Dandelion - H.S. AU

Prologue

May 4th 1913

Streaks of sunlight invaded her sight line as she gazed out of the tiny window situated next to her seat on the locomotive. The rhythmic chugging of the trains engine flooded her ears while she focused her eyes solely on the flashing landscapes that felt so far away from her reach. The rectangular windowpane in the wall brought her a slightly serene sense of comfort, the small opening in the dense metal wall acting as her last glimpse of freedom, before she was dragged into a life of someone else's choosing.

Three days before the voyage she was currently embarking on began, a letter in the mail arrived, informing her family of their grandfathers poor health, and his need of assistance. Whether the said "assistance" was taking care of him on his death bed or taking over the family banking business was not specified, but their mother still decided to up everything to go help. Her mother was a very caring women and would do anything for her family, and she decided that maybe the move would be good for them.

Ever since the passing of her father, the five children and their mother had barely been scraping by in Charleston. Her dad was the only real breadwinner for the family, and after he died suddenly in his sleep, the children old enough to work had to leave school and get jobs to support the family. Charleston was an expensive city to live in, so the guaranteed business in a small, low-wage town in Kansas didn't seem like such a bad thing to her mother after all.

She on the other hand, could not possibly think of a worse situation.

She had barely been able to cope with the loss of her father before being forced by her mother to grow up and help raise her siblings, and now she would have to go through even more change. Her life as she knew it was being stripped from her day by day and she hadn't a clue of how to cope with it. Being taken away from her friends was enough, but now, at only 17 years old, she'd have to take care of her deathly ill grandfather and suffer his unavoidable passing, (as well as the trauma it would supply her) while still tackling a job and helping raise her siblings in a completely unfamiliar place.

Maybe she was being selfish, but quite frankly, she didn't really care. Her life was changing far too quickly for her liking and it was all taking a tumble for the worst.

She tried desperately hard to silence her churning mind, swirls of pain and upset, anxiety and discomfort all clouded into her mind to form one large, unrelenting migraine. Focusing on anything but the torrent of thoughts flooding her brain, she rested her head against the ratting wall of the train car and allowed her heavy eyelids hang over her sleep deprived eyes.

Sleep eventually graced her with its presence, bringing her unusually happy dreams of her hometown. Her father dancing with her mother in their small kitchen. Swimming in the lake with her brother before dinner time. Holding her fathers hand while walking to the market. The dreams of her past illuminating her subconscious with glimmers of hope before she was met with the reality of her completely new life.

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hi! thank you for giving this book a chance! i know this prologue isn't the best but i promise the book really does get better with when it had its official start ;) the chapters won't be this short (obviously) but probably still somewhat short because i write these on my phone. anyways, please vote and comment! i love you!