Hello

Preface: Hello

Preface

Nearly every story starts with just one word: hello. It is a word that means one thing, yet can imply a whole world of others. If you heard me say 'Hello' as if I were a murderer, well done. You've reached the point in your life wen you should see a psychiatrist. Don't worry, everyone gets there: don't know why, they just do. If, however, you read it like a clown, there are three things you should do: stop fearing clowns, stop going to the circus, and stop reading this book. There aren't any clowns in it (well, not yet, at least), why are you imagining there are? But I digress, procrastinate, divagate, go off on a tangent, and meander down a long road of trains and ducks.

Where to begin? Where did I begin? Who am I? Hang on, you don't know that. I'll start there. Hello, and welcome to the minds and worlds of the Narrator.

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Hello. My name is Narrator 1053. I come from the world of Narration, tasked with narrating the paths of every single creature in the universe. Each newborn is allocated his or her littera, (or capitonem merdosum as we called them at school): another newborn from another world, taught how to narrate things, told how to not be seen, and told how to make money from what they themselves see. It's interesting, most of the time. Mate of mine got a guy in Hawaii who just sat and drank cocktails for the last twenty years of his life: that isn't fun. I read a bit of his story after the littera died. The most interesting line of it was 'Nigel woke up at three o'clock this morning, scratched his crotch area, and went back to sleep to dream about sand and sun'. That mustn't have been fun.

But this isn't Nigel's or anyone else's story: this is Natasha's story, my littera, and my story, in a way. And Nigell and Narrator 6955...