CHAPTER 2

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WARNING: NOT YET EDITED.

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From the worn-out Journal

I was once told that a day could change a life. A chance that could change the tide, a moment that would change one's fate. And at midnight, summer of 1788, the simple life of a simple fisherman and his wife had changed.

An agonizing wail rang throughout the house. the man patiently waited outside the room, doing everything he was able to do to occupy himself; bothered by his wife's painful cries, as another contraction started. He stared outside the window. The timid sun was peeking on the dark sky. It was still dark when the midwife started the delivery. The sun still had not risen.

Flooded with thoughts, he perceived what his child would be. His hands kept rubbing as he remembered what happened at their neighbor, Rebeka's good friend. The child died, and so was the mother. His agitation triggered, hoping that his wife and child would not have the same fate as them. He held onto his head, clutching a handful of hair as he tried not to worry about the unknown.

Rebeka shouted in pain. Her husband went back to his senses yet his agitation grew more. Half-risen sun was above the horizon. He calmed himself, breathing in and out. He worried too much. Everyone had a tendency to be distressed when experiencing things at first time. This was their first child, Rebeka's first pregnancy. That might have made him to worry. Or maybe the fact that he was a simple fisherman and to think his earning was just sufficient for him and Rebeka; now his child was about to be born, would the money he earned be enough? He pressed his forehead with his both hands, shaking his head as he started to worry, again.

His focus turned to the closed room as Rebeka cried the loudest. After, a cry of a babe, followed. He stood up as he heard his child's first cry. He paced inside the room where his wife, Rebeka, gave birth. Her exhaustion from the delivery was reflecting as sweat beaded on her face but she looked delighted. She beamed as the midwife handed her their baby. The father's worry vanished away as he gazed upon his firstborn, a son. Everything will be alright , he thought as he walked beside his lying wife.

"My son. My firstborn," He said with joy, holding his son's hand, "Ah, Rudolf," He looked at his wife and kissed her on the forehead. A tear dropped as he beheld his beautiful boy. The man hugged his exhausted wife as they exchanged assuring glances at each other

"Ah, my brave, brave boy, Rudie," Rebeka added, focusing back on their beloved newborn.

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It was said to me that even after three years, the fisherman and Rebeka had known about Rudolf's fate, his god-given gift that none could fathom. At the summer of 1791, with great bewilderment between the two, Rebeka and her husband. It was incomprehensible at how brilliant their son Rudolf was. Rudolf began walking during his first year, and babbled during his second, to his parents' shock. His intelligence was much higher than other children his age, now that he was three. His parents were so proud to have an intelligent son, giving them hope that this might be Rudolf’s chance of becoming one of those nobles, leading them out of the dire state of poverty they were at.

But as Rudolf's fate willed, fate also intervened.

The fisherman was right. His worry was right. As the young lad grew. The fisherman's earnings were not enough for them. Though he wanted not Rebeka to work, they needed an extra income. Rebeka then worked as a housekeeper at a noble's house. During the day, The fisherman worked at the harbor while Rebeka was at the nobles' house. Rebeka always brought Rudolf at the noble's house since she would not want him all alone in their house. Rebeka and Rudolf would come home in the afternoon. The fisherman though will not be home until the evening.

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