Mind—gripping—silence.
Her mom threw the next soapy plate into the right sink as she picked up the next dirty plate. Wish stood by the entrance, watching her mom with a toothy smile as she held on to a dirty stuffed animal with one ear and eye still intact. The legs of the stuffed animal were hanging just by a thread, and it's been four good months since her dad promised to get her a new one she could cuddle all day.
"So, tell me again what you said you wanted to be when you grow up, my love?"
Wish grinned, with most of her teeth missing, as she rocked back and forth at just the imagination of her new dream—apart from being a carpenter like Mom or a kindergarten teacher down the street like her Nona.
"A princess!" she said, her smile growing uncontrollably as the word and meaning of it rolled smoothly down her tongue and out of her lips. "I want to be a princess!"
Mary smiled at her daughter's wild imagination and silly thoughts.
