Chapter 1 - A Cup of Black Sesame Soybean Olive Latte
Ring ring ring ....
Olia silently opens her eyes to the welcoming morning sunlight seeping through her closed curtain window and the ringing alarm clock beside her bed.
Rolling onto her side and getting up onto her elbow, she shuts it off and spends a few seconds calmly breathing in the new day and enjoying the peace that ensued.
“Today is a lucky day. Everything will work out for me today and I love myself more than anything,” she asserts to herself. It didn’t matter whether she believed it, all that matter was that she said it aloud. Olia loved saying affirmations to herself to remind herself that the world is her oyster at any time. She was a believer like that.
Getting out of bed, she went and got herself primped and ready for the day. It was another day she had planned to go train at the boxing gym. But first thing was first: she absolutely needed to indulge in some self-love and self-care first and go buy her favorite latte at The Treasure Cafe.
Stepping outside of her apartment, she slid onto her sleek, black, brand new motorcycle that she bought a few months ago with the boxing money that she earned and sped off.
Pulling into the cafe parking lot, she removed her helmet and walked briskly inside.
A memory from a time quite long ago stirred into her awareness for a flitting few seconds.
“Oh, this one sounds good. Let’s try the black sesame soybean olive latte!” A younger version of Olia, back then named Elenor, happily and enthusiastically said to the boy standing tall and confidently beside her.
“It does sound good. Let’s get it.” He stated calmly and smiled adoringly at her.
As it turned out, the latte ended up becoming her most favorite drink at that cafe, and even becoming a favorite of his, as well, according to what he later told her. It sort of became a first symbol that linked both of them to each other at that time, and she felt like it still did. It was truly a treasure made and found at The Treasure Cafe for them both, in her opinion.
After buying her drink, she got back onto her motorcycle and knew she would also have to eat a filling, balanced meal first to be able to fuel her body for boxing training, so she drove straight to a place she often frequented called The Charming Nookery, a breakfast eatery where they served some of the best and healthiest breakfast foods that would always leave her fully satiated and wanting to come back for more.
Once she arrived, she glanced at the watch on her wrist. It was around nine a.m., so she figured she would spend about an hour eating breakfast there and then spend another hour and a half walking around at the Moonlit Gardens Park for the food to properly digest in her before she started training for the day.
With her plan all set, she went into the breakfast nookery and ordered a scrumptious fruit bowl along with two medium-sized protein bowls filled with brown rice, salmon, eggs, avocados, beef and chicken.
After treating herself to such a delicious meal, she left the place and went for her hour and a half walk at the park. The time passed by surprisingly quickly for her there, and once the moment came for her to leave, she felt amply ready to take on her boxing training session for the duration of that whole afternoon. She had a boxing match the very next day, so she wanted to get some time to train a bit more with Hollis, a good friend she had met there several years back when she first just started learning the sport.
Upon arriving, Olia got off her motorcycle and walked into the gym, carrying her gym bag which had her boxing outfit, water bottle, and equipment all crammed into it.
“Olia! Hi! It’s great to see you. I know you’ve got a boxing match tomorrow, so we’ll definitely bring it today in practice. I also made a huge batch of chocolate brownies last night and brought a whole bunch of them for us to eat today after we’re finished training. They’re absolutely delish! Probably some of the best brownies I’ve ever made by far, and you know how much I love to bake!” Hollis jubilantly stated, radiating so much positive energy and joy towards Olia as she so often did.
Olia smiled gently at her and signed, ‘Yes! I would love to try them out after we’re done. Thank you.’
This was how Olia talked to people who didn’t know who she truly was - her real identity as Elenor Norlitha, a girl who was supposed to have perished in the fire that overtook the Willow Mosaic Mansion, her home, five years ago. A fire that the public thought was an accident but was staged instead.
“I was thinking that we start off with stretching, move onto the treadmill and then do some strength training and then shadow boxing and sparring.”
‘Yes, awesome plan,’ Olia signed back.
As someone who only pretended to be mute, Olia really didn’t say much when using sign language with people. In some unexplainable way, she felt like her expression was limited when having to sign with her hands as opposed to verbally speaking.
Perhaps that was why she had grown to love using her positive affirmations in her own life so much. Because the experience of having to use sign language had given her a whole new appreciation of the importance of self-love and having self-respect and self-acceptance.
Also, Olia found that she didn’t get many opportunities to use sign language with the people she either meets or interacts with, as they just didn’t know how to read it. Hollis knew how to read a bit of it from being friends with her for several years.
Using sign language wasn’t a form of communication Olia ever thought she’d be using, but the reason for that was due to the life that had been unexpectedly and viciously taken away from her five years prior.
Now, because of the new life she had dedicated herself to, she had to learn sign language, change her whole face, hair, name, background - the entire identity that was once Elenor Norlitha now hidden and protected by Olia Nexus.us.
