The Street Of Dreams
If you did not know anything about Indii Mmo, you must have at least heard the single most important thing about it—they did not call it 'the street of dreams' for nothing.
In Indii Mmo, rough farm boys were made into sophisticated men of society and bashful girls were transformed into elegant ladies. Indii Mmo was where you went when you wanted to make something of yourself; to become a part of a life you might have not been born into.
I was born in a little house tucked behind a small shop just off Indii Mmo. Being in such close proximity to wealth, status and the evidence of the largesse of the ruling class of the city gave me a longing for the finer things in life. My mother and father were fabric sellers of little consequence, their customers being the poor whose feet could not darken the pristine white stone paving of Indii Mmo’s road. I knew the street well, its very length and breadth stamped in the map of memory.
There was nothing more exciting than mixing and mingling with the crowds on a market day in Indii Mmo. As a child, I would often be left to myself while my family sweated and haggled over cloth. That time was spent floating from one big window after another, ogling the fine goods on display in the shops.
Sandals made with leather from distant Osman.
Robes draped and sewn with the finest Arubain silk.
Bangles and anklets crafted from Isionite glass.
It all shone and shimmered, blending into one in my eyes. In my mind’s eye, I saw myself as a grown woman, dressed in the fashions of my childhood, my entire dowry spent to array me in the finery of a queen. It would be unfair, I knew, to expect my father and mother to spend substantial amounts on my dress and nothing to secure my future. But what do you expect from a dreaming child? The treasures of Indii Mmo called to me and I, in my own childish way, answered.
I was sixteen when the announcement was made. The officer, sweating under the weight of his court uniform and the relentlessness of the midday sun stood in the middle of the square which marked the beginning of Indii Mmo to spew the words inked on his scroll. “The Crown Princess is in need of new handmaidens,” he proclaimed. “All who are of age are mandated to apply.”
Squeals and shrieks took the place of his voice once he had relieved himself of his duty to us. This was more than an opportunity to rise above our stations. Nay, it was a boon! My friends and I, overcome with excitement, held each other and screamed with glee.
“Is there any point to applying?” My father did not see the use of it. Picking handmaidens from among the common people was unheard of. “She can pick from among the courtiers. There are enough of them in the palace,” was his gruffly given opinion, spoken between bites of boiled fowl.
“Hush,” my mother was quick to tell him. “Affi is good enough to work in the palace. Besides, this is an opportunity. Who knows, she might be our key to finally affording a shop on Indii Mmo!”
That was enough to get his attention. In that moment, I could have asked of them anything in the world. Their eyes fixed on me, filled with a calm hope and an assurance that I shrank from. A place on Indii Mmo? It would attract more customers. More customers meant more money. More money meant better living situations. No more existing in a tiny house behind a shop. We would be able to afford a bigger house, servants and my dowry would be large enough to tempt a respectable suitor. All of this dependent on impressing the princess enough to be in her service.
I began to sweat through my clothes, uncomfortable with the responsibility I now bore.
Indii Mmo is the longest street in the capital and almost as old. Stretching the entirety of the lower quarter of the city, its white paving stones do more than announce your entry into it. No, they tell you a story. One marked by prestige and luxury; a memorial to the everlasting dream of rising through the ranks. Shops line its length, merchants peddling everything from exotic fabrics to the latest in jewellery fashions from neighbouring kingdoms. It has been said that if a thing was going to become popular, it was very likely birthed by someone in Indii Mmo.
I took it seriously, my proximity to the famous street. All who existed so close to the majesty of it did. Indii Mmo was more than a street to us. It was an ideal and a belief. A venerated deity whose worship came in form of pilgrimages to the shops and looks of awe. The day I handed my letter of introduction to the officials who had come to collect, I found myself solemnly strolling down Indii Mmo. Eyes downcast and prayerful, I whispered my wish for acceptance to the lime washed brick walls of the shops. If there were no gods, Indii Mmo was mine and I know my supplications were heard.
My seventeenth name day came with the news of my selection. Everyone on my street rejoiced. Out of thousands in the kingdom, my name was placed among a hundred. The favored hundred, all in the running to be among the numbers in the palace. There were five of us chosen from the areas surrounding Indii Mmo. Two were friends of mine. I could not contain my joy at knowing I was close to being a royal handmaiden.
Yet, my joy was not left to fill my thoughts by itself. Fear rose from the depths of my belly, coating my celebrations with a bitter tinge. There were a hundred of us—how was I supposed to fare among such numbers? The weight of my family’s expectations pressed down on my shoulders, bowing my back until I felt like how the old woman who picked scraps from our refuse looked.
I was halfway to my eighteenth name day when I was summoned to the palace. Gathered in the eastern courtyard of the royal residence, the favored hundred were presented with a simple task. The Crown Princess wanted something from each of us and in a month’s time, we were to gather again in the throne room to present our findings.
But, what was it?
A servant handed me a small scroll the length of my palm from a basket. Nervously, I unfurled it to find tiny words scratched into it, nearly unreadable to my eyes.
‘A place loved by many. Filled with joy and wonder. Beauty in every corner. The cornerstone of dreams.’
I blinked, unsure of what I had just read. A place loved by many? How was I supposed to know! Around me, confused applicants looked up from their scrolls and at each other, muttering at the riddle we were presented with.
Supper with my parents was spent poring over the riddle and a map of the kingdom, loose sheets of paper decorating our tiny front room more than we had ever done. “It has to be Lake Opel,” my father commented as he stabbed a point on the map. “Many go there for prayers. The main sanctuary is one of the most beautiful structures in the country and it is a place for seers to meet worshipers seeking interpretation for their dreams.”
“No, it has to be the main sanctuary here in the capital,” my mother disagreed. “The royal family makes regular visits there. I’m sure they are referring to it.”
“Maybe it is the palace in Duchesa?” Was my contribution to the discussion. “The Queen allows public tours of the larger gardens and it is said to be very beautiful and a wonder to behold.”
All month we went back and forth, squabbling over one location after another. Day after day, my desperation for an answer rose. Sleep became an afterthought, only remembered when sunlight struck my eyes as the great orb awakened to blaze bright. Candles burned longer, fueled by my drive to know more about the kingdom and obtain a suitable answer.
My friends were not without answers. “The gardens in Zanderlott,” my friend Enayi informed me smugly when we met a week to our regrouping. She seemed so sure. So confident that she was right. I hung my head, ashamed that I could not claim a sureness like hers.
I hated that I could not figure it out. There were many places in the kingdom to consider. Some might even say their homes and hearths were the answer. I could not. We had a day left before the palace demanded our attendance again. My lack of preparedness was motivation enough not to go.
My pride would not let me do so. My parents, overjoyed by the prospect of having a handmaiden for a daughter, made much of me to the neighbors as the time drew closer. “She is positively brilliant, my Affi. She would be a credit to the role,” my mother had bragged to a customer. In a corner, my ears burned and I blushed, uncomfortable with the attention brought my way.
Restless from the constant pondering and wondering, I could not stand to stay in the house. In a matter of hours, the brightening of the sky would mark a new day and my feet would find the way to the palace. I could not sleep. My mind felt battered from the exercise it had been given a month before. I needed to clear my head. To get out of the house and breathe.
Quietly, I snuck out. Walking around the shop and into the street, my feet took the familiar path to Indii Mmo. The silence of the night quietened the activity in my head, steadying my thoughts for the first time in weeks. Silently, I trod down the street leading from my home to Indii Mmo and breathed a sigh of relief when my sandals felt the comforting familiarity of its paving stones.
The almost empty street gave me no cause for alarm. Fires lit in the lamp posts burned bright, giving light to the road and illumination to the wares staring at me from behind their enclosures of stone and glass. It was reassuring to see, pulling me into the stream of memory and placing my thoughts firmly in childhood fantasies. Dressed in the attire of an imaginary queen, I twirled and jumped. Laughter flowed from my lips as my fancy gave me wings and brought lightness to my feet.
“Yow!”
The suddenness of the stone knocking me off my stride twisted my lips downwards. My foot stung from the impact but I paid it no mind. The stone, out of place in the perfectness of Indii Mmo, drew my curiosity. Bending down, I picked it up and brought it closer to inspect. It was the size of half a brick, white as the stones inset in the ground. One of its sides was jagged, a likely sign of it once being part of a building. I turned to look at the shop to my right, noting as I did a small hole at the bottom of its display window.
And that was when it came to me.
Wrapping the stone in a corner of my dress, I hurried back home. This had to be it. I knew it had to be. I could not be have been more sure.
Midday found me standing in line before the secondary throne in the throne room. Seated before us in all her finery was the Crown Princess. Jewels dripped from every surface they could drip from. Her robes and wrappers, full and fine, gleamed from the light of the sun streaming through the tall windows. Scribes surrounded her, making note of our responses while her members of her retinue scrutinized us.
My place in line was far enough for me to shake some of the tension I felt loose. It would be almost evening by the time it got to my turn and with the prospect of getting my supper from the palace kitchens, I was in no hurry to go home. I patted the parcel I carried in my hand, giddy at the thought of what I knew. Certainty came with the awareness of possibility of failure. Disappointment would be a close bed fellow should it all go wrong.
“Affi Afiande Affinim,” a scribe called out to me. “Step forward.”
Slowly, I lifted my gaze to meet the sharp eyes of Her Highness. I trembled and my throat went dry. It might not be the answer and it would not be the end of the world, I reminded myself.
“A place loved by many. Filled with joy and wonder. Beauty in every corner. The cornerstone of dreams,” a courtier in the princess’s retinue recited.
Shaking, I sank to one knee and slowly lifted the cover of the parcel in my hand to reveal the brick I had tripped over just that morning. “The answer is Indii Mmo, Your Highness.”
I almost rubbed my eyes, astonished to see a tiny smile lift the corner of the princess’s mouth. Emboldened by this, I went on.
“Many come to Indii Mmo and fall in love with its charms. Awe fills the eyes of all who behold the goods of the merchants whose shops are bursting to their roofs with the most exotic and luxurious of goods. Those who are fortunate enough to own a piece of Indii Mmo marvel at the beauty they possess. It is a place of wonder. A place where the lowly can dream of becoming something other than who they are. That is Indii Mmo, the street of dreams.”
I still remember the sniggering of the others. How some of the retinue had chuckled and the scribes stared at me as if I were a curiosity in a corner shop. Where others had extolled the magnificence of temples and gardens, I had chosen to sing the praises of a street. Indii Mmo meant more to me than some far flung structure. Indii Mmo was my home and my first love.
I was eighteen the first time I donned my robes.
Silk from Arubanin.
Sandals made from Amanshe leather.
Glass jewellery from Ision.
It had been months since the announcement was made and the bag of coins slipped from my hands to my parents and finally, a landlord.
Hairpins made in Demicia.
Belt woven by Nagesi weavers.
I was Affi, personal attendant to Her Highness and product of the street of dreams.
