The Sister Song

Knight in shining armour

Sometimes all we need is a Knight in shining armour to save us.

******

"You know what my mistake was? it was that I married you! I curse the day when you entered my life."

"You know what Daniel? THE FEELING IS ABSOLUTELY MUTUAL!"

And here we go again! with the arguing and insulting each other.

 It is hard to even fathom that two people who adored each other, can't even stand each other now. Seeing such hate unfold before your eyes, it changes you in a very twisted way, makes you loose hope. 

There are times when I give up and there are times when I re-awaken with a new hope.

I had a toy, a wooden rocking horse. It was quite ordinary but very precious to me. It was my hope in dark times. I remember my mum gave it to me when I was ten years old. It was when she was telling me the story of the knight in shining armour. It was around the time when I believed in happily ever afters.

Where the horse is now, I don't know. It must be lying somewhere in a dark corner shattered to pieces, forgotten. All I can remember is the story mum told me and for how long I believed in it, believed that the Knight will always stay with the princess happily ever after. However, I was wrong. It was all a fantasy of a ten year old girl.

Twelve years ago

"Well okay, you two bedtime now!" my mom announced and with that she switched off the tv. It was soon followed by groans of unhappy kids whose cartoon time was cut short.

"If you don't come now, no story time for you both," she threatened while walking up. Afraid of mom making good on her threat and afraid of missing our prized story time, we silently followed her to our room.

We ran into our shared room and pounced on top of the queen sized bed cover in pink sheets, the top lined with furry pillow. The race to the bed was our night time ritual, which like all rituals had the same end as always, with my glorious victory. 

My sister and I laid down on our back. I pulled Mr. Cuddles to me side and hugged him. "So what stowwy mommy you going to twell?" Beth asked mum. Our brown eyes looked at her smiling face in anticipation.

"Okay my darlings, so today I am going to tell you the story of  a lovely girl and her knight in shining armour. Cover yourself with the blanket and prepare yourself  for the story." We eagerly pulled our grey, fluffy blanket over us and gave our undivided attention to her.

"Once upon a time, there was a young girl who lived in a small cottage with her parents. Her father used to drink a potion which he thought was for his own health, but little did he know it was destroying him slowly and slowly. He needed the potion so much that he sold every single belonging of his to get the coins needed to buy the potion from the evil magicians."

"What about the girl's mommy? didn't she try to save the daddy?" I asked. My heart was thumping with curiosity, but also with fear.

"Oh! the mother was ill and the only a prince could cure her. So she put all her attention into finding that prince. So with two sick parents all the responsibility of the house fell on her shoulders. She worked hard everyday- studying and earning money. Everyday night she used to feel tired and very lonely." She then paused for a long time, letting the words sink in.

"Then? Then? What happened next Mommy?" Beth asked.

"Well then...." she again paused, a small smile played on her lips. "Then one day on a stormy night, someone came and knocked at her door," her voice became lower. "She went to open the door-"