The Endless Story | Chapter 1 "Good Morning Lumi"

 

"Lumi! Good morning! Are you awake?" My father's voice, somewhat heavy from morning cigarettes, reached me from the distant kitchen, through the wooden door of my room, and finally to my ears. My half-awake brain recognized it as a familiar and routine sound sequence, and my eyes opened as if they had received a sudden command.

I don't like waking up in the morning, not specifically my father's call, but in general. I like traveling to the world of dreams and creating my own stories and characters. The only thing that perhaps matters is that as soon as I get up, I record in my notebook what I dreamed that night. That's what I'll do now.

I throw off the blanket and sit up in bed while stretching my body, stiff from hours of sleep. I don't want to go to the kitchen yet. My father is usually irritated by the morning news he watches, and I don't want to be there for the curses he throws at the television first thing in the morning. Though he certainly has a rich vocabulary for those.

I finally get up from the bed and sit at my desk chair, finding my notebook. A simple spiral notebook with plenty of pages and sticky bookmark tabs on the side. I separate them according to the type of dream. Romantic, adventure, scary, with animals, etc. If I lose this notebook, I might have a stroke. Inside, I record all my dreams, my stories, and especially my soul. Some stories are pleasant, some quite funny, and others terrifying. They usually remain unfinished in the middle since they don't have time to complete in my sleep, so I leave some blank pages to finish them later. I don't always give a happy ending, no matter how much the story demands it. I like playing with the characters, "tormenting" them, and in the end always leaving a hint of their death. I don't know why I do this. Death has always intrigued me.

It is a certainty of life and something we cannot change. But if we lived forever, what nostalgia would there be? As much as my vague thoughts circle my mind, I know that soon I won't remember today's story, so I take my pencil and begin to record.

"February 8, 2024. The Abduction.

Nestria decided today to open the magical door that led to some other world. She didn't know what would follow, yet she turned the golden doorknob of her closet door and opened it slowly. A breeze passed through the door and somehow tangled her hair. Some rays of light fell on the floor of her room, and a smell of warm food reached her nose. As if hesitating somehow, her hand remained steady for a few seconds. She thought for a moment about her family, her friends, and her life in this world. This door, for some reason, chose her closet to appear. Perhaps it knew she wanted to escape from everyone and everything, but now that the moment had come, she didn't know what to do. Or rather, she wasn't completely decided.

She looks at her room one last time. Her pink girly sheets, the posters of pop singers and bands, her clothes, some toys from her childhood, and finally a photo with her family. What reason was there to abandon them? And yet she knew that today's decision was important to her. As happy as her life was, as much as she loved and was loved by those around her, she wanted to escape, to live something magical, something exotic, something unprecedented. She lowered her head and teared up. She bit her lip to stop, to recognize that this door was an exit but also an entrance to something she wanted..."

"Lumi?" her father's loud voice was heard once again. "Get up! We have to go to your aunt's soon!" he continued somewhat tiredly.

It's Saturday today, the day we visit my late mother's older sister at the institution. My father wasn't very enthusiastic about this frequent visit we were forced to make. It was my mother's last wish, and she considered it something that would do both me and my Aunt Miriam good. She didn't want me to lose touch with my beloved aunt, and for the past two years since Mom died, I enjoy it when we talk about her, when she tells me stories from when they were young. Even if some are made up by Aunt Miriam's imagination, I know she doesn't do it on purpose. Her mythomania sometimes subsides and sometimes governs her. But I know she enjoys seeing me too, and perhaps I'm the only one who understands her anymore.

Nestria's abduction could be finished later, so I got up to go to the bathroom and get ready to leave. I wash my face and brush my teeth carefully, then comb my wavy black hair. I look at my face, my mother's emerald green eyes that I've inherited and my rather flat nose, a gift from my father, along with some small, cute freckles scattered across my face and neck. I smile somewhat awkwardly at the mirror, a beautiful smile that doesn't appear often.

"Lumi??? I'm calling you for the third and last time! Be in the kitchen in five minutes!" my father has started losing his patience, so I rush to get dressed and get ready to leave.

Mustn't forget my notebook. Aunt Miriam will want me to read her this week's dreams. She always likes them and we discuss them thoroughly.