Turning the Page

Chapter 1: 22

Have you ever skipped to the end of a book to see what happens next? Well, what if you could do that with your life? Haven't you ever been curious to see how it all turns out? Let's take this a bit further. What if you could read anyone's book? Imagine knowing every decision a person will make in their lifetime. If you knew they were going to make a mistake, would you intervene or let them be? We each have a book, some believe our book is set in stone and others think it is made of the ink and paper of our decisions. What do you believe?

My name is Ava Kingly and this is my story. My story? You may be wondering what exactly I mean. Will I be telling the tale leading up to the present and continuing forward with you? Am I in the past and my whole account is ready to be told from beginning to end? Do you even want to hear my story? There are millions of stories happening every day - what makes mine so special? Well, there is only one way to find out. 

Do you remember that book you read? You know the one. The hero doesn't belong, the hero realizes hidden talent and then the hero becomes amazing because of that talent. There are secondary characters that are less influential to the story and you secretly wonder if you would be the hero or the sidekick if you were in the book. Let me let you in on a little secret: the secondary characters are the heroes in their own story. That shouldn't be mistaken for boastfulness. Not everyone will be the king or queen and that is okay. However, not being the royalty in the fantasy doesn't mean that your part of the story is any less important. The minor roles matter too. All right all right, I can feel your eyes roll from here. All I'll say is this: Yes, having the so-called "little job" is less glamorous, but if those jobs aren't done everything falls apart. Fine, I'm stopping. 

So I suppose I'll start at the beginning as every story does. I was born twenty-two years ago today. It was a cold winter's night and I am convinced that that is where my love of winter began. I am the eldest child of three. six years after me, Liam was born and two years after that James came into the world. My parents, Ellie and Noah, are what people call "cute parents". They haven't really realized that they are no longer in their twenties. We are a very tight-knit family, which means that we are both simultaneously incredibly close and would do anything for each other, while at the same time we are always at each other's throats. My parents say that we fight because we care - which may be true but unfortunately doesn't make it any more enjoyable.  We live in the small town of Corman right off of Dallian. Dallian is our version of a big city, although it consists of only 500 people and one mall which has seven stores. Are you beginning to understand our lifestyle a little better? My parents own a bed and breakfast called Lurry's. Lurry's is named after my dad's father Lawrence who passed away ten years ago. My parents always wanted to run an inn and the inheritance from Gramps and their savings combined enabled them to open it in his memory. We are a Goldilocks kind of family, not too rich and not too poor, not that many friends, but not lacking in that department either. We are just right. 

It is the 22nd of January today and as I said it's my twenty-second birthday. I've always enjoyed the simplicity of numbers fitting together so seamlessly, so as you might imagine today has been a well anticipated day. Birthdays are important events in my family. As we've grown up, we always make sure to be together for them. My mom always says it's the beginning of a new chapter, and there are only so many chapters in the book before it's over (morbid but true I suppose). I woke up this morning to a "surprise" breakfast in bed brought to me by my family. I say "surprise" in that way because I have now had twenty-two versions of these "surprises". I love this tradition, it brings a kind of comfort to know exactly how the routine will play out. Li will make the best hot chocolate that the world has ever seen (that he somehow seems to improve every year), Jay will make the scrambled eggs, Dad will make some freshly squeezed orange juice and Mom will cut up a little salad and arrange it all in that beautiful way that mysteriously resembles a flower. They will all walk in and Dad will rub my back as they start to sing Happy Birthday. At this point, Li will bring out the cookie and birthday candle and we'll all laugh, remembering the time Mom burned the cake and brought out a cookie with a candle insisting that was the plan all along. And lastly, Jay will bring out a new journal to add to the collection. Our parents have always been very insistent that we keep journals of our lives and every year for our birthdays we get a unique new one to start the year off right.

Everything I just said happened just the way it should. The parts I excluded, however, were when James and Liam started bickering in the kitchen while they were making the food. This, of course, woke me up and I had to lie there waiting to be "woken up" to preserve the magical feeling of the day. While I lay waiting, I heard Mom and Dad discussing the bill for the new kitchen at Lurry's that they had to get after a small, but nonetheless devastating, kitchen fire that put most of the kitchen appliances out of order. 

Like I said, we're a Goldilocks family. We have the good and the bad - but not too much of either which keeps it just right.  

I love my family and unbeknownst to us at the time we were where it all began.