Dear Valued Reader,
You hold in your hands-or more accurately, view on your screens-the original iterations of the Castellanos story in their purest forms. That is to say, no major edits or revisions have been made from the originals in Suns and Sparks.
The originals, as you may have guessed, are found within a compendium from a prompt-based short story competition. Both Starlight and All of You were, technically, written to be relatively independent of one another. It is possible to read one without the other. However, should this be the case, I fear the impact may greatly decrease.
Subsequently, I urge you not to skip one in favor of the other. What Elena has to say is equally as important as what Mariana has to say and vice versa.
Listen to them both, and perhaps we all will learn a valuable lesson: the ties that bind mean more than we think.
Though Elena and Mariana Castellanos now embody their own autonomous entities, they once comprised a part of me. Their stories, inspired by events I experienced over the last few years, grew to the finished versions you now possess.
A letter to a younger self, a warning to future generations, an escape to all. Whatever you may find, I wish you the best of luck in employing it within your daily life.
As I turn you over to the Castellanos sisters, I can only hope that I have done their story justice. It began with me, but they chose the words and method by which it conveyed to audiences like you. Mariana has been so kind as to provide a brief lexicon of the frequent occurrences of Spanish terms for your convenience, which I am attaching at the back of this copy.
Buen viaje a Rockport, and happy reading.
-Aurora
YOU ARE READING
The Ties That Bind
Short Story❝ Don't you see the starlight? ❞ === A tale of three sisters, the tragedy they face, and their discovery of the ties that bind === ❝ Don't you dream impossible things? ❞
