Her Birthday wish

 It was to be her birthday in a week and she would finally turn ten, an adult, she thought dreamily swinging idly on the playground's rusted equipment. Would her mother remember, a querulous voice from within asked. She had checked the calendar in the apartment supervisor's office - it was to be on a Monday this time, one of her mother's double-shift days. Even on her single-shift days like today, all she would do is cook and pack food for the week that she and her brother were to heat and eat in the evenings. She would soon be coming home, her greasy work uniform would still smell of heated oil and other things that always made her want to puke. But her mother would often start cooking even while she still had her uniform on. Her face fell as she recalled the ghastly sight of her mother waking up that morning with her make-up caked up and packed thickly into the deep crevices on her face. What she disliked the most were her large, unwieldy hands with swollen veins popping out and the red nail polish she always had on even on her broken nails. She had prayed everyday that her mother wouldn't come to the bus stop to see her off, she often did so even with her mascara smeared on her paper like skin and her hair tousled in the previous night's hairdo. Her brother was too young to understand and was just always idiotically delighted that his mom was there, not understanding the looks from the other mothers at the bus stop - wary, haughty and sometimes pity, her haggard family of three stood out like a caterpillar on a plate.

Later that evening, she took out the diary her grandmother had gifted her the previous birthday. Her brother had already written his name, or something similar in hieroglyphs, in various sizes, through all the pages. The diary had originally opened up to be a cake with a huge cherry on top. Her brother had also taken care of the cherry and chewed through it within a month. Seeing that he was now trying to help her mother with the cooking she pulled out her pencil and found an empty space that hadn't been scribbled over. She carefully typed out "My Birthday Wish", and later changed it to "My Birthday Wishes" as she did have more than just one. She hesitatingly listed the battery-operated robot and the roller-skates as an after-thought. Then her imagination ran free and her list kept growing till she had covered the whole page, front and back. Finished, she looked at it with deep satisfaction, just writing her wishes down made her feel like she already had those, she started planning how she would race around on her skates in the evenings with all her friends watching enviously. She decided to place her list strategically near her mother's work satchel, that way she would not miss seeing it. Satisfied with her plan, she ran out to see what her mother and brother were upto, for the house had gone silent - only to find them both crashed out on the couch, snoring wildly. As she had done on many other days, she poured herself some milk and went to bed.

The diary was still on the counter when she returned from school that day, and for the rest of the week she got no indication that her mother had made any efforts to buy her any of the gifts she had listed. Rather her mother seemed even more haggard and seemed to have double-shifts every day that week. She would barely see her and once when she did, her mother had swollen eyes and a puffy face that scared her so much that she burst into tears. Her grandmother came over one day that week to spend the night with them. With a special dinner of boiled eggs and jam on toast and some of the games she had brought they had an exciting time, so much so that she completely forgot about her birthday wish list. It was only when their grandmother boarded them into the school bus the next morning that she remembered and yelled out from the bus "Don't forget what it is on Monday, Gramma" The bus moved on slowly but not before  she saw her grandma turn around looking deeply sad. She was perplexed at the reaction, but sat back happily having successfully reminded her of the upcoming event. She was always one who had good gifts and for the rest of the bus ride she dreamt of what might she get for her birthday that year.

By Sunday night she was dismayed to see absolutely no change in her mother or her routine, she seemed to have got even busier  than before. She had just rushed out with some instructions for dinner and to go to bed by eight. Her brother was zooming around brainlessly with his red bus with no comprehension of the turbulence within her. She sobbed her heart out into the pillow, all the while her brother was running around in circles assuming she was playing a game. She would wait until tomorrow and then the two of them would run away she decided. Once her mother had left for work, she'd pack his red bus and her books and they would go and live on apples in the forest on the other side of the town. Satisfied with her plan she fell asleep. 

She woke up to an eerily silent house, her mother wasn't screaming out instructions, nor was her brother running around like a firecracker. Disappointed at the damp start to her big day she ran out of her room angrily, ready to break the first thing she'd lay her hands on. How could her mother forget the day, she screamed inside, tears welling up in her eyes. No wonder they did not have a father like the other kids did, who would want to live with a woman like her, she kept shouting silently as she approached the kitchen. Sitting on the rug, cross-legged was a beautiful lady, she stopped in her tracks, looking closely she saw it was her mother, her hair tied back and a huge smile on her face, Her brother was snuggled up tightly on her lap happily sucking at a lollipop. She set her brother aside and stretched out her arms "Happy Birthday Sweetie" she whispered. To her ears the words seemed like a roar and as she ran into those arms her tears started to fall, she knew she was ten now, and no longer supposed to cry but she could not seem to control it. Her brother had started to kick her wanting in on some of the action as well and soon before they knew they were all entangled in a confused pile of arms and legs shouting and laughing and crying all at the same time. "So who is going to help me bake the birthday cake?" her mother asked eventually and she knew then it was the only birthday she had ever wanted.