How many people in this world would jump at the chance to go anywhere, anywhere at all, in this world? In any time period, in any universe? Way too many people. But how many of these people would think to go back to a place, where war was such a common thing that even young children were exposed to it? Where people bent the natural laws of the world and the unexplainable was explained. A place where death would creep up behind you and, when you least expect it to, jumps on you and you have no means of retaliation.

Only one person would choose a world like this right away. Some people said I was a dumbass for it. I was given an opportunity to go anywhere, do anything, and be anyone. And everyone around me, friends and family, thought I was crazy. My comeback was simply that I was only given a minute. One single minute to decide where I would go and who I would be. And sadly, as I contemplate my decision now, all I had on my mind was a certain blond-haired alchemist from my all time favorite anime/manga.

Edward Elric's beautiful face filled my mind at the time and I didn't think that I would get picked to have to make such an immensely important choice. When the man called my name out, my friend had to shake me out of my Edward induced thoughts. I was half pushed down the steps of the auditoriums bleachers and almost fell into the Big Man himself. Now that I think about, I guess I know why he called himself the Big Man. He was one of very few people who said that they could 'grant wishes', and actually could.

He had never told us what the question would be so of course everyone was caught off guard when he asked me the question. "If you could go anywhere, during any time frame, and be anyone you wanted to be, were would you go, what time period, and who would you be?" Because I had so little time to think the first thing I could pull out of my mouth was, "Risembol, Amestris. The time of alchemists and Edward Elric. I want to be myself." I know that seems like I had plenty of time to think this over and in a way I had.

I had always dreamt of leaving my small hometown in Ohio for somewhere bigger and better, like my older sister had done. She had fled to sunny Hollywood, California to go after her dream to become famous. And of course, the dream to get away from our parents. That was the only thing we really had in common, we both hated and were hated by our parents. The only reason for this was because we weren't boys. One of the things my sister and I had argued about a lot was my confidence, or lack of. She thought that I should be more like her and want to be surrounded by people who loved me. I, on the other hand, would have liked to just stay in a corner or blend in with the crowd. My parents, naturally, agreed with her because she was the eldest and the smartest of me and my three siblings.

My infatuation for the fiction-y part of life was also a topic of great controversy between my parents and me. They always got mad at me when I stayed up late on a Saturday night to watch anime and would almost fall asleep during church Sunday morning. So if they got mad over that, I bet anyone can guess what my parents had to say about my one and only wish. That night after we had come home eaten dinner, I couldn't make it to my room before my parents cornered me by the stairs that led to my room.

"How could you do this to us?!" My mother was the first to break the tension that had been formed. "How could you waste such a gift?! You are a greedy little pig! Only thinking of yourself and not your poor family. Your own parents haven't been on a vacation in years, it seems, and your siblings are probably tiring of the same dreary scene. And all you could think about was yourself and your crazy ideas!!" she screeched. My father just stood by, silent as per usual.

She had attracted an audience of my little brothers and little sister. The neighbors could probably hear her had turned off their televisions and radios to hear the dispute. This, to me, seemed like a daily routine. I do something 'wrong', mom blows up, attracts an audience while dad just stands by, and the next day I had school all the neighbors' kids would snicker when they passed me.

When it all started, I had just turned nine and apparently embarrassed my mother when I didn't thank people for their gifts right away, I had been balling my eyes out and she had slapped me several times to get rid of her anger. On my first day of fourth grade, I was ten then, I had slipped and fell walking up to the school after my mom had dropped me off, my dress got dirty and everyone found out that I wore Barbie underwear. When I got home, mother wasn't too pleased with me. I was slapped again for what must have been hours before she retreated and went to lie down and rest.

It seemed like from there on, I always did something wrong and would get slapped for it. That is, until my thirteenth birthday. When I displeased her, as always it seemed, this time she punched me. A month later, she found out my secret addiction to fictional things and that was the first time I think that I was really afraid of her. Not only did she slap and punch me, she tried to push me over the railing of the stairs that led to the foyer. When that didn't work, she pushed me down the stairs and came running after me as I rolled down. When we both reached the bottom, she started kicking me and yelling at me, only stopped when grandma and grandpa walked into the house and saw. My mother froze and stared at them and for a moment I thought that she would go after them as well. Instead she had straightened herself up, righted her clothes and walked away.

My grandmother had been the first to reach me. She bent down and examined my injuries. My grandfather took his time, probably wondering what had caused his daughter to do such a thing. When he had reached me and finally tore his eyes off of the wall behind me, he looked down at me and I'm pretty sure he must have either wondered what he had done wrong for his daughter to go off or what he had done to deserve such a screw up for a granddaughter.

That look always seemed to be on my grandfather's face from that day on. Grandma didn't like visiting anymore, it seemed. My mother and father seemed to only grow more and more cold-hearted as the days passed. By my fourteenth birthday, I had learned to distance myself from my family. My efforts seemed wasted as my beating and 'wrong doings' became a daily routine.

When my mother had heard that a wish granter was coming to town and would pick one lucky person to have any wish granted, she immediately had tickets for our entire family. I was almost certain that her wish would be that I had never been born. The day the 'Big Man' came to town was hectic, if not anything else.

Our small town looked as though the autumn-time tourists had come and didn't know how to take a break. Now, on a normal spring day, if you walk straight down any street you won't have any worry of people touching you. But today, you'd be lucky if you could weave your way through the masses to get to a store not five feet from you. The younger kids made a game to see who could get through the people and only made everything even crazier. They would take running starts and sometimes a kid or two would pop out on the other side of the crowd on Lakesbury Street.

This only made getting to my mother's boutique even harder. Although we seemed to hate each other, she still made me work for her seeing as my little sister was too young. My mother owned a small 'boutique', as she called it, that sold beauty supplies, cloth, and clothing. She had me take stock and place orders along with making sure each shelf was filled and looked nice. When she first had me start working there, I was about eleven, she had me watch her at the makeup counter and listen to her when she sold clothing. She had thought it would make me into more of a young lady, when I had fell that first day of fourth grade I started wearing boy clothes.

When I finally reached the little store, my day from hell began. But, I won't waste your precious time on that instead I will merely wait and tell you what happened after my mother blew up that fateful day…

And that is where I leave you, readers. Next time, Ed might be introduced. MIGHT!!!!

-Purplbuni21