The vortex swirls, all-encompassing and terrorizing to the absolute. Pain does not describe this, the agony of suffering cannot compare. Tormenting discomforts, the mere aches and throbs of daily lives, paled next to the misery of torturous despair she felt every time.
Every time she died, that is.
Emmi Lahti wasn't your typical first-generation American. She was daughter of a crazy Finnish biologi, or biologist in American, and a tulkki who refused to settle down somewhere in fear of losing faithful customers who couldn't find someone else to translate Finnish to English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Latin or Italian. Well, unless they hired Emmi, which was practically impossible as her overbearingly protective father refused to let her wander aimlessly about when her dream to become a scientist was firmly intact.
Just what that dream held, Emmi didn't know until she set foot inside of her father's office as a test subject. Until they stuck a needle in her arm, and her first death occurred. Until she woke up fifty years in the future in a Paris alleyway, still wearing a plaid work skirt and fancy blouse. Until she met Peter Ignacio, the first and probably only other test subject to be injected with the Forever serum, as they learned to call it. Well, more as Peter told her to call it. Peter told her lots of things: primarily including his first words towards her:
"Welcome to eternity, dear. It sucks balls."
Note: Settings and times are randomly generated in this book, which challenges my writing style. I attempt to be as historically accurate as possible, but the farther back in time you go, and the farther you venture from major cities and where my travel experience is limited to, the farther my writing will be from the exacts... And facts. I get most of my info from Google Maps, or time period searches, along with museum sites (if the town has a museum). I don't stick to this info very often.
When an unlikely group comprising of a photographer, writer, musician, artist, and poet band together for a documentary film project, anything can happen. Even the impossible.
*****
College student Molly Lazuli's dream was always to become a writer. But since her parents never supported that calling, she worked towards an Engineering degree instead. When she winds up in a Humanities course, she is befriended by a fellow classmate, Cole Manzano, who convinces her to team up with him on creating a major project for the finals. Together, they recruit other members: John Garnet Sucgang, who also happens to be Molly's secret crush who is also a painter; Jasper Tupas, a gay actor and poet; and Alexa, a moody musician. Together the group embarks on a journey that not only has them creating a documentary of their lives' triumphs and tragedies, but also makes them realize the true meaning of friendship, acceptance, and what it takes to make their dreams come true.
#Wattys2019 Winner
Filipino Readers Choice Award 2022 Winner (Young Adult Category)
DISCLAIMER: This story is written in Taglish.