Prologue

Some people get it a lot. Some people have never had the feeling, not once in their life. For me, it's almost every day, perhaps because I think too much and perhaps because I'm a dreamer, a dreamer who will want to pursue all paths and has never given up if it was not absolutely necessary.

It's the feeling of knowing there's a life you could live, a decision you could make, and not being able to take that path. Maybe you couldn't do it because it was too expensive. Maybe your time was too full; maybe your parents were to blame, or maybe your children.

I wish I could live all those lives, but I can't.

Every now and again, I have a day when nothing will make that disappointment lighter. Usually, I can write it away. I can give that chance to my characters and let them live through it for me, so that I can have the feelings and the pains and the joys that they have, as though it was myself. Sometimes that's not enough.

It's how I've been feeling recently, actually, and so I was determined to try, until I met somebody who really did live that life. Normally, I'd hate someone for that, but Charlie was different. She was just so nice and quiet and good and intelligent, and I loved her for it.

I decided that, this time, I would write her story, and I would live her life.

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Author guidance for This story

I, of course, am the narrator in the Prologue. Charlie is the girl that I wish I was, with the life I wish I had.

The idea is that her story is what I really wish, but can't have -- basically, I'm living it through her to stop me getting depressed because I can't do it in real life! :D

I understand that this story is not in the least realistic, which is why I urge you to remember that this is the life I wish I could lead, and not that I wish I led. Does that make sense?

The real-life dance troupe that I was thinking of at the time (though I very much doubt I would be good enough) is Celtic Manouvres.

www.courtneymcmahon.com

is the site of my dance school,

and

http://www.courtneymcmahon.com/Celtic_Manoeuvres/celticmanoeuvres.html

is the site of the troupe

updated Sep 10 '10 by delorfinde