Edit: Okay, this is now part of “A Novel Idea”! Basically a wordplay between the actual novel (noun) idea and novel (adjective) idea. Simply this section is part of Random Monday, and is the category for all my stories/writings.

A year ago, as part of a school extracurricular activity, I wrote a little story. Here it is, with a few changes after some time reading it a year later. Keep in mind, I listened to Ed Sheeran frequently at the time (still do, actually) so obviously there were some points I definitely took from some of his lyrics, though it’s more of as an inspiration/tribute and is no way a song, so yeah, here we go.

Castle on the Hill

Eddie broke his leg twice in his messy childhood. 

The first was when he fell out of his bed at three in the morning. He was five. Yup. Mama Harold woke first, and in the next 30 seconds screamed, cried, and woke Papa Harold, who drove Eddie to the hospital. Apparently, a five-year-old with a broken leg can fill over 10 buckets full of tears in an hour.

Sadly, the nurses and the doctors were all asleep. This wasn’t a big hospital, more of a large clinic. Four hours and forty buckets later, he was finally treated.

It was his left leg, so it was fine.

The second time, Eddie was eight. And you don’t want to know how many buckets an eight-year-old can fill with tears.

This time, it was much more awful and painful. His brother and his friends were starting to be naughty again.

They were shouting about playing a game on a something called a video game and they seemed to be mad about something. At the time Eddie was playing with some Lego bricks to build a car with. Then, Brother Harold came and shouted at Eddie how stupid and childish playing with Lego is. Well, it seemed to Eddie, that if you were eight, there was nothing wrong to play with toys.

But Brother Harold would not listen. He stomped away and stepped on a Lego brick. Suddenly he screamed out loud and fell down, and when he did he hit his head on a pile of Lego which made Brother Harold screech with the highest pitch possible.

Brother Harold’s friends burst into laughter. Eddie knew this was trouble, and started to tip toe towards the door. Brother Harold screamed at his friends to chase Eddie as he was recovering from the fall. Eddie tried his best to run, but his left leg was slowing him down as he jumped out of the door. 

The Harold home was in the suburbs and faced a narrow road, and across was a wide grassy field and half a mile away, the ruins of a still majestic Middle Ages castle surrounded by trees. Eddie was always scared of it, but this time he knew he needed to confront his fear. 

He headed towards that direction, stealing a brief glimpse of Brother Harold and company catching up. 

Eddie ran past the rock path, the gates and the road. The grassy field was as tall as his knees, but Eddie persevered.

“Stop!” Eddie could hear his brother shout at him. This made him run faster. And faster. And faster, until Eddie simply could not slow down.

He ran past the moss covered rocks, the oak tree five times taller and bigger than him and saw the splintered wood remains of what was once a massive door. Eddie entered a massive hall, and proceeded to find the stairs, which he did and immediately raced and jumped on each steps. Under him, he could hear the footsteps of Brother Harold and company coming up the twisting staircase. Unfortunately, the steps leading to the third floor had crumbled, so for now he was stuck here.

The room Eddie entered was what might have been a sizeable library a few lifetimes ago, but now it was rotting wood and dust.

There was no other exit beyond the staircase, other than a window overlooking the oak tree outside.

Eddie ran for it as Brother Harold arrived. “There he is!”

Eddie didn’t even notice. He took a deep breath and jumped. Definitely don’t do this at home if you don’t want to be stuck in the hospital for weeks, possibly never walk again, or even die.

He felt his body in mid air, and then he was caught between the branches. His right leg was particularly caught to a nest of leaves. He shook it, and fell to the ground. 

Everything in his body hurt, especially his left leg. He knew the feeling from three years ago. It was broken.

Eddie was lucky enough to survive from that kind of fall, and the pain was overwhelming. He felt his body aching and went unconscious.

He woke in the hospital, his leg in a cast. Papa Harold was beside him and he told Eddie that a mailman had seen Brother Harold and company try to bury Eddie’s unconscious body in the yard. Papa Harold was called and he had driven Eddie to the hospital. Again.

In the end, Eddie didn’t know what to say. Jumping out of a window wasn’t the best idea in the world, but when he had laid on the sweet grass, it was all peaceful, there was a part of him that wanted to stay that way. Forever serene and joyous.

But he knew life must go on, and so it did.

Our Destiny Lies Beyond Us

One night, when Eddie was eight, the Harold family was camping at a nearby mountain range. Papa Harold had made a nice warm campfire for them, and the sleeping bags had been sprawled on the soft ground. 

Eddie was the first to get in his sleeping bag. Papa, Mama, and Brother Harold were talking about Brother Harold’s schoolwork. Eddie’s brother was now at middle school. Well, that’s life. You do new, harder things, as always.

Eddie wasn’t totally opposed to that, but he felt that the destiny of life was beyond himself. 

Beyond his family. Beyond the Earth maybe. He laid there, staring at the sky. For the first time it seemed to him, the night sky wasn’t empty except for just the moon. There were stars shining bright at him.

At that moment, right there in his sleeping bed, Eddie felt it. It might be his destiny, it might be his grandchildren’s children’s. He was sure all will be revealed in time. But for now his destiny wasn’t his to know. Life was given, and during that life, many things could happen. People change day by day, months by months, years by years, centuries by centuries, millennium after millennium. But one thing he knew.

His destiny, every human being’s destiny was beyond them. And one day they would find it. Destiny carves our lives and our lives carves our destinies. Life will always be there. Because it is destiny.

And so that was what that destiny meant. What you make it to be. To do better, to surpass new and harder challenges, as always. 

Knowing that fact Eddie slept soundly, under the brilliant shining stars, and the music of life, of the destiny beyond him.

What Do I Know?

Love could change the world in a moment.

That was what Mama Harold always said. When Eddie asked Papa Harold, he waved off a confused ten-year-old Eddie with, “Son, don’t you get involved in politics, your mama, or other people’s quotes. Eddie had always wondered what that meant. He tried, but could not understand it. Not now, really. The next day, at the breakfast table he asked papa. Papa Harold smiled with a caring face as though Eddie was a cute little baby all over again. 

“You know, We are all made up of love and hate, but both of them are balanced on a razor blade.” he said slowly.

There was a long pause between them, which was partially broken by Eddie shifting on his seat and glancing at the now unoccupied seats of Brother Harold and Mama Harold. They both had finished their breakfasts. Now he sat here with papa who was smiling at him. 

“It’s alright. What do you know?” Papa smirked at Eddie and rose from his seat. In another second, he was out the door.

Eddie thought about it. What did he know? He stared at his half eaten Peanut Butter and Jam sandwich on the plate. He kept thinking about it after that, until he laid in his bed. On his bed, Eddie imagined himself beside his grandchildren one day with a song he wrote himself while people elsewhere were talking about exponential growth.

He slept after that, enjoying the warmth of his thick blanket. He didn’t dream. He never did. Eddie was all for people following their dreams, but he knew that life wasn’t just fitting into you jeans. 

It was love, understanding, and positivity. 

But again, what did he know?

–

Okay, so that’s all. I hope you enjoyed reading some of my stories and found them interesting. I might make more of these in the future if anyone out there likes them.

Also, I’ll be making a new category soon, and it’ll be about books. I think I’ll settle with the name “Page Turners”, but what do you guys think? Comment below if you have a better name suggestion. And as always, have a great day!