No such thing as wishes fulfilled Temple

Today, High Priestess Nila gave Kirai, a novice priestess and me, a task. Or more like run an errand to me. But either way, I was glad to take a breather from the training.

After nearly a month of being confined, I ventured out of the Grand Temple grounds for the first time.

I heaved an ecstatic, excited giggle. I thought I almost died with the heavy training for priestesses. The unwilling priestess apprentice. My only mistake was vandalism on the ancient trees, but the punishment obviously tested my morality and life’s virtues. Which I have in me, but High Priest Romou doesn’t buy it.

I walked past a long queue of children heading towards the entrance of the Grand Temple. Each of the children’s mixed emotions showed on their faces. Some were excited, while others silently waited in line with pale faces. Some appeared frightened with their trembling knees as they patiently awaited their turns to enter the Grand Temple at the spacious front square of the temple. Today was a special day for the children to gather in the front courtyard. It is a quarterly event for coming of age for children to get their wishes fulfilled by the priestess, after all.

Something in this world that I didn’t quite understand. It reminds me of those annual events of sitting on Santa’s lap and making a wish about which toy they want to have that year.

I gaze up at the top of the temple where the entrance opened a moment ago. The sound of the pounded gongs three times to announce the commencement of the wishes making ritual is about to start.

I watched those children’s cheerful faces with envy.

I remembered my childhood.

I remembered I, too, have wishes I want to ask. Every night, I pulled the thin blanket over my head accompanied by a handful of fireflies I captured from the nearby riverbank, and I stored it inside a glass jar. I collected it by chance from the garbage’s pile nearby the river. 

Whilst under the blanket, I got on my knees and faced the night sky with thousands of stars as the witness of my fervent prayers. I gathered my ten fingers into a prayer pose that I saw other children do in their prayer house every Sunday morning. Sometimes, despite the chilling cold on winter nights, I rubbed my palms together as I closed my eyes and recited my wishes without fail while ignoring the chilling bits and the warm fogs coming out from my stiff lips. I continued to wish on my knees until it became numb.

“Dear God of wishes, please save my mom.”

“Dear God of wishes, heed my wishes. Heal my mom.”

“Dear God of wishes, don’t let other children call me a monster. I am not a monster.”

“Dear God of wishes, don’t let my mom die.”

“Dear God of wishes, please let my father know ma is sick. He must return to us.”

The list goes on.

And my mom continues to be sick. The other children continue to bully and call me a monster. Then, one day, my mom died from her chronic illness. And, father never even calls grandma or returns home to us.

What went wrong?

Is it because I wasn’t sincere enough? Is it because the number of fireflies was not enough? Or is there anything that I missed to include? 

I will never know.

After that, I vowed never to make any wishes ever again. I never want to believe such superstitious beliefs as making wishes to the stars or making wishes during birthdays ever again. Even the existence of such wish-fulfilment temples. I smirked with annoyance.

As I was about to leave the ridiculous idea behind, I couldn’t help but overheard a conversation between a mother with her son.

“Are you done?” a mother asked her son as he descended the high stair in high spirit. He took double the steps to get to his mother. “Don’t rush, dear son, or you’ll fall down.” She scolded her son, but as he got closer, her stern looks softened with a smile, and she gave her son a bear hug.

“I did it, ma! I did it.” He was proud of his achievement. He broke loose from his mother’s embraces and bragged about his bravery. Or will his wishes get fulfilled? By the cheerful look on his face, he may be successfully getting what he wished for.

“Good job, son.” The mother smiled at her silly son. “Let’s go find your father and go home.”

The son nodded ecstatically, happy, and held his mother’s hand. I continued to watch the mother-son pair until a man approached them from the opposite way. The boy gave a joyous glee as he spotted his father, immediately released his hand link and rushed to his father. 

“Father! I did it.”

The atmosphere wasn’t foreign sight at all, but to witness other people’s perfect, happy family always makes my heartstring tighten. The father gave the child another bear hug. Another envy feeling crept into my heart. The yearning for my father makes me envy the boy.

My father left our family long after I was born. Leaving my two older sisters and mother to care for me. Big sis once told me that father went to work in the city, but as I grew up, I realised it was not the case. He left home for another rich woman. Grandma, his own mother, staying with us, always blaming mother for her son’s infidelity, disloyal to parents before disappearing for good. Until mother passed away, she never told grandma the reason he left.

At present, being trapped in a foreign fantasy world of wishes, will I be able to see my father again? Will I be able to go back soon?

“Hey, let’s go, Rain,” Kirai called out at the bottom of the staircase. 

“Alright. Coming.” I stopped and turned back at the merry trio as they left the Grand Temple with the rest of the other families with their own children.

Smiling bitterly at them, I descended the staircase disheartedly. My earlier merry and ecstatic mood has turned into a sour mood. My steps slowed and unhurried towards my caretaker in this world, Kirai.