An Ocean Away

Chapter 02

"Have a good night, Mr. Andrews!" I waved goodbye to one of our part time employees as I headed to the back of the store.

"Goodnight, sweetie! Happy Birthday again and Enjoy your birthday dinner. " He called back from the front of the store where he was fixing the sign in the window advertising the free cupcakes.

"Thanks." I muttered to myself before opening the door that hid the stairs to our apartment. I took them two at a time as the smell of my favorite beef stew slowly made it's way to my senses.

"Oh ma, that smells so good." I said as I walked into the kitchen to find her stirring a large pot. She only ever made this stew for my birthday. The ingredients were hard to come by during this time of year and required at least a week of preparing.

"We're just waiting on Finn to get here and then we'll be able to eat."

I walked over to the table in the dining room where my birthday cake sat. She made it yesterday afternoon and it sat in the middle of the table on a cake stand with a clear lid. It just sat there teasing me for the last 28 hours and I couldn't take it any longer. I took the opportunity of her being busy in the kitchen to sneak a bite. I pulled the lid off and quickly slid my finger across the frosting on the back side of it. I put the little piece of frosting into my mouth and closed it back up.

I only had a moment to enjoy the delicious taste of the sweet, homemade frosting, when I turned around to see she was looking right at me. Her hands were her hips and the look she always gave me when I've been caught was planted on her face.

"I am only human, mother! Even Eve took a bite out of the apple!" I cried out to her as my only form of defense.

She walked past me and picked up the cake by the stand, taking it to her bedroom. "And look at all the trouble Eve caused us by taking that bite." I heard her say in the other room, "Eve never had me for a mother." She said when she walked back into the main living area and back into the kitchen.

I planted myself with a heavy thump into one of the dining table chairs, "Eve's mother probably let her enjoy an apple or two on her birthday." I said under my breath.

Our apartment was small and the walls were paper thin so there wasn't a doubt in my mind that she heard me. The woman had the ears of a hawk but she clearly chose to ignore me, maybe finding mercy on my birthday.

I tapped my fingers against the table, taking a moment to decide how I wanted to spend the next few minutes before Finn got here. I settled on reading the daily town newspaper that my mother had brought up from this morning. It was sitting in front of me on the table and I picked it up absentmindedly.

The Briosil Newspaper was handled by two men, Kenneth and Joseph Rowan. They were brothers that had always wanted to start their own newspaper company but didn't know how or where to start. They eventually settled on starting from home and after about a decade or so, Rowan Bros. Newspaper Co. was founded. Kenneth lived in Pensia where he wrote the pieces of news happening in the Capital and Joseph handled the pieces of news in Town, which wasn't much. I think Kenny got the better end of the stick.

The work was hard and time consuming work but everyone in town appreciated their efforts because without them we would be getting news from the capitol weeks late.

The headline for today's event was the marriage of the Regional Governor of Odren's daughter. There was a photo of her, her parents, her new husband and his parents just above the article. She looked beautiful in a stunning long sleeved dress with a train that went on so far that it wasn't even in the shot anymore.

"Must be nice to be a Governor's daughter." I scoffed to myself. I went on to read the article written just below it as it went into detail about the day. It described the flowers, the dress, the dinner and the venue. The writer could only assume that the entire event cost well over 200,000 Marks. I continued on, abruptly stopping at a line in italics. My eyes hovering over the quote that the bride had given the reporter.