1 Simon Smith

Simon Smith, a name that brought unfamiliarity every time I tasted it on my lips. I suppose, after nearly 18 years I should have grown accustomed to this new identity.

I stood at the glass window of my New York City high rise apartment. White colors painted across the streets as civilians made their way past on another, going about their daily lives. The snow fell gently and embraced the ground as children stopped to kick heaps of snow that had formed while their parents watched lovingly at them, their eyes unmoving.

The sky was dark, and it was as if a storm was brewing in the distance. Little dots of orange and yellow could be seen from the nearby buildings that stood tall. The city lights were a sight to behold at night.

A warm smile painted across my face at the thought of the upcoming holidays. The whole city was abuzz as everyone had begun to flock to the grocery store to grab some necessities before the prices shot through the roof. December 10, 1969, approximately fifteen days to Christmas.

Tranquil music played in the background as I looked over Central Park. Delicate smells of cinnamon tea filled the floor. I inhaled the scent, taking in every bit of it. I loved cinnamon tea. It was one of the best ways to start the Christmas holidays. 

Simon could see a young couple walk by below him. The young lady rubbed her hands together to produce some warmth because of the extreme weather conditions although she was fully clothed in winter clothes. Her spouse noticed this, grabbed her hands, and placed them in his, trying to provide as much heat as possible.

The woman closed her eyes, savoring the warmth. They turned around and headed off to their destination.

Simon turned on the heating system and sat on his couch. The place had great heating. He couldn't have dreamt of this luxury in his past life. Rightfully so, being honest, this apartment could cost a kidney and a leg.

He wished he could say he was independent, but he owes it all to his family for everything enjoys today. 

It wasn't always like this. Ironically, I didn't have a great relationship with my family in the past life. With the way things ended, I'm more than grateful to be given another shot at life.

I was born in January 15 ,1952, New York. I was born as the youngest of three children to Daniel Smith and Lisa Smith, both 26 years old at the time of my birth. 

I have an older brother and one older sister, which happened to be twins. They were born 4 years before me. 

Just like how the story goes, their relationship over the years was full of competition. Alexander, my brother, has always excelled at sports and my sister, Caroline, participated in things like student unions. They both wanted to pursue the same career path as our parents, law.

My grandparents started a law firm in the early 1920s together in New York. Our dad happened to spend a lot of time at the law firm by the time he was done with high school, and he developed a liking for it, just like his parents before them. While he was schooling in Harvard together with Lisa Smith they formed a loving relationship and they got married a few years later. 

They joined the law firm their parents founded and made it even more succesful. A law firm that developed close to 50 years today. The law firm is located near the famous Time Square, with 60 floors and nearly 240 meters high. This asset alone proved to increase the wealth of the Smith Parker law firm by a lot. And over the last 50 years they built a very large network and contacts in New York, which led to the law firm having many very loyal clients and is very reputable.

My parents are now both in their prime and are taking over full control of the law firm, while my siblings just finished their law degree a year ago. 

My brother finished with his education at Harvard, just like my parents. My sister however, had a special liking for Great Britain, which led to her finishing her law degree with summa cum laude at Oxford University.

One would assume that I would also develop a passion for law when growing up in such a family, but if you have a passion for something, like in my case, game developing, and you use decades to become the very best at your craft, you can't exactly throw it away and start something completely new. 

But I wasn't willing to make the same mistake as I did in the past, concentrating only on work and not being able to see the beauty of the world and share the joy and happiness with the people around you. To appreciate the beauty of life I decided to study art in this life.

I realized very quickly that my memory in this life was superb. I finally understood how unfair Eidetic imagery truly is. Due to this wonderful circumstance I never really forgot about my skills of the previous life. 

As you can imagine, a mature soul in a young body with an eidetic memory turned out to be quite lethal to the American school system, which led to me finishing my university degree in art at the University of Fine Arts, near Central Park, two years ago. Me finishing my degree a year faster than my siblings turned their competitive drive towards me for a while, which led to me having to flee, quite literally, out of the country.

I spent the last two years traveling all over the world, visiting London, Berlin, Madrid, Barcelona, and many cities in Italy and France. Spending time at the large museums of Europe was very enlightening.

But as I'm finally turning 18 next month, it's time for me to start my own career. I communicated very early on with my parents that I would not participate in the family business, but they were willing to sponsor my lifestyle as my school record made them very happy.

Traveling the world, living in luxury hotels, and learning about art is quite costly. I was fine with them financing me while I was underage, but now it is time to start living independently.

I asked them for a business loan so I could start my very own company. Of course, I invited my siblings to help me and even become my legal counselors for the new company.

The sound of the teapot's ding halted my train of thoughts. I got up, grabbed a cup and poured some of my favorite cinnamon tea in the glass teacup and sipped on it leisurely.

I washed the cup and placed it down when I had finished. I stretched my back a little then headed to the room to call it a night.