The Pastor's Daughter

Prologue

When I was seventeen, my life changed forever. I know that there are people who wonder about me when I say this. They look at me strangely, as if to fathom what could've happened back then, though I seldom bother to explain. Because I've lived here my entire life, I don't feel that I have to explain, unless it's on my terms, and that would take more than most people are willing to give me. My story can't be summed up in two or three sentences; it can't be packaged into something neat and simple that people would immediately understand. Despite the passage of ten years, the people still living there who knew me that year accept my lack of explanation without question. My story in some ways is their story because it was something that all of us lived through.

It was I, however, who was the closest to it.

I'm twenty seven years old, but even now I can remember everything from that year,down to the smallest details. I relive it often  in my mind, bringing it back to my life, and I realize that when I do, I always feel a strange combination of sadness and joy. There are moments when I wish I could roll back the clock and take all the sadness away, but I have a feeling that if I did, the joy would be gone as well. So I take the memories as they come, accepting them all, letting them guide me whenever I can.

It is August 20 in 2018, and as i leave my house, i glanced around. The sky is overcast and grey, but as  i move down the street, I notice that the dogwoods and azaleas are blooming. I zip my jacket just a little.The temperature is cool, though i know it's only a matter of weeks before the grey skies will give to the kind of days that make Port Elizabeth on of the most beautiful places in the world.

With a sigh I feel it all coming back to me. I close my eyes, and the years begin to move in reverse, slowly ticking backwards like the hands of a clock rotating in the wrong direction. As if through someone else's eyes I watch myself grow younger. The lessons I've learnt with age grow dimmer, and my innocence returns as that eventful year approaches.

Then, like me, the world begins to change : Suburban sprawl has been replaced with farmland, downtown streets team with people. Men wear hats, women wear dresses. At the Baptist church up the street, the bell tower rings...

I open my eyes and pause. I am standing outside the Baptist church and when I stare at the gable, i know exactly who i am. My name is Ryan Newfeldt, and i'm seventeen years old.