I'll take it from here #5

[Kitti]

The first sentence of a story can reel in the reader as they wonder what it means, what will happen next, or how it will tie in to the rest of the story. It can also be one of the hardest lines to write because it all begins with that first sentence.

Well, you're in luck! The purpose of this challenge is to see what you do with the rest of the story when the first sentence is provided. Use the sentence given as the first line of your story and see where it takes you from there.

First sentence:
Once upon a time, many many years ago, a boy was born in the city of Cairo.​

 

[PoetLore]

(There is a tiny, teeny little town about 15 minutes from where I live called Cairo..couldn't resist!!))

Once upon a time, many, many years ago a boy was born in Cairo. His father was the tenth in a long line of farmers. Though the methods and crop had changed, they were still farmers. His father had converted over to soy and corn exclusively, though he still kept a few animals and had a smaller family garden for household needs that his mother cared for in expert fashion.

That little boy grew up and the day before he was to graduate high school he set his parents down in their large farmhouse kitchen and handed down the news that stunned them to silence. "Mom. Dad. I want to be a musician." They didn't reply so he continued on, "I have been saving and I have enough to make a run at Nashville..." They still didn't speak so he kept talking, "And After graduation i figured I'd head out and take my shot at the big time."

His father finally was able to get past the knot in his throat, "Well son," he said with a nod, "Seems you have this all thought out. Good luck." And he rose from the table and went on about his work.

His mother watched and once her husband was out of the house she looked at her only son and frowned, "Do you have any idea what you just did to your father?"

"What? He said good luck...he seemed ok with it."

"Right." She said realizing that conversation wasn't going anywhere. "I best get to making you some food for the road. Lord knows there won't be anything good to eat on the way."

He smiled brightly, "Thanks Mom, you're the best!" he kissed her cheek and headed off for his last day of school. The following day was the graduation ceremony and he crossed the stage and was handed what he considered his ticket to freedom, that diploma. The proud parents took pictures and were all smiles, though their hearts were breaking.

The boy drove off in their beat up pick-up, with a promise to call when he arrived. That call never came, nor did much contact aside from when he needed a little help now and again. The parents continued as before working the farm and though they loved their life, the gaping hole left by his going seemed to grow bigger day by day.

They hadn't heard from their boy in about two years, though they had tried to contact him several times. His Mom fell ill, and test after test was run until it was clear she was fighting a losing battle. Pancreatic cancer. A death sentence diagnosis. Zero survival rate, and no effective treatments. As she grew weaker, she kept begging her husband to find their son, so she could see him before her time was up. He promised her he would, but getting no responses he decided to hire a private investigator.

It took the man three months to find their son. He was living in a homeless shelter in Lexington, Kentucky. Since the boy's last known whereabouts was Nashville the investigator had to do a lot of tracking to find him there, but he was paid to bring the boy back to Cairo, and so he did.

The day of their son's return was a bittersweet day. Mom was hanging on for this moment. She wanted desperately to see her son, and assure herself he was well and that he was back home where he belonged. Dad thought he looked thin, beaten down and so much older, but that didn't stop him from being glad to see him. He embraced his boy in a tight bear hug and ushered him up to the room where Mom now resided all the time.

The boy was confused and shocked to see his once vital and strong mother so thin and frail. What had happened? She told him and they both cried as the boy hugged his Momma apologizing over and over. She hushed him and stroked his hair as she started singing to him as she had when he was little. her voice was weak and thready but the emotion was there. He sobbed into the blankets realizing how stupid it had been to allow his pride to keep him away.

Dad watched as their boy cried and the light in his wife's eyes faded and eventually went out completely. She'd gotten her wish, and he'd kept his promise to get their boy home for her. he went to the other side of the bed and took her bony hand in his and kissed it. "I love you." he whispered and swallowed the lump in his throat.

The boy looked up, thinking his Dad was talking to him and saw the way his Dad was looking at his wife. It was then he noticed that she was still and that her chest was no longer rising and falling. "I didn't know..."

His dad looked over, "We tried to call you..."

"Yeah...things went bad...I lost everything..."

His dad reached out and wrapped his large hand around the side of his son's neck, "Not everything Son...all the good stuff is still right here where you left it."

 

[Doctor Jax]

Once upon a time, many many years ago, a boy was born in the city of Cairo.

Granted, not Cairo, Egypt. In fact, in the United States alone, there are 35 different Cairos, all in various states with a myriad population, of which there may be a small Egyptian minority. In this case, the boy was born in Cairo, Illinois, which he painstakingly had to tell people was pronounced "CARE-o". His family was overall quite normal - a nuclear family with a mother, a father, an older sister, and a dog, complete with picket fence and two cars. Life in Cairo was fairly normal, all things considered. The school was standard, there were a few restaurants, the occasional crime would occur, but the place was almost boringly without incident.

Perhaps that was why he ended up in the situation he did. His life, to the point, was a statistical anomaly. No deaths in his immediate family. No hardships outside the norm for a young man his age. No struggles, aside from working a weekend job to afford a rockin' guitar amp for his new Fender. The normality of his life just wasn't normal, and maybe, in a way, the universe tried to correct for this.

One day, at age 19, just before going to college (he was born too late in the school year), he drove to the corner store for milk. And when he walked out, he found himself in a strange in-between. It was neither Here nor There, but instead a kind of limbo. The world was littered with television screens from the 50s', switched on and unplugged, playing nothing, while a red sky covered the firmament like an angry film. The gas station had the only light, the road always somehow circling back to it somehow.

A purgatory, if you will.

He did not take kindly to the intrusion. But it was only here he would understand what he needed to become.