The Birthday Wish

The room was damp and dark. The only illumination was that of a puny flame that rose above a candle of poorly constructed wax, who only the shadows seemed to rejoice in it's light as they danced around, and upon the walls. The dust had settled into place and had been left undisturbed for quite sometime. The only sound that could be heard was time. It echoed throughout the hollow box. Tick...Tick...Tick. The moon could be seen clearly through the half boarded single window where the wood was beginning to rot, the trees swaying and scratching at the siding as the winter winds beckoned.

Though the room only appeared barren, for under the rags, on a rusted cot who's springs ached and moaned, and prodded, a faint wheeze protruded from the lungs, through the windpipe, and out of a small girl's lips. She peeked her head out from under her blanket and turned over on her side, and with her white and frail hands she clutched a parchment to the left of her chest. "Mummy...Daddy..." was the cry she mustered into the moldy shack. A tear slipped down her once rosy and now sunken cheek. And then she whispered into the air with a hoarse, barely audible voice that once sounded like bells, "Happy Birthday to me...Happy Birthday to me...Happy Birthday dear me...Happy Birthday...make a wish..."

She squeezed her eyes tight and pictured her mother and father's smiling faces. Tears sprang from her eyes. Wheeze! Wheeze! Continuously she wheezed as she pictured herself standing side by side with them. Her fingers were no longer dirty, her dress no longer wrinkled and torn, her golden locks no longer tangled, and her cheeks no longer pale. As a gentle breeze crept it's way in and puffed out the lingering flame, a smile grew on her face and warmth crept into her. She left behind the frown and tears which she had been succumbed to and her ears were filled with joy, "Happy Birthday my love!"