A Christmas Wish

“Emily, come downstairs. Jojo is waiting for you. Hurry up!”,a dark haired lady shouted.

“Mom, I am not going anywhere. Tell Jojo that I have lots of homework to do. I told you yesterday I do not want to go anywhere if you are not going.”, Emily, a young girl with strawberry blonde curls, shouted.

“Emily dear,you know Mama have lots of work to do. She can’t go with you baby. So please be a good girl and go with your nanna. Please?I will buy you lots of chocolates if you go.”Emily’s mother Rose replied.

Emily was supposed to go to the picnic arranged by her elementary school teachers.Emily was excited to go.But her mother,Rose,was busy. Being a single mother,she couldn’t afford to miss a single day at work.So she decided to send Emily with her nanny​, Jojo.

Jojo was a petite lady.She was like a sister to Rose.Thus while looking for a nanny for her daughter,Rose couldn’t be more happy to assign Jojo the job.
But Emily refused to go with her nanny.It was not that she didn’t like her nanny but it was the fact that Emily loved her mother more and only wished to go with her.

“Ok mom.But you have to keep the chocolates ready by the time I come.”, little Emily bargained.

“Will do.”,Rose replied with a laugh.
Even during the tough times Emily was able to make Rose laugh.Emily was all she had and she was all Emily had left.Together they completed each other.

Rose was busy in her thoughts until. her daughter screamed bye bye to her.Rose too bade her goodbye with a   wish for a good journey.

As she saw the bus leaving,Rose felt that something was not right in the house.She could hear footsteps from upstairs.Her heart began to beat loudly.Was it a burglar or was it just a cat.Whatever it was,she was alone in the house and that was something to worry about.

***
“Emily,your mother is no more.”,Officer Jos announced.
Declairing such to a small girl was hard but it was his duty to inform her.
Being a family friend,it was Jos’s duty to console Emily after her mother’s death.

It was a surprise to Jos too when he heard that his long good friend and colleague Rose was attacked ,beaten,raped and killed by some burglars.

The burglars broke into their house and killed Rose and took everything valuable.The police couldn’t catch the burglars.

Jos knew that it must have been very hard for Emily,but he could’t help.
For the past few hours Emily was sitting lifelessly in front of her mother’s mortal body.
Her nanny,Jojo,was assuring her again and again that everything was alright.
Jos couldn’t accept it.Giving false hopes to a young girl was morally  injustice.Being an orphan from a very young age,Jos knew what the pain was.It was very important that Emily realize that her mother is dead.He knew that the pain was too much but he also knew that it would end in a few days.But assuring her that everything was fine would only worsen the situation.

“No!Mom is still alive.She is just resting”,Emily replied with a smile.

“She’ll wake up and give me the chocolates she promised.Ain’t I right Jojo.Mom will wake up right?”.Emily asked her nanny who was weeping silently. “Mom is alive.Mom wake up,wake up.See I came back from the picnic.Mom,mom,MOM!”,  Emily screamed.She started to cry and then suddenly she blacked out.

***
“Mom!”,Emily screamed.
Even after nine years Emily still remembered that day.The scenes still played in her mind. It was the third time in a row she had the same dream.

In her dream she always saw her mother’s smiling face before Emily went to the bus and then the scene would shift and she would see her mother’s lifeless face,bloodied and bruised.