One Little Spark: Part 1

Chapter 38

Note: The following chapter will be narrated as a first-person point of view by the character Rachel. Everything in this text will be coming straight from her mouth for this chapter alone. Any material that is recognized by outside readers in this chapter of the story are entirely and completely coincidental, credited from its source.


— WishExpedition23


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          It happened fifteen years ago last month, the day my childhood ended. By the time of day that you two first met me it had already been fifteen years and ten days over since what I'm about to tell you happened. I was just a little girl that time, a very shy little girl. I was almost seven-years-old. In those days, as I have kept telling you throughout this adventure, my father had been treating me and my siblings very terribly. Well, mostly me because I never came out as the son he had wanted and that me being born had resulted in my mother being considered that it was unsafe for her to get pregnant again. So if you ever hear my dad say, "I never got to have a son of my own. We weren't able to make that happen," what he really means to say is "[b]lame Rachel! It's her fault my wife can't provide me any sons." Technically, the way he really means to say it is a lot more vulgar to be verbally expressed, but I'll spare you those details. I hardly believe Figment's childlike sense would not be tainted if I told you how he says it.

          Everything my father gave to my sisters and adopted brother, I was given less. I did everything I could do to get him to love and appreciate me as I am, but no matter what I did, it was never enough. There were times when he tried to feed me less food than my mom and my siblings so that there wouldn't be another mouth to feed in the family. That's the kind of man he is.

          My mother, however, even though she has always expected a lot out of me as both a child and an adult, she was a lot more sympathetic for me. In fact, it was actually her that's caused the genesis of what was to come, which isn't to say I blame her for the whole thing. My mom is a court reporter. You probably don't know what that is, Figment, but I think maybe you do, Dreamfinder. Basically, a court reporter is someone who types down everything everyone in a court is saying during a trial. Mostly in some kind of abbreviations because they rely more on what the syllables sound like to match a word rather than relying on what specific word it is they say. Kind of like a dictator, if that's the right word. Anyway, every once in a while a court reporter has to attend a convention to update the processes of their career; which latest machines are more efficient, what the grammar and the format should currently be, and there are even some tests to re-certify your status as a court reporter or how experienced you are in that field. My mom today, one of the best! At that time, though, the convention she was supposed to go to was meant to take place right here in Florida. It was she who decided to make this a family trip to Walt Disney World. My siblings and I were excited to hear the news. My dad, however, he cared less about it really. Nevertheless, somewhere at the beginning of August, we packed up what we could bring and we flew all the way here in a five-hour flight for a two-week family vacation. 

          When we got here, we decided to come to the Magic Kingdom first. That's just up north from here. I was so excited. Everything that had happened in that park was like a dream come true. To meet all of the princesses Disney had that time, and there are a lot more today than that, I truly felt I was one of them...except my dad kept ruining everything for me. "Mickey Mouse isn't real! That's just a guy in a costume!" or "Fake! It's all done with mirrors!" or "Sit down and shut up! You're making us look like fools!" And more infamously, he says, "Nobody really cares about you here! You're not worth anything at all to the world!" I tried to disregard every one of those ranting comments throughout the night, but that last one always hits me deep. And he's made it much worse on the way back to the hotel by saying, "See? We're going back to the hotel now because of you. This is what happens when you cause trouble and make a fool of yourself." And right there in front of everyone in the monorail when we were leaving the park, where there was no escape route for me to run to, he says that he was ashamed that he's my father. I cried quietly in my sleep for hours that night.