Rough Rough Draft of the prologue for R

Prologue

At first it seemed odd to Kate that the very person that would influence her way of perceiving the world would be a stranger on a bus bench. But no matter how odd, it was important. Kate couldn’t imagine how her life could have gone on without what he said to her. Although 8 year olds don't usually speak to strangers, since such is one of the childhood rules drilled into their heads, but Kate could see no harm in him. She also felt she could defend herself better than most people older than her. So when Kate approached a bus bench to wait so she could be taken to the other half of her life, the scruffy man on it didn’t frighten her.
Kate was a somber child, unlike most, and rarely smiled or laughed. When Kate seated herself, she didn’t swing her legs like most children would, she didn’t fidget with impatience, she didn’t slouch her posture, she simply sat. Prim and proper, with a blank face, a bored face, a tired face, a face not of a child but of an adult having gone through many tribulations.
The man on the bench looked similar, except through his aged face there was happiness. The man was a hermit, most likely having slept on the very bench he sat on. He wore a tattered brown coat, with rips and stains and holes. His jeans were dirty and faded his brown shoes in the same condition.
The man looked at Kate and smiled, Kate looked away. They sat there for another 5 minutes and then the man spoke to her.
“Why is someone as young as you look like a bird without wings?”
Kate raised an eyebrow, curious about what he meant.
“What?” She asked.
“A bird is meant to fly right? Well a bird without wings would lose its purpose in life, would it not?” He said slowly. Kate was still confused.
“I don’t understand how I am like a bird,” Kate said.
“A bird can only survive if it can fly, wherever the destination would take it. You’re so young, yet you look like you have no destination,” He clarified.
“I know where I’m going, that’s why I’m taking the bus, to get to where I’m going,” She said.
“Yes but it’s not your decision is it? You look like you’ve given up your hopes and dreams, and are just gliding by on what other people tell you to do,”
“I’m only 8 what else am I supposed to do?” She asked.
“Yes of course, you do what your told, but don’t think that’s all that life is. When you understand that, you’ll get your wings. When the wind is blowing flow with it, but when it isn’t, you’re free to go whichever way you want,” He told her. Kate looked at him with a new light in her eyes. She smiled and hopped off the bench.
“Thank you,” Kate said to him, as she stuck her hand out. He smiled and stuck his hand out too. But instead of shaking her hand he dropped something in it. Kate looked at what he dropped in her hand. It was a charm for a necklace, a raven bird soaring through a circle. The bird was made of a dark amethyst with a diamond for an eye; the circle the bird was going through was gold. The charm was the size of a quarter, and beautifully crafted.
“What’s this?” she asked.
“That was my mothers charm; she gave it to me before she passed on. Her name was Raven and she taught me my most important lessons in life. I see some of her in you, you have a spark and I’m sure she wouldn’t mind me giving this to you,” Kate turned the charm over in her hand and look up at the man.
“I certainly can’t keep this. It was from your mother, its valuable, and I certainly can’t take the keepsake she left you,” Kate held it out in her hand. The man reached out as though to take it, but instead closed Kate’s fingers around it.
“I have my mother in here and here,” he said and placed his palm over his heart and then pointed at his head.
“Besides that, I am an elderly man with no young ones of my own. I’d rather a young child like yourself keep it and remember what I told you, than have a urchin pry it out of my hands when I die,” He said jokingly, although Kate was taken aback by what he said. Seeing the shock in her face he looked down the street.
“The bus is coming,” he said and pointed to Kate’s right.
He was right, and Kate dug into her pocket to find some bus money as well as to look for some money to give him so he could get food, as thanks for what he told her. But as Kate found a twenty, and she turned back to the bench, the man was gone. Stunned Kate stared at the bench and then looked around for him. The bus stopped in front of Kate and opened its doors. Kate looked around once more.
“Are you riding the bus miss?” the bus driver asked impatiently. Kate looked at the charm in her hand, at the bench once more, then up at the driver and nodded. Kate smiled at the driver and shook her head.
“Nope, the wind doesn’t appear to be blowing at the moment,” The man looked at Kate confused, then shook his head.
“Crazy kids,” he muttered and shook his head. He closed the door and drove off, with Kate watching.
Kate took one more glance at the charm in her hand and headed home to go next door and visit her friends.