The Awakening

There once lived a man and a woman who were unhappy because they were childless.

Until one day a doctor changes their life and they have a baby girl. They ask the doctor to bestow on their baby genes for beauty, intelligence, grace, athletic prowess, singing ability and creativity. But at the christening an elderly aunt appears, dressed in black, and scoffs at this. Once she hits puberty none of her gifts will make any difference, the aunt says. She’ll just get married and settle down with her two point four brats, the same as anyone else.

Years pass and the girl is seventeen and a high-flyer, the world at her feet. Then she meets a young man and feels something strange, as if an arrow has pierced her heart . . .