Jeunesse

2:

Title: Gift

Stars glimmering together with the crescent moon were my first sight as I opened my eyes. I roamed my surroundings and realized I was on a roof of a house, sleeping peacefully. But what am I doing here, anyway?

"Hannah, come down here! I have something for you." I heard a familiar voice call my name.

I sat down and recognized that I am weightless. My eyes automatically scanned my hands and saw it is so little like a hand of a child. I touched my face and felt it so small. What is happening? I nervously observed the place I was and realized this is the roof of our old house...

With my quick reflex, I climbed down the stairs and head back inside the house. My mind is in chaos but my body recognizes the place and situation, I don't know how to grasp this mood.

My mother, who looks so young right now, smiled as she instantly saw me."There you are. Come on, my gift for you had arrived." She pulled the chair off the dining table as I sat down.

She handed me a wrapped box. "Happy birthday, honey." Her voice is so soft and sweet and pure as her hands softly caress my shoulder as if I'm her precious fragile treasure.

Even with my heart beating loudly, hands trembling in fulfillment, a sweating forehead, lips quivering in satisfaction, and eyes glimmering in confusion-I excitedly opened the gift.

A doll.

From where I wished when I was a child. A doll that gives me uncertainty. A doll that earned my ocean tears of childhood. A doll that slapped me the reality. The reality of an underprivileged child. A child yearning for a mother's love.

xoxomai