Folding Blind Destiny

Her

Life...life is a story with happy, sad or regretful endings as a result of our own decisions. At least that's what I wanted to believe. That we are in control of our own lives, that we dictate our own destiny...

Sadly, it seemed as if each passing day of my so-called life wanted to prove that my belief was wrong, that I, you, all of us are caged within boundaries we cannot escape no matter how hard we try. Our paths are drawn from the first second we breathe by the place we live in, by who our parents are-if they are- by the way we look and, for some, by whom they love.----

These conditions sentence us to a life some of us don't want and some of us don't deserve.

As for me... I belonged in the first category. I was an orphan. I had no one I could trust and love, no one to share my everyday-experiences with – not that I had that many anyway- no...family.

Family? What a weird word. As far as I'm concerned, the closest I had to a family was the old lady from the orphanage's canteen, although she never talked nor looked at me... but hey, she still was my granny in my head. She also adored me in my head and made the food only for me, but as the generous person that I am, I let her give food to the other children as well. Ha, I was really thankful for my imagination as it was the only thing that kept me from going insane.

In all my 17 years of living I've never had a real friend. I tried to get close to children from the orphanage or from school, but it never worked out. I guess people just didn't like me for I was always considered weird.

My name was unusual, to say the least. Zoey wasn't exactly the most common name a Korean girl could have. I was always way taller than girls my age and even boys and it's not exactly the kindest thing to be called a natural abomination for being 173 cm tall. Another thing people didn't seem to like about me was the fact that I always spoke my mind whenever something disturbed me which gained me some hurtful nicknames.

I got used to being alone after all of those failed attempts of opening up to people. I realized I was better of this way. Alone. I was enough for myself. Nobody would ever care about me anyway so why bother.

However, there was one thing I enjoyed doing: volunteering. I saw a poster on the school's notice board, during my freshmen year, about a hospital nearby that was accepting volunteers to assist people with disabilities. I thought it wouldn't hurt to try and make something worthy with my life. Plus I had nothing else to do besides school and my part-time job on weekends.

"Okay, Zoey, let's do this!", I mumbled to myself as I signed my name on the volunteering sheet.

"Oh, Kang Zoey? What an interesting name you have, dear! I'm sure our patients will remember it.", said the middle-aged woman, who I presumed was the head nurse, as she took the sheet from my hand and looked over it.

"Uhm...that's what I wanted to ask. Is it possible for me not to use my real name here? What I mean is, may I use a pseudonym? "

"B-but why?", the woman looked at me confused.

Because those from the orphanage wouldn't allow me to be here if they were to find out. Was what I wanted to say.

"Because I think it'd be cooler if I were mysterious, you know? It's a teenager thing.", was what I said with a cheeky grin.

"Okay, young lady, let me see what I can do then!", the nurse pursed her lips as she nodded only to continue: "What pseudonym would you want to use?"

"Hmm... How abooout-", I scratched my chin for a moment, in deep thought: "-Agatha! You know, like the famous writer. Agatha Christie", I clapped my hands as the idea came into my mind. "She was very smart and talented. She's inspiring. I want to be like that too."

"Wah, a teenager who reads! Please tell my son your secret. He wouldn't touch a book even if his life depended on it.", the woman sighed. "Anyway, Agatha", she emphasized my new 'name', "I'm Mrs Kim. I'm the head nurse as you may have noticed. I hope we'll work well together!" she extended her hand for a handshake.

I accepted the handshake as I nodded, a little worried because I wasn't used to someone being nice to me for more than 10 seconds: "Thank you, Mrs Kim! I promise I'll do my best!", a small smile appearing on my face.

I left the hospital after that, not realizing how much this volunteering work was going to affect my life, that it was going to play a major role in it.

A role which was either going to ruin or heal my future...