The Family Bible

My earliest memory of my grandmother was her hands worn with age, shaking as if she was constantly cold, gripping open a book that had been passed down from her mother and her mother before going back for generations, as she struggled to read through the brittle pages. She was always reading but this was her favorite book it seemed.

“Never stop reading Baby no matter how many times you read through something you will always learn something new.” She told me as I stumbled towards her like most do when just learning to walk.

Sitting down next to the old hickory rocking chair, she read out loud from her book to me the story of the servants and their talents. To this day still, my favorite story in the Bible, and as my grandmother told me, I still learn something new from it. As she finished each time, she would remind me God gave you a brain and the ability to learn never forsake it. Though it has been was years after she left this mortal coil that I truly understood what she meant, I never did stop reading anything I could get my hands on, some I probably shouldn’t have but when you’re a kid on a mission nothing is out of bounds. Following my graduation from basic training in the United States Army, my aunt presented me with the one thing I was given from my grandmother. The book was smaller than I remembered. The black leather cracking in places as the age and wear had made me wonder how it lasted as long as it did. The pages looked as if they would crumble if I had dared open the relic from the person that tried her best to protect and raise me right. But as life would inevitably do, it took her before that job could be seen out.

A 33 -year-old man now, discharged from the Army under medical circumstances, I've moved many times since that day but I always lovingly pack that book and make sure it went everywhere with me, and to this day, it remains the center of my living room standing in a glass case, the gold leaf lettering long since faded but still I see that little lady carefully pouring over its pages as she read to me the stories and parables from it.

When I had started college six years ago, I had a couple of friends from church helping me move into my dorm when the bible fell from the carefully wrapped box I placed it so lovingly in. As it thudded on the ground several papers turned loose from its pages. The sound resonated with me as my heart seemingly stopped. Slowly I stooped down to examine the damage as the box I was carrying fell on the bed and clattered. The papers that had slid loose were thicker than the pages of the bible. With a small relief, I picked the book up delicately as if I had just unearthed an archaeological marvel. Gently sliding the papers out of the book I come across a letter and several official-looking documents that included a bill of stock with some papers from a lawyer marked Transfer of ownership.

It was weeks later that I had a free afternoon to research the stock and transfer paperwork. The stock in question was still valid and worth an incredible amount of money. However, after talking with several people in the investment field I called up the company that the stock was for and seen that the stock had been ownership stock of the company. It wasn’t much when my grandmother bought it but that 35 shares then turned multiple times over making it a major vote in shareholder meetings and I was free to sell those shares or retain them and receive a check for the back owed amount due to the owner of those stocks. Thinking it would be smart to have something as a backup, I chose to keep the stock and take the check. Within a week, a couple of men from the company’s law firm arrived to verify everything including ownership, and departed leaving me with a twenty-thousand-dollar check.

As I was taking the check to the bank to deposit I was coming up with a rough draft of what to use the money for. I deposited the check and went back to my dorm and made a plan to spend the money, I decided I would pay more of my bills down to try and raise my credit, as I also would save some money to help with publishing my book. I kept eight thousand dollars solely for the purpose to keep my writing going and publish everything as I may complete my poetry and novel series. This and the continued quarterly income has allowed me to continue writing and learning. This has been my two paths in the forest I'm glad I took the lesser traveled one. From this, my life has changed from one of constant struggle to a new adventure every day.

Orion Ogma.