Prologue to "Inga and the Magic Harmonica"

Copyright (c) 2010 Victoria Burrell-Hrencecin.

This is the first draft of my fantasy children's novel.
(The eventual order of the chapters may be changed - nothing is "set in stone" yet!).

This was originally intended as "Chapter 1", but I'm now intending the following to be a "Prologue"
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Inga always knew there was more to the world than meets the eye (quite literally).  Other people could see things, hear sounds, smell scents and taste flavors, but Inga could do more than just this.  In her mind, she could see sounds, taste words and even smell music.  When she was really little, she assumed everyone did this. It wasn't until she was about nine, that she discovered, after talking about it with a friend, that she was a little unusual.

Inga's full name was Inga Lynne Melody.  Inga's mother had chosen her first name because it meant "guarded by Ing", and Ing was, according to legend, the Norsic god of fertility and peace.  This made Inga feel protected and special. She pictured this “god” as some kind of giant doting guard dog, forever by her side, making her invincible.

After doing a project at school, however, Inga learned that her name had another meaning. It was also a type of tropical tree, with yellowish, creamy white flowers and a vanilla-flavored bean (known as the "ice-cream bean").  While this seemed a little less grand than "guarded by Ing", it dawned on her that this was a perfect definition of her name, because this meant her name had a color and a flavor to it!  Which explained everything.

She had already grown to love the sound of her full name.  "Inga", when spoken out loud by itself, sounded like a small soft bell, delicately struck. When combined with her middle name, "Inga-Lynne" sounded like the soft tinkle of wind-chimes in a warm evening breeze. (It also sounded like some kind of musical instrument: a violin or a mandolin).  Now, she knew that her name also contained color and flavor.  This fit the way she experienced the world: – taking a name and giving it more dimensions. Almost like magic.

Inga didn't think of herself as pretty.  But others thought she was quite striking.  Her favorite feature was her hair: - it was dark brown, thick and shiny, with a slight wave to it, and she was trying to grow it long.  It was now slightly longer than shoulder length.  She wore it down, most of the time, to cover up her ears, which were slightly on the large side and stuck out a little, mainly because of the glasses she had to wear.  She had chosen small, blue, steel rimmed frames to match her blue eyes, which were magnified into large blue pools by her lenses.  What she didn't pay much attention to were the freckles on her handsome little nose, or the strawberry shape of her cute little mouth.  These were features she would notice more later when she was older.