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Chapter One
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My name is Dakota Slater. I was born in 1909 to Isaiah Slater and Patricia Slater. They were simpler times then. Everything was in walking distance from my house. Such as the market, the bank, and friends. Although, if I wanted to buy a nice dress I would have to go into town. They didn't have the advanced technology that they have now, that's they way I liked it. But the things people can think of and create nowadays are... breathtaking... but sometimes, things aren't created soon enough. And that's what my story is about.
They say my parents were so happy when I was born. They thought they had a lovely healthy child. But how wrong they were... In 1925 I stopped aging. Of course we didn't realize this at first. We didn't realize this for two years. But when I was eighteen and my body was not changing from its sixteen year old look, my parents got worried and they sent for the best doctor to have a look at me. The doctor said it was most likely a growth disorder. He said that I will still live the normal life span that women live but I will look sixteen. I knew he was wrong. I knew there was more to it.
And after I found this out, I isolated myself from everyone for days till my mum found me in my closet and practically forced me out of there. All I can remember of that was me rocking back and forth whilst curled up in a ball inside my closet, then my mum coming in to put some clothes of mine on the hangers and she saw me. She sat with me for a while to calm me, her arms constricted around my shaking body. But then I had to get up.
I met up with my best friend Lucy the day after that. I remember exactly what happened.
The wind was rustling the leaves of the trees. Lucy's blond hair was blowing back in the wind and her blue eyes closed. My light orange hair secured tightly in a bun, but my green eyes wide open. Every time we leave the house we are usually pampered till you don't know who we are, but Lucy and I escaped that. So you could see my freckle-less pale face, and Lucy's pale face with that beauty mark above her lip.
"You are lucky! You will never age out of your beautiful sixteen year old body. You should look at this as an advantage. Dakota, a lot of girls would be happy to have your youth but all you can do is complain," Lucy had said.
"I would not see to it as lucky. I see it as a curse that has been bestowed upon me. Lucy, imagine if you where the one captured in a sixteen year old body the rest of your life. You can never get old, and you'll only attract others our age. I can never get married because a guy won't want to marry a sixteen year old. And I can never have children because sixteen year old's do not have children!" I argued.
"Well, Dakota, that is quite false. A lot of girls get pregnant at the age of sixteen."
"But not ones like us. Imagine what my father would think if I came home pregnant when I was actually sixteen. He would think of me as a disgrace, and he would disinherit me."
"You know, I think you are going to live forever. Why else would you stop aging? Because, it's not natural. I've heard of people stop growing in height, but not aging is a bit weird."
"Lucy, you are always so imaginative."
"Oh, splendid!" she said, mocking my mother's voice.
We laughed.
"Just don't think of this as a negative thing, Dakota."
"I cannot buy a house looking sixteen, and I do not want to live with my parents forever! What could I possibly do to prevent that?"
"When I marry you can move in with me."
"Oh, no, Lucy I would not want to intrude."
"Nonsense, you are practically family to me."
"Well, as long as I'm far away from your bedroom so I will not have to hear you and your husband going at it all night."
Lucy slapped my arm playfully.
"But would you really let me stay with you?"
"Of course. It would be my honor."
"Great!"
"Did I tell you that Joseph proposed to me?"
"Oh my! He did not!"
"He did."
"Oh my! I am so happy for you... you did say yes, right?"
"Of course. His family is wealthy!"
"Oh, you are in it for the money now?"
"No, I was just joking. I love Joseph. I always will. And that is why I am marrying him."
In 1929 Lucy married Joseph, becoming Lucy Jones. In 1935 Lucy fell pregnant, and gave birth to a baby girl in which she named Victoria. But sadly, just after Victoria's fourth birthday, in 1939, World War II began and Joseph was sent out to war. I'll never forget the day fellow soldiers of Joseph's battalion showed up at our doorstep. Joseph had died in the war protecting another comrade.
Lucy cried for days. She couldn't get up at all, so I looked after little Victoria. Eventually Lucy came to and fulfilled her role as a mother again.
In 1955 Victoria left home when she became pregnant to her boyfriend. Her boyfriend had left her once he found out she was pregnant. The guy was a coward if you ask me. Lucy didn't want her raising a child alone so she asked me to go with her.
Victoria gave birth to a girl named Penelope. A year after, Lucy died.
And in 1969 she gave birth to another girl named Elizabeth, but she was ditched by her boyfriend to which she fell pregnant yet again. Victoria didn't have any luck.
Elizabeth was a sweet little girl, with her blond little curls, her pearly white dimpled smile, her rosy cheeks, and her gorgeous blue eyes. She reminded me of Lucy very much.
Elizabeth grew up to be a well educated woman. When she was five she knew how to read and write. When she was six she was reading short stories. When she was eight she was reading novels. When she was nine, I taught her to play the piano. In one week she had learned to play Fur Elise. When she was eleven she was reading Shakespeare. When she was twelve she was playing Mozart and Beethoven on the piano, by just looking at the music score.
She graduated high school with top marks. And then she went to university. She had many scholarships.
She had studied to become a publisher. And in 1990 she married a doctor. They bought a house together, and she requested I moved in.
That year Victoria died.
In 1991, I bought a beautiful grand piano for Elizabeth's house. I remember the time we went shopping for it.
"You take forever to find a piano that you like!" she whined.
"Well I am eighty-two so give me some slack!"
"I believe the term is cut me some slack."
"What ever."
"Still stuck in the olden times, eh, Kota?"
"Just a little bit, Liz."
She chuckled.
"I can afford a baby grand, do you have room for it at your house?"
"Definitely! I have a whole room vacant!"
"Alright, let me test them."
There were so many to choose from, but eventually I went for a black baby grand Yamaha piano.
We positioned the piano in the spare room downstairs, just across the hall from me.
In 1994 Elizabeth fell pregnant.
So I had to get rid of my baby grand piano then.
I was sad to see it go but Liz needed the space.
But in the end was worth it. Because she gave birth to a little boy. A beautiful little boy. His name was Peter.
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