A Twist of Fate
By: JustImagine
The red brick walls began to light up, allowing a large shadow to walk across them. A shadow appeared of a young human wearing a light-pink skirt with two candy canes on one of the right-side panels. The young girl rubbed her fingers against the graffitied walls of an abandoned alley, looking at the shadowy twin of the nerd she was. This was her escape route away from those bullies she would collide with if she took the expected sidewalk to school. Twist always hated being pushed around, being called names, and getting embarrassed in front of everybody in her class. All she wanted was to live a life of peace and tranquility, but when the bullies slapped her in the face, Twist knew her dreams were only her dreams.
Silently, the young girl sucked on the candy cane her mother had packed for her in her lunchbox. Her bulky book-bag, filled to the brim with shenanigans, slowed her pace to a crawl. Sometimes, this junk would fall out of her bag, and everybody would tease her endlessly about whatever had fallen out. Twist enjoyed collecting things from the ground which others would never recollect or glance at again. She adored the unnatural energy just flowing through them. Other people never could sense this feeling from them, and even her parents wondered why she had such a strange fascination with junk.
Then she saw it, lying in the middle of the alley: a hat, a light-brown hat of the sort that an adventurer might have worn. It was just sitting there, waiting for her dirty hands to snatch it off the ground. Skipping, running almost, Twist grabbed the hat and put it on top of her head. Why would someone want to throw this away?
Twist took off her bookbag, thinking of the times she’d had to leave the bag behind when she was on a journey with her imaginary friend. She hopped around the alley humming a song only she and her imaginary friend knew the lyrics to. Twist remembered the song as if it were glued into her head with epoxy. Her perfect recollection was thanks to Daring Do for singing the song with her every time they were running from a pack of monkeys or trouble.
"Hey! You!" the sound of a young woman's voice rang through Twist's eardrums, almost making the young girl nearly scream in fear.
A young lady -- probably in her twenties -- came walking towards Twist. The woman's black hair curled messily, her magenta eyes shaded in places to an awful hazy-red, and the ground seemed to shake below her with each step she took. Twist had an uncomfortable feeling hit her in the guts. It was one of terror, yet another of realization, but she couldn’t quite decipher the meaning of the complicated emotion.
"That's my hat!" the aggravated woman croaked.
"Huh, oh, I'm sorry... uh, here." Twist said, as she took off the hat and held it outward for the woman to take.
The woman grabbed her hat with a slightly grudging look of gratitude on her face. She closed her eyes and placed the hat carefully on her head. "Thanks," she held the bitter face on the young girl for a second then smirked. "Let me guess, you’re going to some blasted school."
Twist stared at the woman wondering if she were drunk or something. The more Twist thought about it, the more the feeling of understanding came alight. "Do I know you?" the stupid question made the red-headed girl want to run from the scene, yet the more Twist tried, the harder it was for her feet to lift up from the ground.
"You know me? Well, that makes today quite more interesting. Oh, my name's Daring Do if it'll help ya remember," the girl extended her hand forward causing several pieces of dirt to fall onto the ground. It was the first time Twist really noticed Daring Do's appearance, yet a spark ignited inside the head of the thirteen-year-old. The girl wore khakis which were covered in dry mud, and a vest with broken holes everywhere. The woman's black hair was lightly sprinkled with twigs, leaves, and other small objects.
Wait, khakis, hat, vest, and... There it was, hanging outside her pocket. The compass! It can't be, but it is. It has to be...
"You're Daring Do!"
"Yeah, uh, kiddo, you might wanna close your mouth. I don't want to see you accidentally eat a bug."
"You’re-" Twist quickly realized the next words about to escape her mouth and closed it shut.
"I'm what?" Daring Do stepped closer, crouching down to where she and Twist were at eye level. "Don't worry if its crazy, kid. Everything is crazy when you’re me," she said, leaning against the brick wall.
"I-I've seen you in my dreams. Your face was always blurry but I remembered your name. Daring Do... oh my gosh, you’re real!"
"Well, last time I checked, I was real and I could walk and stuff... yeah, I'm real. Say, wait a minute... if you think about this more clearly, doesn't it feel like we’re destined to know each other? You know, the universe chooses our destinies and we somehow find each other by just running into each other."
"Destined to know each other? I was kinda thinking-"
"The universe controls destinies, kiddo. Do ya believe that! The crazy wacko scientist who came up with the theory was right all along... maybe," Daring Do said giggling to herself.
Twist knew she should've felt excited about seeing an imaginary friend of hers being real, but she couldn't handle the craziness of this: Daring Do being flesh and bone and reality. It echoed in her head like a melody, a melody telling her that this woman was a drunk imbecile and had no idea what she was even saying. A woman that had no idea what she just did and the dangers that could lie ahead. Twist had to leave before all those years of warnings about stranger-danger came true.
"Well, it was nice meeting you, Daring Do. Uh, see ya later!" Twist didn’t look back.
Twist ran down the alley, but as usual, the book-bag didn't help. For the first time in her thirteen years of existence, Twist smiled at the dreaded sight of the bullies. Forget that ever happened. Forget about her and the dreams.
Twist neared the end of the alley, already seeing the place she hated the most, yet today it only made her sigh in relief. Forget about Daring Do, and forget she ever existed.
She stopped suddenly. "Why forget?" she asked herself. "She could show you a world nobody's ever seen. Show you things people would pay millions to see as just a photo. Give you things rarer than finding a diamond. So, why choose normalcy over a life of adventure and thrilling worlds? Why?"
"Why?" Twist mumbled to herself, turning toward the alley and away from the road to her school. "Why shouldn't I be that girl?"
Twist scratched her curly red hair. I would never see those bullies again, never have to be embarrassed again, and have a more interesting life than making candy-canes.
Twist opened her book-bag, grabbed an empty notebook, and dropped the bag. She looked toward the abandoned alley and ran.
"Wait! Come back!"
Ten years later...
"Bye, see you again!" Suzanne Twist tried giving a proper farewell to her last customer, but the person merely closed the door of the shop, allowing Suzanne to finally fall onto her wooden seat. She let out a soft sigh, grabbing her latest book in her series, Daring Do and the Dark Cove. Suzanne flipped the pages of the hardcover book, smelling the fragrance of the paper. It had taken her years to finalize the first book in the series, Daring Do and the Sapphire Stone. She remembered coming up with the rough outline the first time in the alleyway, on the day she had met Daring Do. Sometimes, Suzanne wondered why she had run away from Daring Do.
Suzanne grabbed some papers, the book she was currently reading, and other assorted things while getting ready to leave the shop. The young woman then sneezed because of the dusty bookshelves around her. Just as she was about to leave, the wooden door of the bookshop opened. It revealed a young woman wearing aviator sunglasses and a leather jacket.
"Well, well, well, somebody wrote a book series about me," Daring Do said, "and I haven’t read it yet. What a shame. You know, I didn’t even get asked for permission.”
Suzanne's red glasses fell off her eyes as she stared at what seemed to be Daring Do, her imaginary friend. No, it’s her! And she looks like she hasn’t even grown a day old! Oh my stars! She’s here!
“Uh, are you gonna stop staring at me like that? ‘Cause it’s pretty weird.”
“Oh, um, sorry! Would you like copies of the books?”
“Pretty much the only reason I came to this store. Also, do you own this place?” Daring Do said, nearing Suzanne.
"Sure... here, have these... oh, and they’re signed," Suzanne babbled, grabbing a copy of each of the books in the Daring Do series from the shelf behind her. "Also, have them for free." She grinned foolishly.
"Thanks. Oh, by the way, I've been thinking of something for a while. Ever since I met ya, I've been thinking of taking you on an adventure with me. You know, traveling the world, maybe Africa, the Amazon, or a lost temple of some sort. So, what do you say? Wanna go on an adventure with me?”
Suzanne looked around her bookshop and gave a slight nod. I’ve waited so long for this moment, though I may never see my family, my friends, or even most of my belongings again. Yet, the more I think of those things, the more I yearn for a life of adventure. Well, guess I’m going to have to say some goodbyes to a few people. I hope they understand.
"I'd love to."
Author's Note
This is my first story and I highly accept constructive criticism. Anything wrong with it and I'll fix it. Thanks for reading! :)
