"Innocents Have Been Changed"

PROLOGUE


    I look to my past with regret, and I look to my future with fear. If you join me on this odyssey that is my life, I promise to tell you four little words that have the power to destroy any living, breathing person from the inside out. I have heard these words.

    At the time of her death, the sea apple in my aquarium will turn herself wrong side out. Her insides are fatally poisonous to every living thing around her. It's not enough for her alone to die, she has to destroy all who are close to her. I have done that.
   
    These are my remembrances. It is not a family tree; it is the story of my life. If you dare, have a look. I'll dust off memories that haven't seen the light of day for many years. Most have never been spoken aloud.

    The past can never be changed. Nevertheless, I believe the future can be altered because of the way the past is perceived.


CHAPTER ONE

    My name is Maisie Barbier. I am old now, in more ways than one. The essence of my being, my vitality, my soul became old at the advanced age of five. I'm fifty now and my body is quickly catching up with my superannuated spirit. Fifty is not old, you say? I'm practically obsolete, defunct. Nevertheless, I've had an intriguing life that at times has been both horrifying and magnificent, but it's never been dull and it's never been simple.