{Fiction} When Pigs Fly

As a kid, whenever I asked Mom for something out of this world – like a new bike or video game console — her favorite reply was “Sure, when pigs fly.”
When I was 5, I painted a mural of the zoo on the hallway wall while she napped. I showed her masterpiece once she woke. My eyes were bright with the praise I expected to receive. Instead, she cuffed me on the back of the head and told me to scrub my “graffiti” off her walls.
Tears welled up in me, but I choked