Anyone who knows me well should also know that I am (or I
was; the awful disability that the cruel and unfaithful god abandoned me with
has left me such an appallingly slow reader><) a huge bookworm! My
reading interests lie in three main genres: science fiction (I discovered Star Trek
sometime during high school when my dad installed Foxtel because television
reception was so crappy where we lived in Shailer
Park that we could only ever
receive ABC! ><”), horse stories (I fell head over heels in love with horses
when I wandered into my local primary school library when I was a wee grade two
student and picked up Anna Sewell’s copy of Black Beauty) and especially
fantasy. The love of fantasy novels stems all the way back to 2001 when my form
teacher, a man by the name of Alwyn Griffin that wore a beret and liked
drinking strong coffee, told me one afternoon, “Emily, meet me in my office
after class today.” Hmm, that was strange. I couldn’t think of any reason of
why’d I’d be in any trouble, so why would Mr. Griffin tell me to meet him in
his office after class?
So anyways, after school ended for the day at 3:20pm, I find myself knocking tentatively on
his office door. A gruff “come in,” has me treading cautiously into his
super-stinky (strong coffee fumes, remember? XD) office, where he’s seated
behind his desk.
When I reach his chair, Mr. Griffin pushes three books over
to me and orders, “Take these, read and fall in love.” And I do!
After being introduced into the world of fantasy novels, I
am entirely hooked. I discover many more amazing fantasy authors, such as Phillip
Pullman. I also love David Eddings for his wittiness!
This fascination for all books written by Feist extends well
beyond my teens, now, approaching 26.5 years old (yes, I feel like an old fart;
dunno about you. XD), Feist remains my favourite author. Indeed, back for my 22nd
birthday, when some church brothers and sisters kindly threw me a surprise
birthday party (after I randomly mentioned that I’d never had a surprise
birthday party before), one of the presents I received was the newest Raymond E.
Feist novel, A Crown Imperilled!
After the cruel and unfaithful god so wantonly destroyed my
life with the disabling brain tumour, mother randomly demands that I attend a
book club. Back then, Disability Services Queensland (DSQ) had not cut so much
of my support hours yet, and I still had a carer come look after me from 3pm till 7pm
everyday. One day, one of these carers takes me to the Logan North library,
where I sign up and join a book club, which meets on the second Thursday of
every month from 6pm till 7:30. When I first join, the lady running the
show, Amanda, has gone on holidays, but another very nice librarian called Carol
ran the show in her absence.
When Amanda returns, I am delighted to discover that she’s a
diehard Trekkie, just like me! Indeed, during one meeting, she proudly boasts
that her life is now complete because she met Patrick Stewart (who plays
Jean-Luc Picard in the series) and he called her some endearment like ‘my
darling’. XD
Anyways, one night, I receive an e-mail from Amanda, letting
me that RAYMOND E. FEIST (still my favourite author, after all these years! XD)
has finished the last book in his ‘Magician’ series and will be coming to the Brisbane
Square library for a talk and do book signings! I
ask her please for the contact details so I can ring up and book myself a seat
ASAP, and when I receive her reply containing the contact numbers, I screech
(well, I didn’t actually, but screeching’s more dramatic than just calling, you
understand? XD) upstairs, “Mother, quick, please pass me the phone so I can
ring the Brisbane Square
library and book our (obviously, I’d need mother to accompany me; I’m too
uselessly disabled now to attempt anything myself ><) tickets to meet Feist!”
mother comes down the stairs and laughs at me, “you idiot, it’s like 9:20pm now. The library will be shut, duh. You
can ring them tomorrow morning.”
So come the next morning, after wolfing down two/three Weetbix
for breakfast, I ring the Brisbane Square library and ask to reserve two seats
to see Feist. The lady on the other end clicks away on her computer, then comes
back with the reply, “Sorry, that event’s all booked out already.”
But he can’t be! Feist has been my favourite author ever
since grade nine and I absolutely have to meet him! >< Instead, I leave
my name and contact details with the librarian, who promises to ring and let me
know if anyone withdraws their reservation for two seats.
For the next several days, every time the phone rings, I hope
desperately that it’s the Brisbane
librarian ringing with the good news that someone has withdrawn their
reservations and that mother and I are free to go, but alas, it never is.
><
That Thursday before the event on the following Monday, I
attend the Garden City Creative Writers group and tell Gabby (she’s like the
second-in-command of our group) about my wish to meet Feist but how all the
seats have already been booked out. Gabby considers then offers one option, “Well,
the only card you have left to play is the disability card. I’ll go with you
out to the front counter and you can ask the librarian if there are any seats
especially reserved for people with disabilities.”
So Gabby and I walk out together, where I come across a male
librarian to whom I try the disability card option to get mother and I seats.
Unfortunately, he’s not very helpful; all he says is, “You can try ring up the
library yourself and ask.”
Back home that afternoon, I do exactly that. The council
worker manning the phone decides to give me Brisbane Square
library’s direct contact number, so I can try ringing myself.
Alas, the Brisbane Square
librarian hasn’t heard of any disability seats on offer, meaning I’m still on
the waiting list. “But don’t worry,” the librarian reassures me, “We’re open
through the weekend and if anyone cancels their seats over the weekend, we’ll
let you know right away.”
Meaning I spend the entire weekend in nervous anticipation,
desperately hoping every time when that the phone rings, it will be the Brisbane
librarian offering us seats to see Feist.
Alas again, the phone remains ominously silent all weekend.
Come Monday morning, I try one last time at ringing the Brisbane
Square library, asking could I please please
please attend the event, but am again met with, “Just leave your contact
details with us and if anyone cancels we’ll ring and let you know right away.”
All hope fading that I will ever get to meet my childhood
favourite author, mother tootles me off to UQ for physio. As is my wont, I
visit the bathroom once before receiving physio. Today, however, just before I
push open the door, mother’s mobile rings. “It’s probably dad.” I tell her,
entering first. “You know how he likes to give us a wakeup call on the mornings
I come out to UQ for physio. He didn’t ring this morning, so it’s probably him
now. I’ll go in first, and you come in once you’ve finished talking on the
phone, okay?”
Mother agrees, and when I enter the bathroom myself, she
reaches into her handbag for her ringing mobile. Once I grab hold of the
disabled rail and let the door swing shut, oops, I realise that the lights
aren’t on. That’s okay, I can wait in pitch-darkness for awhile; I’m not afraid
of the dark anymore like how I once was when I was little. XD
When dad rings mother and I with his wakeup calls, usually
they are very brief, like, less than one minute. However, for some reason, two
or three minutes later, mother still hasn’t come inside and suddenly I realise,
“Hey, what happens if the call was from the Brisbane City Council librarian
offering mother and I seats to meet Feist?!”
Despite knowing that the cruel and unfaithful God doesn’t
bother listening to me anymore, I find myself offering a prayer up to him. “God,
if you please please please let me attend the Brisbane
Square library to meet Feist, I promise I will
read my two daily devotions twice everyday and try to remember their content.”
When mother finally comes inside and flicks on the light, I
look expectantly at her. “Who was that, mother?” she looks back at me, grins
then says, “You’re going to meet him tonight.” Hallelujah! I cheer with
excitement, but then suddenly pout. “Oh poo, what book will I get for him to sign?
I don’t have his newest, ‘Magician’s End’. Ah well, hopefully he will sign his
older books too, I’ve got several.” Mother just laughs. “Don’t worry, last
Thursday night, when you were out at Garbo, I went and bought it for you.”
Awesome, you’re the best, mother!
Anyways, mother rings she rings Carol (my carer/life
coach/support worker/whatever you call them now XD) and asks her to please come
from 3:30pm till 5:30pm instead of 4pm till 6pm
because the event starts at 6pm.
When Carol arrives in the afternoon, I excitedly burble the
whole long story of how I’m getting to meet Feist tonight. Carol is happy for
me, then reminds me, “Bring your camera, you might be able to get a photo with
him.” Oh, definitely. I immediately yell upstairs for mother and ask her to
please charge my mobile.
All too soon, it’s 5:30pm
and we’re heading out to the Brisbane
square library to meet Feist! Suddenly, I remember, “Oh! Mother, you should
grab one of my Feist novels too and get it signed!”
Mum bounds upstairs and grabs Feist’s ‘A Kingdom Imperilled’
then we head off to the Brisbane Square
library! As you can obviously tell, I’m super-excited. XD
We take two lifts up
into the library; super-excited me can’t contain myself while the second lift’s
moving, telling the other guy in the lift with us, “Oh, I can’t wait to meet
Mr. Feist!”XD
Walking into the library, there’s two very long lines.
Mother quickly susses them out, then directs me to the longer of the two lines.
“People are just getting books signed for the other line.” She tells me. “We
can wait for the event in this line.”
And so begins a twenty-minute wait for the doors to be
opened for us. I find it particularly awful, because after my brain injury, I
do most things sitting down (even showering) and I can walk short distances
when necessary, but the hardest thing for me to do is just stand. ><
mother stands behind me, wraps her arms around my waist and we just stand there
and wait. Looking in front of me, I see some people have actually brought
LUGGAGE CASES worth of feist’s novels for him to sign! XD
Finally, when the doors are all opened, we all file in. I
automatically make my way to the chairs on the most left of the area, because
one side effect of my disabling brain injury is that I have lost my left-side
side vision and I get nervous when there are people sitting to my left when I
can’t see them.
Mother grabs us some refreshments (one can of fizzy orange
drink and two packets of arnotts bikkies) and sits beside me to await the start
of this event!
When Mr. Feist walks in, we the audience breaks out into
applause. :o)
I thought he’d just tell us about his journey while he wrote
his massive series, but instead, the whole session was conducted in a question
and interview style, with the interviewer being no other than the guy mother
and I had caught the lift up with, the very same guy I’d burbled, “I’m so
excited!” to! XD
Again, huge thanks to mother who accompanied me; she must’ve
been bored out of her brains, never having read one of his books in her life!
As for me, I thoroughly enjoyed myself, and even learnt a
new thing: in his novels, Feist has created a race of people called the Panthathians;
only when listening to him speak that night did I learn that they were actually
pronounced ‘pant-AYE-thians’!
At the end, when everyone gave him a new round of applause
and we were told we could go out to get our books signed, I immediately told
mother, “Quick, let’s go, I don’t want to have to stand in line for ages
again!” getting out as quick as I can now walk (which, alas, is quite slow
><) I again lined up. Thankfully, there was a seat next to Feist, and
after I’d had my photo taken with him, I told him the story of how I’d first
encountered his books all those years ago. Mr. Feist just laughed and said, “Good.”
XD
Before we left, mother rang dad to let him know we were
ready to leave. We passed a security guard, who pointed the way out to us, and
as we were nearing the exit, I saw some movement from the glass doors outside.
After a longer inspection, I asked, “Um, mother, is that dad dancing outside
for us?” she giggled and replied, “Yup.” XD I blew dearest dad a kiss, then flapped
my arm at him, indicating he should stop dancing, less the police suddenly
appear and arrest him for unruly behaviour outside a library! XD
So dad tootled us home, and the next day I jumped online
onto Facebook to upload my photo with Mr. Feist and the photo of my autographed
book~
Well, what can I say? Meeting my childhood hero author has
definitely been tie the highlight of my year so far! (the other highlight was
when I rode a CAMEL at the beginning of the year! I know I’ve said this several
times, but hopefully our road trip down to Sydney
at the beginning of the year will really be my next post! Righteo, until then!~
Cheers,
Em. ^^
