling. It's not even much for you— "

"Excuse me?"

But Maya ignored. "If you so believe that I won't be able to handle the bakery after you're gone then make a bet." She was behaving like a petulant child.

"Mumma," Khushi called her mother from behind only to not be paid heed to.

"Betting is illegal."

At this, Maya scoffed in disbelief. "It's a harmless bet. Shove your morals up your— " she stopped abruptly when her eyes fell on the kid behind.

"The bakery will shut down," she said solemnly.

"Mumma!" Khushi tried again, this time more agitatedly.

"I'll be gone and so will the brains of this place. You anyways show as much interest in this bakery as a four year old will show towards an astrophysics class— "

"That's because I have you!" Maya interrupted.

"See, you take everything for granted. That's not how things are supposed to work— "