Belief
She smiled as she recounted her 10th birthday
when wrapped in a pink glaze paper, her uncle gave the book ‘The Love Magic’ in
her hands. ‘She is just 10. This is her age to do math and to not read some
fancy love fantasies not meant for her age’, she had overheard her mum talking
furiously to uncle John over the phone,
soon after the party ended and they had finished unpacking all gifts. But this
did not bother Erica; it rather stirred her curiosity as she quickly flicked
open her bedside lamp and got started to unfolding her new possession. She read
for 6 hours continuously that night, she read about Katie, about Mark, about
their magical love.
‘Magic doesn’t happen in real life honey, these books just
present a rosy picture of everything. But you have to be careful and just can’t
be hoping for some thing to happen’, is what mum told her over breakfast the
other day. Erica’s puffy eyes did little to hide the fact that she spent the
whole night reading the book and mum knew everything, anyways. Ever since that
day till college, each night Erica spent some time to read on the cute story of
Mark and Katie. There was something so enticing about the book that she just couldn’t
stop herself from not reading or believing it.
And now, 26 years after that day, she again flipped open the
book. It was pretty late in the night and she needed something to relieve her
stress. As she skimmed across the pages, briefly pausing at every other page
trying to live the beautiful love that the book boasted about. But now, every
line brought back a gush of old feelings, of betrayals, of hatred, of
shattering trust. Life isn’t as rosy as shown in the book, mum's words echoed. Suddenly the crackle
at the window held her attention. ‘Ahh’ , she sighed and slowly got up to shut down
the window. She peered outside to find a highly brown overcast sky and hot dusty
winds, very opposite to the romantic setting in the book. She came back to the
edge of the bed and mumbled, ‘You were right mum. Magic doesn’t happen…’ . She
then slowly took the quilt over her before checking on her husband. She went close
to his ear with a content smile as she felt her baby
bump and let out a hushed whisper, ‘but miracle does!’.
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