Maria was only 8 years old the first time it happened.
She was sitting at the kitchen table after getting home from school, doing her home work when she felt a weird tingle on the back of her neck. She scratched absentmindedly at the spot of the strange sensation, giving it no thought. She was finishing up her times table when her mother walked in from the laundry room, shuffling behind Maria's chair to set the basket of clean clothing to be folded onto the table top.
Stacy happened to get a glimpse of her daughter's neck as she went by, and immediately assumed that she knew who the culprit most likely was.
"Marcus git down here right this instant!"
"What did I do, Ma?!"
"Get yer behind into the kitchen this instant, young man!"
Maria allowed a small smirk to ghost her thin, pale pink lips as she eavesdropped into the conversation between mother and son. She had no clue what Marc had done this time, but it had to be good. Good enough for her to laugh at later on.
Marc hiked down the stairs, nearly tripping over his long, gangly legs as he did so, his growth spurt finally beginning to kick in at the age of 14. He stomped over to where his mother and kid sister sat, a glower sitting on his face because he had no idea what he has done wrong this time, but he knew he was not at fault!
"Whatever it is, I didn't do it!" the teen exclaimed in fury.
His irked mother clicked her tongue, a sign well known to her two children that they were stepping on her last nerve. Marc quickly allowed his glare to slide off of his face and be replaced by a look of shame to lessen the punishment he might receive for snapping at his mother.
"Take a good look at the back o' your sister's neck, young man! Are ya really gonna tell me that it wasn't you that drew on her skin?! Who else in this daggon house would have been immature enough to do a childish thing like that?!"
Stacy sighed and clamped shut her tired eyes after her explosive rant. She recognized that her mixed, native accent was showing deeply through the local one she has picked up over the 5 years she has lived in the city of Occupela, Ohio.
Marc obeyed his mother, looking at the back of Maria's pale neck. He gasped as he saw the dark lines roughly scrawled there, somewhat resembling the words "Luke was here" in children's handwriting. It was obviously drawn with a marker, possibly a permanent one.
"Maria..."
"Yeah, Marcie?" Maria turned in her chair to greet her older sibling with a grin as she called him the girlish version of his name, having the "C" make a "ss" sound instead of the "kk" sound when his name is pronounced properly. Marc shot her a quick glare at the nickname before inquiring about the writing.
"Is there anyone in your class named Luke?"
"Nope!" Maria replied cheerfully, then added "There is a boy named Lucas, but he hates it whenever someone calls him 'Luke'. Says that's his cousin's name an' he's tired of being mistaken for him. Why?"
"Well, uh... It looks like somebody had written on the back of your neck, kiddo. I'm pretty sure it says 'Luke was here', though the writing's as bad as yours so who knows. What do you think, Ma?"
Stacy had been standing by the pair, thinking and trying to contemplate why there was writing on her daughter's neck. She knew it hadn't been there before, she remembered telling her daughter to take a sparkly purple Hello Kitty sticker off of the nape of her neck so it wouldn't end up tangled in her hair. She could just imagine the trouble she would have to go through carefully pulling the sticker out of her 8 year old's light brown, wavy hair.
Stacy had heard rumors as she sat around one of the tall tables at her favorite local coffee bar that she frequented on days when both of her children went to friend's houses. Rumors of people from this town finding their soulmates through strange ways. There were so many ways to find your soul mate, that one person could not keep every one sorted in their mind. But no one was brave enough to make a true list of the various ways discovered so far. It all seemed so nonsensical. Man kind no longer believed in the concept of soulmates, right?
Right?
~~~~~~~~~~~
11 years later
Maria is all grown up now. The past eleven years have seen her pass most of her classes with flying colours. Math has always been her struggle, but she has found good tutors to help her achieve good grades in all of her math courses. She went above and beyond in her art classes, both in painting and sketching. If she has something to draw with and on (which is always since she keeps pencils and her sketchbook with her all the time), she is coming up with new ideas, constantly finding new subjects to capture.
She has a new job as a waitress at the Olive Garden in the city of Newport near her hometown, Occupela. The job paid well, at $13.30 an hour, 40 hours a week. She had made some new friends at this job within the past two weeks; Natalie Oswald, with her tanned, silken olive complexion, auburn hair with chestnut dusting the bottom.
YOU ARE READING
A different kind of world
FantasyThis is a book about soul mates. Different people meet their own in different ways. Some are known by others, some only the pair know of, a few the mates themselves don't know about, but someone does. Most of these ideas are from other people, I w...
