Chapter 1 - Life
The sun shone on the street, reflecting in the puddles. It had rained heavily yesterday morning. When it rains, the sky turns dark, and the whole day feels ruined. Finally, in the early morning, the sun rises, and the chill left by the rain is overpowered by the autumn sunshine. And here I am, looking at the scene through the window. A lot of things have been going on lately, and looking out at the beauty God created helped me calm down. But before I could sigh in comfort, a servant came into my room. "Your mother is calling for you." When I heard that, I got up and briefly fixed my brown hair, makeup, and dress.
Mother was sitting at the dining table, looking at me with a gloomy expression. "You haven't been reading the Bible lately." I sat down, feeling the tension in her voice, so I asked the servant to bring me the Bible. A loud sound echoed through the room as my mother stood up abruptly and slammed her hand on the table. I couldn't help but flinch. She didn't even give me a moment to think. "No! You have legs, use them!" I knew what Mother was talking about, so I stood up and walked away. It hurt me that we didn't get to pray.
When I got back to my room, I read the Bible. I sat by the window again, occasionally looking outside. The air in my room started to get warmer, so I thought about opening the window. But then I changed my mind, choosing to drink ice water instead. After a few agonising minutes, I changed my mind completely and decided to open the window. The breeze embraced me like a giant cloud. It was so comforting, almost as if all my worries had disappeared. I glanced back at the Bible, realising I had gotten distracted. While reading, I had many questions, but they were soon answered as I continued.
A pigeon suddenly flew into my room, its wings flapping around as if he had been startled by something. I couldn't ignore the pigeon's distress. Once he settled down, his wings stopped moving, and he simply looked up at me with curiosity. I showed him the way out of my room, but he didn't want to leave. I immediately recognised the pigeon as a male by his thick neck. His feathers were white and black, beautifully blended together. When I touched his gentle feathers, I was amazed by how soft they were. At that moment, I thought about keeping him. "Your name will be... Goccino... like a little raindrop..." When I said that, I expected at least a somewhat enthusiastic response, but the pigeon just looked at me. Well, maybe he already had a different name. Suddenly, I noticed something wrapped around his little foot. I tried to take it off, but it was quite difficult because it was tightly attached. When I finally managed to remove it, I realised it was a small capsule containing a piece of paper. Unwrapping it, I found words written in a different language. I thought it might have been a mistake since carrier pigeons were already old-fashioned. But I was so curious that I couldn't leave it alone. So I took the paper and walked out of the room, yet Goccino still followed me. I didn't mind. In fact, I was happy to have someone take a liking to me.
I took the stairs down to the library, looking at the ceiling. Seriously, I didn't want to search through dozens of books just to find language dictionaries. So what was so bad about asking a servant to do it for me?
After a servant gave me a dictionary, I studied it. Goccino flew over and rested on the table. It was almost as if he enjoyed spending time with me.
In the end, I was still unable to translate it. So I asked for a different dictionary and studied it again. Before I realised it, it was already lunchtime. Time passed quickly, I thought. So I stood up and took Goccino with me.
Mother was waiting by the table as usual. "Did you read the Bible this time?" she asked, her voice calm. I simply nodded in response. She sighed in relief. "That's good, dear. You must not stray from your faith." She then paused. "I'm sorry for lashing out earlier... But you must never burden servants with work that serves no purpose. You are able to get up, so don't bother the few servants we have." With that, we started eating the little food we were served.
After lunch, I decided to go outside and walk around the beautiful countryside. I took Goccino with me, and he flew around in gleeful delight. The sky was dark as a rainstorm was approaching. I kept looking at him, afraid of being lonely again.
