I've been making stories about Ada in my head for as long as I've had her, and finally this afternoon I had the time to get part of it into my computer. I wrote about 4 pages, so it's kind of long, but I'd be happy if some of you would read it and tell me what you think.
Oh, and just so that you know, something good will eventually happen to poor Ada!
Here we go:
Meet Ada
Chapter 1
Ada woke up, the sun was dancing on her face, but when she remembered what day it was she quickly closed her eyes again, pretending it wasn?t true. She didn?t want it to be true, because if it was it meant another change and Ada had had it with change for years to come. It wasn?t even a year since that dreadful afternoon when she came home from school and both of her parents had been waiting for her in the living room. Usually it was just her dad, being a writer he worked at home, and this hour in the afternoon when Ada came home from school was a special time of day to both of them, dad would stop working for an hour and they would have afternoon tea together, before Ada went of to ballet or her piano-teacher came and dad went back to do some more writing. But that particular afternoon almost a year ago, it had been both of them there on the blue and white striped couches, mom had said:
?Come and sit down Ada, we want to talk to you?
Ada quickly ran over everything she had done in the past week, but she couldn?t think of anything so special or important that mom would be home in the middle of the afternoon to talk to her about it. Actually mom sort of worked from home to, as she was an ambassador and they all lived in the Embassy, but every morning mom went down the hall and into the official part of the building, and even at Ada?s birthdays or other special days, she wouldn?t return till dinner-time, so Ada knew something important was going on when mom was suddenly there in the middle of the afternoon.
Ada had sad down in one of the armchairs across from the couch where mom and dad was sitting, their faces didn?t reveal anything as to what this might be about.
?Ada, your father and I have something to tell you?
For one wonderful moment Ada had thought she would finally have the little brother or sister she had spend the last 11 years dreaming about, but when she looked at her parents faces, she realized this wasn?t something good.
?Ada, you and me and dad will always be a family, but things have worked out between your father and I in a way, that makes it better for all of us, if we don?t live together anymore?
Ada didn?t know what to say, she didn?t even know if she was supposed to say anything. For a very, very long time, none of them spoke, Ada had a million question burning inside of her, but in each and everyone of them was a horrible word that she knew she wouldn?t be able to say without the wall of tears building up inside her eyes would collapse, and if she allowed herself to start crying, she was pretty sure she wouldn?t be able to stop until all there was left of her was a little pool of tears soaking into the rug. In the end dad was the one who said the ugly word, the worst word Ada knew.
?Ada, you know how Miranda?s parents got divorced last year??
There it was, that word, that hideous, ugly, bad, worst-in-the-world-word, divorced.
Miranda was her best friend at school, they were more than friends, they were like sisters Ada thought, perhaps because they were both an only-child, and it was true that one day last year Miranda had come to school with red eyes, and been very quite. It had taken Ada all day to get out of her what was wrong. Just before they went home Miranda had finally almost whispered, ?My parents are getting a divorce?
All she could do was nod, she thought perhaps if she didn?t say anything, if she was good enough at pretending it wasn?t happening, then maybe it would go away, like a dream.
?and you know how Miranda still sees both of them a lot, and how much she likes her mother?s new husband and is exited to have new baby coming. So once you have had some time to think it all through and get used to it, maybe you will find that something good will come of it??
Ada hadn?t believed her own ears, she wasn?t hearing this, nothing good could ever come of this, she wanted both her parents, together, in the same house, she wanted dad to be in his study next to the living room, she wanted mom to blow each of them a kiss, before she went down the corridor to her office, like she had done every morning as long as Ada could remember.
Finally she had almost studdered,
?Were will I live??
She wasn?t sure she wanted to hear the answer, but she had to know if her room would still be hers. Mom and dad had looked at each other, and finally mom had said,
?You will stay here with me, and dad will be living in an apartment not very far from here?
?Are you kicking my dad out!?, Ada had shouted, ?do you really think I want to be living with you then??, after that Ada had run to her room and locked the door, she only came out to go to school and refused to talk to any of them for days.
That was now almost a year ago, dad had really moved out about week later, and now lived in a flat just across the park, Ada went there every day after school and had her afternoon tea with dad like always and then in the evening her mom would send an embassidy car to get her, and she would go home and spend the evening with her mom, all in all life hadn?t changed that much, but she she still couldn?t say ?divorced?, it felt like, if she said it it would be final, then there?d be no hope of her parents ever being together again, and she still longed for the day when they would all be together again, like a real family.
Ada thought about all this, as she tried hard not to open her eyes this morning. She knew that once she gave in and did open them, she would see an empty room, with nothing but a suitcase and a small pile of clothes were she had dropped it last night after the ?good-bye?-party all the embassy-people had held for her and her mom. Ada had at first refused to come, as she didn?t want to have anything to do with saying good-bye, but her mom had let her invite Miranda, and since that would give her a last chance to be with Miranda for a long time she had given in and gone to the party.
Ada still couldn?t believe her mom would do anything so stupid and selfish as to move to an other country and take Ada with her, didn?t she understand that Ada didn?t want to live anywhere but here in London, where her dad was. Mom had tried to explain what a big opportunity this was to her; they didn?t appoint just any diplomat the new Danish Ambassador to the US. It had happened almost the same way as when her parents changed her life the first time; she had come home from school, mom had been in the living room and said they needed to talk, then she said
?I have just been on the phone with the minister of foreign affairs. They want me to become the new Ambassador to the United States?, then she stopped and looked at Ada who asked
?Did you say yes??
?Yes, Ada I did. We have been here in London for 10 years, I feel like it is time for me to try something else, and this is a once-in-a-lifetime-opportunity, so I said yes?
?Does dad know??
?I spoke with your father just before you got home, and he completely understood why I had to accept this job, he is very happy for me?
?Well, I?m not! I?m not happy at all! Not for you, not for any of us! I don?t want to leave, I want to stay here, I?m moving in with dad, I don?t want you to be my mom anymore, you screw up everything!?
She had felt all sick inside and very hurt, that her mom hadn?t even discussed this with her, that she had just turned Ada?s world upside down once more. She had wanted to hurt her mom as much as she could, but all mom said was,
?I never imagined that you?d be thrilled about it, but I thought you?d be old enough to at least try to understand. Your father and I have talked it through and decided that it is best you stay with me. Your father is about to publish a new book, he will be very busy with promotion and he will not have time to look after you. So you will come with me to Washington and we will both go back here to celebrate Christmas with your father?.
Christmas still seemed month away, it was only September, but at least dad would come to the airport with them today. Ada was still mad at both of them, it still hurt to think about all the things they had just decided without asking her, it still made her want to cry when she thought about it, but she didn?t want dad to remember her all red-eyed and whiney, so she had decided to give him a smile and not a tear before she went out to the plane.
The sun on her face wouldn?t leave her alone, although she felt it was very tactless of it to shine, as if this was a good day, she finally accepted that it was pretty pointless trying to go back to sleep, so she got up and took a shower, she put on some clothes and then she hung a necklace around her neck. It was a silver-chain with a little silver-pendant in the shape of the earth, you could open it and inside were two small stones, a red and a blue. Miranda had given it to her last night, and she had worn one herself too. Miranda?s dad was a jeweler, she had designed the necklaces herself and her dad had made them, she said the blue stone was Ada and the red stone was herself, as red and blue was their favorite colors, and that it didn?t matter were in the world they lived, they would always be best friends.
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