A series of Fortunate events...

Over 6 months ago, on a calm evening of my solace, I switched on a show on NetFlix called Lemony Snicket's A series of Unfortunate events. 

  It was everything one could get hooked to. An infamous criminal played by Neil Patrick Harris as Count Olaf, a mystery with dark secrets and anagrams, a series of unfortunate events revolving around three lucky kids for whom you'd expect better things, but most of all, the incredulous wordplay by the narrator Lemony Snicket. 

  The first chapter is titled 'A bad beginning'. The advisory recommends to stop watching as there is nothing hopeful about the story, and all you want to do is defy it, and see for yourself that there is, after all, a different outcome. Because life, as we have learned, is an oxymoron to itself. 

  

  I binged on a few episodes and noticed that every episode ended with a quote against a black screen. The sound of a typewriter puffing out letters overpowered me, and swayed my heart.

A few -

"For Beatrice - 

My love for you shall live forever.

You, however, did not.

"

"For Beatrice-

You will always be in my heart,

My mind,

And in your grave."

"For Beatrice -

When we met, my life began.

Soon afterward,

Yours ended."

    ( If you want to experience the trance it instilled in me by yourself, go on and see to yourself by clicking on the link. You wouldn't regret or on second thought, you just might. The lines are, after all, sad, and you'd be left with a hauntingly beautiful sound of the typewriter keys.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onVmCstEyaE)

These simple words have such profound depth, and naturally, I wanted more. A quick google pronounced that the book that contains these letters to Beatrice from the fictional character/narrator, Mr.Lemony Snicket, is named "The Beatrice Letters."

I went online and frantically searched if there were any quick pdfs or epubs that I could grab, but with my luck, I couldn't find any. Next, I kept a relentless hunt on for it in the book stores I visited and the airport shops during my trips in three to four countries with no luck either. The closest I came so far as to order it online on Amazon. 

   Here, You have to know one thing about me before I proceed that I hardly ever buy books for myself. I most probably download them to my Kindle, and If I really wanted something in hardcover, then I'd get my husband to gift it for a unique/no occasion. This shift in thought happened a few years ago when I moved out of my parents' home. I had to leave behind my favorite books, which hurt me a little too much. In the last few years, having relocated to two countries, I decided that I cannot carry physical copies as much as I would like to and bearing in mind that once I finish a book unless I love it, I wouldn't go back to it. 

   Anyways, there was this glinted book of letters in my mind that I badly wanted more than anything, which kept eluding me for over months until today, where I magically have it in my hands. It all started to manifest a couple of weeks ago when we were mindlessly hovering stores in a nearby shopping complex, and I went exploring aisles in the Kinokuniya book store. 

  As a habit, I asked the lady for this book, half-expecting her to say anything other than no. Though nothing was new in this exchange, my reaction changed when she replied that she could arrange it for me if I made a purchase order. I nodded yes, despite wanting it to be a gift, I convinced myself that I have waited really long, and I can still call it a present. I asked her how long it would take, and she said about two weeks, and seeing my eager face, the kind lady said she would try her best to arrange it before Christmas. Usually, when a purchase order is made, they ask for a little advance to ensure there are no backsies. Surprisingly, she did not, and when enquired because I didn't want an empty order, she insisted I go about and come back when the book arrives. So be it, and we left.

   The following week we had a Secret Santa play out at work, and folks, you wouldn't believe, as luck and universe would have it, no don't go as far as thinking I received the book itself. That would be lit, I agree, but instead, I got the coupons for the same Kinokuniya store from my Secret Santa. 

  And the strange part was that the coupons worth was precisely the price worth of the book. To be honest, except my husband, none at my workplace knew about what I direly wanted.

   So, at the end of a 6-month ordeal, having asked soundlessly multiple times of wanting this book, I actually received it on Christmas Eve. My husband slid the coupons from my bag, went to Kinokuniya, arranged it to receive the call when the book arrived and took it upon himself to wrap it with a red bow, and even drew a Christmas tree doodle with his right hand (that went through a wrist dislocation this year to both of our most profound sorrow)

I cannot tell you much, but my belief from this abundant magical universe has come through strongly that everything can happen when I will it enough.

Thank you, Secret Santa, whoever you were, I really really wish your most cherished dream comes real this second. The Kinokuniya for making sure I had it as promised right before Christmas. And my most beloved husband, who went above and beyond, to make me happy and receive the gift the way I wanted it.