First Edition (Short Story)

Part 6 The Reveal

It was a black folder with a small journal tucked imside. The folder was like a school report cover that you would put all of your papers and notes together in the three ring binder part. All of the pages were neatly puf in clear sheet protectors like the kind used for projects or book reports. Each page had writing on the front and back and it had a title page with the words 'Working Title' in parenthesis. Right below that in bold letters was written ' Immortally Beloved' - A story by Jake Stevenson.

It was a novel that he started writing way back in junior high school. He stopped working on it because he was running out of ideas and around that time he was really getting into music and pouring his whole self into learning how to play the classical guitar so his little novel along with his other hobbies got put on the back burner and then sadly forgotten over time. Jacob never considered himself a serious writer although he always came up with cool ideas and characters. Since he read so much his imagination was always working but he never could put his ideas down on paper to build and create a great story. It was like there was a road block between his mind and his black journal. It was just too frustrating so he focused on his musical training instead.

Seeing that black folder again was like seeing an old friend who you haven't seen in a long time. It was offputting and yet strangely familiar at the same time. Jacob remembered the very first day he sat down and started writing. He was so excited because he was going to write the book that he had always wanted to read.

Looking down at the black journal it seemed to be mocking him, putting pressure on Jacob to write anything down. He knew that if he could get past the initial shock and fear of beginning his very first book then once he actually started he knew it would get easier after each page he finished. He struggled with ideas that could become good stories at first but as his brain fired off more images he started forming the nucleus of his novel and so he put his pen to paper and was off like a prom dress, parden my French.

It started its birth the night before he graduated the 8th grade and headed into high school. It was going really good until he started attending guitar class. He would pull his journal out and write a little here and there but his extra- curricular activities started taking more and more of his time every day it seemed. From music and guitar class he started meeting other fellow musicians and befriending them. Jacob was actually starting to have a social life so all of his hobbies and time fillers were pushed aside to make way for an American Standard Fender Stratocaster and a small Fender combo amp. Rock and roll.

Jacob had written about half of his story before he hit a brick wall. He got stuck with the curse that all writers dread - writer's block. No matter how hard he tried he just couldn't get his creative juices flowing to finish the last half of his book. Around this time he had pretty much commited his entire brain to learning guitar along with music theory, devouring everything he studied like an F5 tornado. Thinking about it now, Jacob figured that since he was putting all of his energy and thinking into his musical studies that that might've been a huge factor for getting his writer's block and eventually abandoning his writing career and almost immediately putting those pages away and completely forgetting about the novel that could've been. And then, in the middle of this memory, it happened. A full circle epiphany.

Jacob picked up that black notebook and turned to the last page that he had written all those years back in high school around his junior year. He didn't need to read it from the beginning to refresh his memory of what he had written up to that last blank page. Somewhere a memory flickered inside his head and his story came rushing back as if he had never put that notebook down and walked away from it until now. Everything started to click, his memories became sharper and all of a sudden Jacob knew how he was going to finish his unfinished novel including the ending. His head was aching as if all of his ideas needed to be written down in order for them to me released from his head immediately.

It seemed like the last half of his book was meant to be thought of at this exact moment at this exact time in his life. Everything made sense right then, everything he'd done and every decision he had made both bad and good in his life had brought him to the now like it was meant to be. He finally realized what special first edition novel was not in his library. At least not yet anyways.

He remembered how his story started and where it was headed so when he took the folder into his library to continue working on it he didn't have to change much, just a little updating because of the dated material to get it current and up to speed. His story was about a young boy who's passion for books and reading nurtured him into a legitimate book collector who someday wanted to become a best selling, sought after and beloved writer of short stories, poems and novels. And just like that, his fiction became non-fiction because the name of the little boy was Jake and he did it.

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He smiled as he put his brand new first print first edition hardcover of ' Immortally Beloved' onto his book shelf next to his favorite authors that were the biggest influences on his life hoping that his children would do the same someday. For now, everything was right as rain.

The beginning...