Charlotte

I cannot, for the life of me, remember where this came from.  Being obviously incomplete, you may have to use your imagination a bit.  But more should follow.  Welcome to the first story post.

Charlotte loved her uncle Charley very much.  After all, he had been the first person to ever make her laugh.  From the time she was born onward, she couldn’t help but smile every time she saw him.  On top of everything, he was also her only uncle.  Every time he came to visit, which tended to be often, she would charge at him with open arms and a smile so large it was slightly silly, but in a beautifully endearing way.  She would ask, “How now uncle?” (as they both shared a love of reading and of writing,) and he would respond, “Alas poor Charlotte, I’m still chasing the dream.”  At this they would laugh and continue on to less poorly spun silliness.  What was left unmentioned was that the dream he chased was not the average, typical ‘dream’ that everyone else seemed to mean when they said this.  No, he had had a dream and was truly chasing it.  His dream, as most worthwhile dreams do, had come in bits and pieces of clarity.  When he first had it, he decided to find the place he dreamed about and do what he dreamed he had done.  He went from place to place, doing this thing and that, trying to live this markedly average, but remarkably particular dream.  You see, it’s perfectly respectable to chase a dream like freedom, or starting your own restaurant.  Even admirable.  But that’s a different sort of dream entirely.  No, he had dreamed events and, for years, had been trying to make them real.  Not surprisingly, this was not approved of by his family and he was asked not to mention it.  Especially around Charlotte: because she was too much like him already and it wouldn’t do to have her wasting her life chasing “actual” dreams.  

It is necessary, now, to mention a very unfortunate truth.  Charlotte’s parents weren’t really her parents.  They had never told her this and she, like very nearly everyone else, thought that they, in fact, were.  Another unfortunate truth is that dear Uncle Charley, contrary to popular opinion, had not always been single.  His dear wife had died inexplicably at a young age.  Poor Charley had been left, heart broken to say the least, and very alone to raise a very small child.  In short, he knew he couldn’t do it.  Not that he wasn’t willing to try; he was never a quitter.  But Charley was also not stupid and he realized his daughter deserved more than he could give.  Rather than give her up entirely, he gave her to his brother and his sister in law.  Being a very bright girl, if Charlotte had been told this story it wouldn’t take her more than few seconds to put it together, as you surely have.  Charley was not Charlottes uncle but her father.  This more than likely accounted for all the unique similarities they shared.  It is also worth noting that Charley’s dream had first come with the death of his dear wife, and this more than likely accounted for his chasing of it.