Origens

Now thinking back on that large continent I would have never imagine me winding up here. My childhood was like any other yet I always could see things other people couldn't. At a very young age I would storm into a room telling my mother the amazing things I experienced that day, whether it would be a dragon roaming the fields in this African border town, or the masses of creature that would lurk in our backyard. Generally my comments would be met with slight laughter and a "Oh Jeanie, what an imagination you have on you!"

The fact of the matter is that at that age it all seemed real, there was no fiction. Countless days I would walk the area and find new adventures, new stories to tell. If I could only find someone who would accompany me in these grand excursions I would be happy, and for a while there was none. Until of course Gambit came into the picture.

This saint bernard wasn't like any other, he befriended a sheep and roamed freely where he wished. Generally his wishes would be to follow me around and keep me from harms way, and that he did. I remember one time I decided to go for a swim, or should I rather say bottom of the pool exploration. The only downfall to this was that I could not swim yet, but as I believed I could breathe underwater like some mystical sea creature I soon found out that Gambit differed from my opinion. He jumped in after me and grabbed by the hair, hauling me to safety.

And so the adventures continued in Outshoring, right next to the military base where my father worked at. Gambit and I soon found a new friend to dive into our fantasies, the daughter of our neighbor, Sherese. She was about my age and was the perfect addition to our boy/dog duo.

One time Sherese and I decided to become rabbits, hence we needed to look like rabbits. After a long search in my mother's kitchen we found the perfect ingredient to our costumes, flour! After carefully removing all our clothing we began with the flouring process, and thus became two of the fasted and greatest rabbits on the planet, sadly my mom did not find this as entertaining as we did.

And so life was pretty laid back, especially if your three years old, as we had ample times to stimulate the imagination. Soon I realized that dogs can't speak human languages, and that the creatures I could see was nothing more than an overactive imagination. As time continued society began to place their dreaded boundaries to an infants realities, and broadened my sight into the world of logic and reason. Yet my mind never stopped creating new stories and new tales, yet I learnt to keep them to myself, otherwise I would be subjected to mocking by my dull and boring peers.

Time progressed and one day we went on a vacation for a couple of days. I can't tell you where or what we did because that memory is a foggy as the steam from a train. What I do remember is coming back home and looking for my furry companion only to find a long line of ants tearing off the flesh of his body. My first encounter with death was probably one that lingered with me well into my teens. That was the first time I actually weeped, my heart broke and I felt pain like I have never felt it before. After the death of Gambit, life just didn't seem so cheery here in Outshoring, I still could find some adventures, yet they just didn't measure up.

Soon we moved, and moved again, and then moved again. Until I we landed in the last place I would spend my days in Africa, Pretoria. Apparently nowadays the names have changed to these locations and seeing as I haven't been there for over a decade, I won't bother writing them out. In Pretoria I became fascinated with melee weaponry. Shurikens, swords and even the occasional acid bombs I would conjure in my house as my entertainment. I still would invent games and adventures but nowadays they were a bit more mature, with slight twists and turns.

The beauty of my childhood was that everything was possible, my mind could wander and there would be nothing to stand in its way. I knew I had the support from my mother, and my overworked father in any endeavor I would engage in. Those were glory days, those were days of happiness and sunshine. Little did I know that everything around me would change, instantaneously my reality would shift in a new direction. And it all started with the following words :"What would you guys think of us moving to Mexico?"

I said to myself: "Mexico?"