"And Cinderella and the prince lived happily ever after."

His mother closed the heavy book of fairytales and laid it on the wooden nightstand. She planted a kiss on her son's forehead, smiled and said, "Good night, Danny."

"Good night, mommy," the five-year-old replied. Suddenly, he erupted into a loud yawn, stretching his small arms. Then he turned over on his side, smiling as happily as his mother, and closed his eyes.

His mother got up from the bedside and walked towards the light switch. Right before she could turn off the light, Danny murmured, "Mommy?"

"Yes, Danny?" his mother said.

"Will you keep reading to me when I get older?" the boy asked.

"Of course," his mother said. "As long as you want me to."

"I'll always want you to read to me," Danny mumbled.

********************

Eight-year-old Danny was watching his father's hands intently as the man meticulously tied a kind of knot in the strip of fabric around his neck. "And then you tug at this end," the older man said, "like that." The knot tightened.

"Thanks, dad," Danny said, inspecting himself in the mirror. He was dressed in black trousers, black shoes, a white, silk shirt and a black tie his father had just tied for him. The clothing was strangely uncomfortable, but Danny figured that this was simply the kind of stuff that grown-ups wore. At the very least, he really looked like one of adults now!

His father lay a hand on Danny's shoulder. "Ready for your uncle's wedding, kid?"

Suddenly, something occurred to the boy. "Just a minute!" he said. He walked to his bookshelf and took out Grimm's Fairy Tales. Now that he could read the book himself, he had come to love it even more. He no longer had to wait for his mother to read to him; he could read all of his favourite stories at any time.

"Can I take this with me, dad?" he asked.

"Sure," his dad said, rubbing his son's hair. "Come on, Dan, let's go!"

********************

"I'm so proud of you, Dan," his mother said, hugging him.

"Thanks," Dan said, putting his arms around her. In his right hand, he held his secondary school diploma.

His mother let go off him. His father, standing behind his wife, smiled proudly.

"Good job, son," he said. "After you've finished university, you can come work at my company. I'll need someone to take over the business when I retire."

"I'd love to, dad," Dan said. He noticed the knot in his tie had got slightly loose, so he pulled at the end of the fabric and pushed the knot upwards. That was when his gaze fell on his copy of Grimm's Fairy Tales. It was lying about on the coffee table at the other end of the room. How had that thing got there? He hadn't opened it in over a year.

"Oh, yeah, I must have put that there while I was cleaning," his mother said, noticing that Dan was staring at the book.

"Maybe it's time to throw it away, son," his father said. "You're getting a bit too old for books like that, aren't you?"

"Yeah," Dan said, "I guess I am."

That same week, he went to the second-hand shop and handed over his book. As he left the store, he sighed involuntarily.

********************

"Dan!"

His father came running into his twenty-five-year-old son's office and slammed a file on the desk. "I need this finished by five o'clock," he commanded.

"Five o'clock," Dan repeated. "All right." He opened the file. It contained a stack of bills, which he would have to process. A wave of nausea overcame him. He would never be able to finish this in time, never, never...

As his father left his office, he loosened his tie. He had the ominous feeling that thing was really a noose. And any moment, his father could pull a lever and he would be left dangling in mid-air, choking.

More than ever, he longed for his old copy of Grimm's Fairy Tales.

********************

The old man behind the counter took his cigar out of his mouth. "Sorry, sir," he told Dan, "but if you brought that book here about seven years ago, you can be sure we don't have it anymore."

Dan sighed. "That's okay," he said, looking away. He felt like crying. His old book was lost forever, and with it the free, imaginative child he had once been.

He left the second-hand shop and sat down on a low wall by the side of the street, resting his head on his hands. He sighed. So this, this was adult life. Why had he ever wanted to grow up?

Suddenly, Dan heard the shop's bell jangle. He looked up to see the old shop-owner leaving the building and closing the door behind him. He sat down next to Dan.

"Are you all right, sir?" he asked.

"Don't call me 'sir', please," Dan said. "Call me Dan... Danny."

"If you wish, Danny," the man said. "Is something the matter?"

"With that book I gave away, I lost my childhood," Dan said. "I want it back now. I'm sick of this cold, overworked grown-up world."

The old man laughed. "Danny," he said, "being a child is not the same as owning a book." He poked his index finger into Dan's chest. "The key to being a child is this. And your imagination."

He got up and went back to his store. And at that moment, Dan knew what to do.

He took out his mobile phone and called his father.

"Dad, I'm resigning," he said.

His father laughed mockingly. "I wouldn't, if I were you. How are you going to make money now?"

But Danny only smiled, more self-confident than ever. "I'm going to write an adaptation of Grimm's Fairy Tales," he said. "Goodbye, dad."

He ended the call and began to walk home, dropping his tie on the ground.

And he lived happily ever after.

********************

Word count: 996