WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU PUMPKINS , james potter

when you wish upon a star...

prologue
- when you wish upon a star -
1968

MADELINE LISTENED to the creaks of her mother's mattress through the thin walls from her bedroom, clutching her teddy and clamping her pillow over her face. They'd been going at it all night and Madeline wondered if they would ever stop.

It'd been eighty-seven days since Dad left and yet, Madeline was still hopeful in the return of her father. If Dad came back, then everything would go back to normal. Mum wouldn't bring strange men home, Madeline would wake up to a nice, hearty breakfast of bacon, eggs, beans, and toast— her Dad's favorite meal, and she'd be allowed to go back to school. Other than her father, school had been the thing she missed the most.

It was 11:56 on what should've been a school night. The rough and unwashed comforters in which Madeline laid upon scratched at her skin and all she wanted to do was rip them off and find salvation in her mother's warm arms. But there was no way she was ever getting out of bed. It was dark out and Madeline's pants were soaked and sticking to her thighs uncomfortably. For the last two hours she'd laid stiff, petrified of what was sure to await her if she dare leave her bed.

Madeline was scared of the dark, or more accurately, what was waiting for her there. Her imagination went wild of all the possible creatures creeping and crawling and waiting — in the corner of her room, or under her bed, or in her closet — for her to close her eyes so it could pounce. Which was stupid.

"What kind of eight year old is scared of the dark?" That was Mary's response to her daughter last week when Madeline begged for the hall light to stay on throughout the night. "There's nothing to be afraid of. Now, hush up and sleep. Mummy's got company."

'Mummy' always seemed to have company these days.

     The gentle creaking of Mum's bed only grew louder and louder, as if at any given moment the bed would give out. Madeline secretly hoped it would. That would mean the bad man would go away and she could have her mother to herself again. No matter how thick her pillow was, it would never be enough to block out the noises. The noises coming from Mum, from the man, from the bed — Madeline heard it all.

"When you wish upon a star," Madeline sang softly with no one to listen but her teddy and the stars up above. "Makes no difference who you are. Anything your heart desires will come to you."

When she was younger and she still had a family, they would gather together on Friday nights when Dad got home from work and watch timeless Disney classics together. Madeline's all time favorite was Pinocchio. It'd felt like forever since she'd seen the movie, but one scene always stuck with her. Geppetto wanted a son, a family, just like Madeline, and the Blue Fairy had granted him that wish in making his puppet a real boy.

"Do wishes really come true, Daddy?" Madeline remembered asking her father this, long ago.

Louie simply smiled, ruffling his daughter's hair. "Of course they do, baby girl."

His voice sounded like a faraway echo in her head now.

"I just want my family back. I promise, I'll be a good girl." Madeline whispered into the night. And she meant it, with all of her heart. If dreams really did come true, her only dream was to have a family again, nothing more.

Madeline closed her eyes, the words of her father dancing around in her head, taunting her, until she fell asleep to the creaking of her mother's mattress and the groans of the bad man.

There was something that movie forgot to mention; the stars couldn't care less about a little girl with a dream.

     And so Madeline vowed to stop believing in the stars and to start believing in herself.