A Princess For Christmas (Of The Dreams We Seek)

One

The phone rang at the Heart for hope foundation. It was another request, as long as she remember, she remembered her mother and father running this one-of-a-kind foundation.

 Heart for hope, is a place where her mother and father fulfil one last wish of a terminally ill patient.

She never understood why they do it. But she always like the smile on the peoples faces when they leave the foundation. It was like they have gotten a new sense of hope. A new spirit to fight.

"Avni" She heard her mother call. Avni left her desk and walked towards her mother's voice. She and her other friends proposed to volunteer for the foundation during their vacations from college and this was one of the busiest hours of the day so far.

Avni saw her mother talking to the parents of a girl maybe not more than ten or eleven-year-old girl. She was sitting silently in a corner looking outside.

"Ma, you called? I was about fill up the forms for the next charity event." Avni said. "Yes, can you take the little child out? She is looking outside for a while now." Avni looked at the girl again and upon close examination she saw the girl was wearing a wig.

Avni held her finger to the little girl. "You want to play? I know a place where we can play together" the girl's eyes lit up with hope. Something makes Avni smile for the same.

 "Ma, I am going to play with my new friend." Avni said leaving the room holding the girl.

Through eighteen years of her life Avni had saw many people like this, still she never ceases to amaze how the power of little hope works. She placed the girl on the bench outside as she saw the swings. "You want to go on the swings?" The girl looked at Avni almost guiltily.

"What happened, you can tell me. I want to be your friend" Avni said to her. "I cannot run as I had before, I miss playing with my friends." Her eyes turned moist. Avni felt bad for her. 

"Ma and papa work too much, I want to hear my papa tell me a story each night as he used to"

"How about I tell you a story?" She asked the girl. "you can?" Avni nodded smiling sitting beside her. "Once upon a time there was a little princess," She begin. The girl scooted closer to her listening to the story.

And then few more children surrounded her listening to the stories. She took the girl and made her sit on her lap. "And then the Princess came riding her horse, slaying the dragon and rescuing the prince," She said finishing the story,

"I thought Prince are the one who always saves the Princess." Avni smiled. "Can a Princess not save a prince? After all princesses are always the strong one. Aren't they? Like you are strong your highness" Avni said bowing down. The girl laughed loudly. 

"And see the Princess have a court in session now. You can have many friends as you like to." She said.

The girl's mother was looking at her. "She is very good at this. You are blessed to have such a daughter." She commented.

"She was always this way Avni was always good at heart. Mrs. Das I will have the papers ready and do not forget to attained the fundraiser this coming Saturday, you might people who are willing to help you and we have a very special guest, the Royal advisors from Winterdell are visiting they had showed interest in our foundation as it is one of its kind in India. Heart for Hope had caught their attention and it all thanks to my daughter Avni. She is the one I shall thank for taking it to the levels I never thought I could. And that too was all her own idea. I am blessed truly to have her as my daughter."

Geeta's eyes turned moist as she remembers how she was shunned by her in- laws for birthing a daughter, when they all hoped for a son.

 But her father had embraced her with all his heart, and from then their journey had begun ending with struggles to create this one-of-a-kind foundation.