Lore/Prologue One: Things Are Fine

Part of the lore of New Bradford.

Fredrick Banck had a fine life. Unexceptional, maybe. Unremarkable, perhaps. Uneventful, definitely. But it was a fine life, nevertheless. He had no complaints, and who could? Bradford was an ideal town for anyone to grow up in. The town was run down to a science. Everyone knew what was expected of them and they all did it without complaint. Bradford was so well run that everyone had their life virtually mapped out for them. Boys and girls both were to go to school until they turned sixteen. The boys would spend their next four years apprenticing at their family’s business. The girls would spend those same four years at home learning the skills necessary to take care of a family. The families would arrange marriages for their children around the age of 20, based upon social and economic status. The newlyweds would then build a home on either families’ land, and they would live their lives.

Fredrick had all of these experiences. He went to school and did well. Not the top of the class, but he wasn’t slow at all. His family owned the town bank, so when he finished school he started his apprenticeship there. He was the second child, so he knew he would never take over the bank. He would always just be an employee.

His parents, Christof and Sophia, did what was expected and arranged his marriage for him. Their family was extremely close with the shipwright in town, Edgar Horrox. Edgar and his wife, Elena, had a daughter named Cordelia who was two years younger than Frederick. Frederick and Cordelia grew up knowing each other their entire lives. Their families sat together at all the town celebrations. She followed him around when they had time to play, and he was always fine with that. Frederick was the one who knew how much she hated the name Cordelia, so he called her Cordie. He was the only one who called her that. They were good friends, perhaps best friends. They knew they would be married one day, and they were fine with that.

All in all, nothing exciting or interesting ever happened in Frederick’s life, except once, when he was 5. Every year a wagon would come through town selling things from far off places. It was Frederick’s favorite day because it was a day when things were different for once. He got to see things from places he assumed he would never get to go. The wagon had fragrant spices which made him sneeze for a half-hour when he sniffed them. Fabrics that were so soft and light that he couldn’t even tell if he was touching them or not. Statues of animals and creatures that were so remarkable he wasn’t sure if they actually existed somewhere or if they were made from someone’s nightmares.

Normally, the wagon master would come to town by himself. He was called Garridan the Gypsy. He was dark and exotic looking, with hair and eyes as black as the night sky. He could have been 20 or 50, no one could tell, and he never gave up any information about himself. No one knew where he came from, or even where he would go next. They only knew that he would arrive the same time every year, right as the last petals fell from the spring trees. The year when Frederick was five, Garridan did not come by himself. When Frederick was done with his chores for the day, which consisted of tidying up his room and feeding his pet duck, Lucky, he ran as fast as his little legs could take him to the center of town where Garridan had set up his wares. As Frederick explored each item he felt as if someone was watching him. He looked around in all directions until he finally saw a pair of eyes as dark and exotic as Garridan’s. But as Garridan’s eyes were mysterious and a bit scary to Frederick, these eyes sparkled with mischief. Frederick felt his breath catch in his throat and his heart instantly started beating faster. The eyes were attached to a little girl who looked to be Frederick’s age, if not a year or so older. She introduced herself as Melina. She was Garridan’s daughter. Normally she stayed at home with her mother, but her mother was about to give birth again. This time Melina had gone with her father in order to stay out of her mother’s hair.

Frederick had never seen such an interesting person in his short life. He was fascinated by her. He spent the rest of the day in town just to be around her. Melina seemed just as enamored with Frederick as he was with her. She held his hand and showed him every item, one by one, and told the stories of where each thing had come from. She may or may not have been making up every story, but Frederick didn’t care, he just loved to hear her foreign accent and to look into those beautiful eyes.

At the end of the day, when Garridan and Melina were packing up to leave to go to their next town, Frederick felt such a wrenching pain in his little heart that he fell to the ground and sobbed. Melina was distraught as well, but she knew she had no choice other than to leave with her father. She ran into the wagon and quickly came back out with something in her hands. It was her prized possession, a snow globe with a horse inside. Horses were Melina’s favorite animal. Melina gave it to Frederick and made him promise he would never forget her. He tearfully promised and was heartbroken that he had nothing to give her in return. She promised him that she would not forget him either, and just as quickly as the wagon had arrived, it left and took Melina away. Frederick took the snow globe home and slept with it every night for a few months. Then he moved it to the front of his dresser. After that, it was pushed to the back by some new toys and knick-knacks. Eventually, his mother put it away in a trunk one day while she was cleaning. Frederick may have eventually forgotten about the snow globe and Melina, but those eyes always were haunting him somewhere in the back of his mind.

Years later, after schooling and his apprenticeship, Frederick married his lifelong friend, Cordie, as was expected. They had a fine marriage. He worked at the bank and she stayed home to tend to their house. She gave him six fine sons.

Frederickson, the oldest. Named for his father, but opposite in personality. He wanted to explore the world from the moment he could walk.

Baxter came next, chubby as could be. He spent his days sneaking food whenever his mom wasn’t looking.

Then there were the twins, Lucas and Rowan. They loved to roughhouse and spar with each other every chance they could get.

Quentin was a bit of a loner, but sweet. He loved to be by himself and read books about magic spells and potions and to try them out.

Finally, Cordie gave her husband one last son. She never got to name him because she died in childbirth. Frederick mourned for his lost wife and friend. It was almost a month before his final son got a name. It was traditionally the wife’s job to name the children, considering she carried the child under her heart for many months, so it was assumed she knew who the baby really was. Frederick’s parents finally came to him and insisted that the baby needed to be named. He finally settled upon the name Aiden.

Frederick and the boys continued to live their lives. Both Frederick and Cordie’s relatives helped out with the boys. Frederick was never alone, although at times he was moderately lonely. But whenever somebody asked how he was doing, he always told them the same thing. He was fine. Two springs after Cordie had passed, Garridan’s wagon came to town. Frederick hadn’t gone to see it in quite a few years. He was usually busy with work or the family. This time he felt an urgency to go. Something inside told him he needed to be there. He asked his mom to watch the boys, and she was more than happy to accept. She had been worried that Frederick never went to do anything fun. He lived his life for work and his sons, but never took the time to do anything for himself.

Frederick approached the wagon, expecting to see Garridan looking the same as always, never aging. The proprietor of the shop had their back to Frederick, but even though the person had the same dark hair as Garridan, Frederick instantly knew that Garridan’s body did not have those soft curves, nor would Garridan ever be caught dead in a floral print dress.

The person turned around and Frederick felt his entire world lose focus except for those eyes. Those magical, dark eyes. Instantly everything about Melina came back to him. Melina seemed to recognize Frederick at the same second. She ran to him and threw herself in his arms. She told him how her father had injured his leg by being thrown off his horse, so she took the wagon to sell the wares until he healed. She asked him if he remembered the snow globe. He said he still had it, almost 25 years later. It was as if the fates had aligned and they were meant to find each other at that very moment. There was no doubt that they were fated to be together. Melina told Frederick that she would finish her route, return home to make sure her father was okay, pack her things and then head right back. To Frederick. Where she belonged.

Frederick ran home and told his mother what had happened. Elena was a bit concerned. Frederick was trying to do things a different way than they were normally done. No one in Bradford got married a second time. Especially to someone so different. A banker and a traveling trader? What would the people in town think? But there was no law against it.

Melina came back, they were married. She got pregnant almost instantly and gave Frederick his one and only daughter, Amelia. Frederick loved his sons and the rest of his family, but those two girls were the sun and stars to his world. All of Frederick’s life he had been fine.

Now, he was happy.

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