The Seller of Dreams
Marisha Ida Fonseca
10 March 2009, 08:51The doorbell rang. Anu quickly put down her doll and ran to answer it. If it rang again Mummy would shout from the bedroom and get up to answer it herself. And she would catch Anu with the Cream Magic biscuits she had taken from the box. So Anu ran to the door, praying that Mummy would not get up. If she got up, Anu would push the biscuits under the sofa to hide them. Who was coming? Maybe Watchman Uncle to tell Daddy to move the car from the front of the gate.
Mummy had put the chain before going to sleep so Anu could only open the door a little. There was an Uncle outside, a new Uncle she had never seen before. Wearing a white shirt and black pant like Daddy. His shirt was looser than Daddy’s but his pant was tighter.
“Baby, is Mummy, Daddy at home?”
Anu knew the answer to this. If she did not know the aunty or uncle she was to say No. Also if it was Rekha Aunty who lived on the third floor and always came to tell Mummy about her heart problem. But this Uncle was different. He had a nice smile and his bag had a beautiful picture of a lady with yellow hair on it. So Anu hesitated.
“Baby, what do you want to be when you become big?” Become big! This was like heaven for Anu. When she was big like Vaishali Aunty she could put lipstick every day. She could eat chocolates whenever she wanted. She could have a cigarette like Rajiv Uncle. Anu loved Rajiv Uncle’s cigarettes. One end would glow and smoke would come from Rajiv Uncle’s mouth. When she was big, smoke would come from her mouth. But smoke wasn’t important as….
“I want to wear a gold and silver dress everyday” said Anu.
“Oh! Very nice. And what else do you want to be?”
What else? Was this a fairy like in The Book of Fairy Tales? Polly had been given three wishes by a fairy in The Book of Fairy Tales. Polly had been a very good girl though, and Anu was sure she wasn’t. Polly would never take biscuits from the box when Mummy was sleeping. Perhaps the fairy didn’t only give wishes to good children. This Uncle looked a bit different from the cover of The Book of Fairy Tales. But maybe there were different types of fairies.
“Are you a fairy, Uncle?”
“No darling. Tell me what you want to be when you become big.” Uncle looked like he was laughing. He wasn’t a fairy. Fairies never laughed. Anu had read the entire Book of Fairy Tales and no fairies laughed. But still, he was giving her a wish, she had better take it. Uncles like this one did not ring the doorbell every day.
“I want Mummy to make laddoos every day.”
“Very nice baby. But don’t you want to become a clever lady, go to America for studies?”
Anu did not want to go to America for studies. America was where Sunil Uncle lived and Sunil uncle had once beaten her when she put cold cream inside his shoes. And Anu hated to study. But this nice uncle wanted her to want to study. She could wish something to do with studies for her third wish.
“I want Reena Ma’am to give me all my sums right.”
“ But Baby, don’t you want to become a doctor or engineer? All children do.”
Anu did not want to become a doctor. Dr Kamath had a big moustache and Anu did not like it. So she didn’t want to become a doctor. And she was frightened of trains, the big big noise they made, and always hid behind Mummy when the train came into the station. She would never, never be an engineer and have to drive a train. All children did not want to become doctors and engineers. Niranjan wanted to become a cricketer like Sachin. So did the little boy in the Aviva Life Insurance plan advertisement. Anu did not want to become a cricketer because then she would have to play with Niranjan. Niranjan called her Chintoo every day in the school bus. Anu hated that name. One humiliating day Niranjan had poured water on the front of her dress and shouted out ‘Chintoo has made soo soo in her dress. Chhee chhee!’ The whole bus had laughed. Maybe she would become a doctor so that she could give Niranjan injections. But then she would have to have a moustache!
“Are you going to give me all my wishes?”
“Of course, baby. I sell dreams. Now go and tell Mummy, Daddy to come here.”
A Seller of Dreams! How nice that sounded. In a flash, Anu had made up her mind what she wanted to be. She would sell dreams like this nice uncle and have a bag with a picture of a beautiful lady with yellow hair on it. But before that happy day, would Mummy buy dreams for her? She would tell Mummy she would go without ice-cream and chips if Mummy would buy her three dreams. Mummy always said that ice-cream and chips were bad for health, so she would be very happy about this. What was Uncle saying?
“With NSBC Education Fund all your child’s dreams come true.” Anu was not sure of what an Education Fund was but hoped it was something that would make gold and silver dresses like the tinsel with which they decorated the school on Annual Day. Should she have wished for the dress or should she have asked for cigarettes? It would have been so much fun to have smoke coming out of your mouth!
Rekha Aunty had just heaved herself up the stairs. Rekha Aunty had a mole on her nose, with three hairs on it and her chin wobbled when she talked. “Anu, shut the door. You’re not supposed to be standing talking to strangers like this” she scolded. She glared at the nice Uncle. “Go away, no salesmen allowed in this building” she snapped. And the Seller of Dreams went away quietly.
