She dreamed of Paradise…

                        Sienna was in the room, with Dr. Gabriel. Corinth was worried about leaving her 8 year old daughter alone, with a psychiatrist. What could she do, after all, she wasn’t being herself lately. She had to do something.  Walking rigorously, in front of the closed door, she thought various things to herself.  Corinth, blamed herself and also thought, maybe her mind was playing games or she was over reacting to the situation. After all nothing was out of control. Her chiffon peach shirt was drenched with dampness. She looked out of the white walls, outside the window and gasped. The one- way road was over crowded with people and vehicles, and the smoke that had risen from the trucks and cars, almost clogged her thinking process.

                   For moment she talked herself out of thinking too much, but well, the one caught in the predicament understands her impasse. Sloppily, she tied her wet hair, into a lose bun and asked the lady at the Reception for a glass of water. The receptionist stretched her neck to look up from the counter and pointed to the water cooler. Corinth nodded and headed there with unnerved steps. Pouring the water into the cone, she took a quick gulp and looked at the vacant waiting room and thought that, it was in a way good to be the last patient; thankfully nobody would have to see her be uncanny. Throwing the cone in the dustbin, she quickly took a detour. Standing near the looked door, she tried to pick up a conversation, but she could hear nothing; instead she smelt the fresh paint on the doors. It almost went in her nostrils causing her to sneeze. Receptionist looking through her glasses, hinted her to sit down.

                  Corinth sat on the other side of the sofa, fidgeted with whatever she could see. Her eyes were still glued to the door and they often wandered to the clock hung above it. She realized it had been an hour since; she had left sienna behind the door. She was getting curious and impatient to know what was wrong, as a normal session would last for, anything between half an hour to a forty-five minutes.  Corinth started throwing questions at the receptionist in high decibels, which the receptionist answered in an auto toned voice and told her to calm down. She reassured her all was well with her daughter inside, as she had just gotten off the phone, with Dr. Gabriel.

                  Corinth went to the door to knock and realized it would be a bad idea to disturb. So she went back and sat on the sofa. Picking up the magazine, she flicked a few pages. The young girl on the cover page was wearing skirt, similar to what sienna’s wore that night. Her mind transported her to a week old situation, where it all began. Corinth wished her baby good night, closed the door and went to sleep, but that night she got up to drink water. After she had a few sips, she followed her instinct, to see her sleeping beauty. As she opened the door with sleepy eyes, she saw her daughter wasn’t there anymore. Where could she go? She kept her cool and searched high and low, but she did not find sienna. So, she immediately called her husband in Dubai, stating him the situation and eventually, busted into tears. Before she could disconnect the call, she saw sienna appearing from her bedroom. Corinth was tongue tied and did not say a word, just held her daughter and wept. After sobering, she asked sienna, where she had been? Scared and timid that sienna was, she couldn’t say a thing. Corinth had many questions that night but she drowned them. Let her conviction over the reasoning, and tried to get some sleep. Everything went on as normal the whole day, but Corinth made it a point to sleep with her daughter every night.

A week has passed by, and Corinth was hoping for a better week. Like the usual, Sunday was the story telling day. Sienna loved Sundays, plainly cause of this ritual, she curled around the pillows and waited patiently. Corinth began with a beautiful story of fairies, dwarf, ogres, talking animals, world inside a world, heaven and hell. She could see sienna had tinkle in her eyes and she was happier than the usual. Corinth was giving out the details of heaven and the angels who guarded those gates. Sienna heard the story with great vigor, but after she was done talking about the archangels and guardian angels, sienna interrupted her mother and said, in a amazed and disenchanted tone “Mumma, how did you know, heaven is exactly like that, cause only I have been there, Raphael hasn’t taken anyone there yet”. Corinth smiled and asked her, who Raphael was, Sienna said in a plain voice “you just described him to me”. Corinth looked at her in a lost gaze, something inside her was beating faster and her hands had gone cold. Corinth snapped out of it, threw the magazine and banged the door open, only to see that the room was empty again.