CHAPTER ONE
If you are interested stories with happy endings; and if you have picked up this book with the hope of finding a cheery and happy tale, then you would be better off reading some other book. This is because not very many happy things happened in the miserable but magical lives of the four Butterfield siblings.
Hugo, Valentine, and their twin brother and sister, Parker and Belinda Butterfield are brilliant and intelligent children with charming facial features and manners. They are good, well-behaved, and caring children with unbelievably wealthy parents. The Butterfield youngsters absolutely loved and adored their parents who, of course, loved them too. The Butterfield children may seem lucky and blithe - a word here which means 'not having anything to worry about' - but their lives are actually rife with misery, despair, misfortune, and… magic.
I am sorry to say this, but that is how the story goes. If I were you, I'd put down this book and go read something else. Even I, myself, regretted my writing of this book but it is my permanent duty to record the lives of the Butterfields, and the misfortune and magic of the unfortunate and magical Butterfield children will begin in the very next paragraph.
The beginning of our story took place on the very top of Hermione Hill, a small grassy hill at the edge of Mallow Meadow, right behind Butterfield mansion - the home sweet home of the four children which I am going to introduce later.
You see, there are some days, where on top of Hermione Hill, it would be stormy and very, very windy which is altogether very unpleasant. While on some other days, it would be scorching hot - and being on top of a hill - you could be burnt into ashes in just five seconds. However, on that particular morning, it was neither too hot nor too windy, but instead, it was a nice, sunny and breezy day at the top Hermione Hill and the Butterfield children were having a great time.
Sitting on the soft grass on the hill was Hugo, the eldest of the four Butterfield siblings. Hugo, unlike most thirteen - year - old boys, had an obsession with books and absolutely loved to read. Because of this, his father had put together a magnificently large library just for him. It had big, cushiony sofas and rows and rows of shelves and bookcases across every wall, stacked with books of every genre - a word here which means 'kind' or 'type'. And right now, while sitting on the hill with his siblings, he had his nose buried in a very interesting book about Siberian tigers.
Lying down on the velvety grass next to Hugo was his eleven - year - old sister Valentine. Like the rest of her siblings, she had hazel-brown hair and brilliant sky-blue eyes. She had her shoulder-length hair tied in a ponytail and anyone who knew her very well would know that she was very bored and thinking very hard. This is because whenever Valentine was bored, she loved to count doubles in her mind and disliked to be disturbed by something as trivial as her hair. 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256… went Valentine in her brilliant little mind as she stared into space.
The youngest of the Butterfield siblings are fraternal twins; a boy named Parker and a girl named Belinda. They are the last and the youngest of the Butterfield children, scarcely larger than a boot. As they were still infants, not even two years old yet, they spoke in a series of unintelligible words. Like right now, while Hugo was busy reading and Valentine was busy counting, the two were shouting "Pots! Pots!" over and over again which meant nothing about the clay containers that people plant plants in but something along the lines of "Hugo! Valentine! Look at the thick, black smoke over there!"
Hugo looked up from his book and turned around to look at where Parker was pointing. Sure enough, thick, black smoke was rising from the trees behind them. Hugo and Valentine looked at each other disbelievingly.
As the smoke thickened, swirling and curdling in the blue sky, suddenly, the truth dawned on them. The phrase "dawned on them" which I have used does not mean that the sun had descended on Hermione Hill in the morning, washing the Butterfields with sunlight and warmth. Instead, it means "to become clear" which means Hugo, Valentine, Parker and Belinda had suddenly realized something. Anyway, the truth dawned on the Butterfields and they realized what was happening.
"Hugo? Plea - please tell me that you don't…" said Valentine, her voice trailing away. "Oh Lord. The smoke's from be-behind the trees and behind the trees is our… our-''
"House!" screeched Belinda, her voice softer than usual.
Hugo threw his book aside, eyes wide as saucers, and ran down the hill. "Val! Get Parker and Belinda! Stay here," he said.
Hugo ran across the meadow, the wind rushing through his hair and spreading the smoke everywhere, making the blue sky turn grey. He ran through the trees and didn't see a flash of a flame and guessed the fire must have ceased. The smoke made his eyes red and watery. Hugo unlocked the hot, wrought-iron gate of the Butterfield mansion. He released a paroxysm of hacks, a phrase here which means 'to cough continuously'. Smoke and ashes swirled in the air. The smoke cleared and what he saw brought tears to his eyes.
His home, the magnificent Butterfield Mansion, was burnt right to the ground.
"Oh no," said a voice, and Hugo turned around and saw Valentine with the twins toddling behind her. You see, there are some things that are too unbelievable to believe even though you see it happen right in front of your own eyes, and even though Hugo and his siblings saw remains of their house with their own eyes, felt the heat of the ceased fire with their own skin, and smelled the burnt scent of the ashes with their own noses, they still couldn't and wouldn't believe what they saw.
The phrase 'to keep things in perspective' which I am about to use means to compare one's condition with another's or to simply look on the bright side and carry on. For example, one of my friends lost four thousand dollars, and he thought, 'Losing four thousand dollars isn't as bad as losing an arm.' And by doing so, he kept things in perspective and continued his life. Unfortunately, the Butterfields tried and tried to keep things in perspective, but they failed, and couldn't think of anything worse than seeing their beloved home reduced to ashes.
And so, the four Butterfield children - Hugo, Valentine, Parker and Belinda - stood side by side in the middle of the charred rubble, and stared into the horizon, hoping that their good luck would overpower their misfortune. Little did they know, their misfortune and misery had just begun, and it would be a long, long time before it ended.