Everyone Wants the Same Thing
an excerpt

Prologue

Once upon a time, there was a young couple who had moved all the way from Ireland to settle in the England. Oliver and Margaret Orson were very young and had very little money, so they moved to the tiny village of Robin Hood’s Bay in North Yorkshire, hoping for a good and happy life for the tiny baby that now grew in seventeen-year-old Margaret Orson’s belly. The baby that they knew was going to be a beautiful baby girl.

It was not a baby girl.

Instead, Little Ronald Alfred Orson was born to the young couple and they were overjoyed at the arrival. Little Ronald was born with a mop of ginger hair and, while they secretly wished that it might darken upon his first birthday, it did not. All the same, Little Ronald was a happy and precocious child, full of wonder and very, very smart. He had learned how to read by the age of four and began reading his father’s books by the time he was seven. Little Ronald loved reading and vowed at a very young age to open his own bookshop, full of all of his favourite books because Robin Hood’s Bay did not have a bookshop containing any of these books. When he accidentally dropped his absolute favourite book, Ana Karenina, into the water, he found it almost impossible to find another copy. Had it not been for his uncle in London, he was sure he would never have got another copy.

When Little Ronald turned eight, he met Gerald and Ian, two boys from round the corner who he had avoided for fear of being made fun of. Instead, Gerald, Ian and Little Ronald became fast friends, spending nights at one another’s houses, playing on the shore and even stealing watches from unsuspecting old watchmen. By the time they were ten, Patricia Hanson moved to Robin Hood’s Bay.

Little Ronald thought Patricia Hanson was, quite possibly, the most beautiful girl he had ever seen which, at an age when all girls have cooties and should not be touched under any circumstances, was quite a compliment to Patricia Hanson. On her birthday, Little Ronald gave her her present (which he had wrapped himself, of course), and, as she was admiring the lovely pink jumper (which his mother had picked out, of course), he leaned forward and kissed her pretty pink lips. Before Patricia Hanson could respond, Little Ronald turned and ran off, refusing to look at her for a very long time. Until she cornered him against a tree at school one day, grabbed his shoulders and pressed her lips to his, chipping his tooth.

Patricia Hanson and Little Ronald Orson were in love. As in love as two small children can be, of course. They held hands until one of them could bear the combined sweat no longer, they sat together at lunch and shared their sandwiches and biscuits and they always went to each other’s house. Little Ronald and Patricia Hanson swore they would never love anyone else.
When Little Ronald turned sixteen, he and his father had a vicious row. No one quite knows what occurred during the argument and even Mrs Orson refuses to tell anyone. Her eyes well with tears and she excuses herself until she can compose herself enough to change the subject. Either way, it upset Little Ronald so much that he packed his things and caught the next train to Londontown as soon as he could. He did not tell his best friends Ian and Gerald where he had gone and he did not have the heart to tell Patricia Hanson, his very first love and the girl who had grown accustomed to being called Patricia Orson.

Of course, Little Ronald, at the ripe age of sixteen, did not have much experience and no money. Luckily enough, he did find that he had a cousin living in London who happened to have an extra room (he later found out that his cousin’s girlfriend had left him for his best friend, leaving a spare room where his best friend had once stayed). It was not easy for the two boys to live in the flat, but somehow they managed and Little Ronald found a very well-paying job when he was nineteen. He even managed to change his North Yorkshire accent to a London accent. Sort of.

Julia Bryer (who would later become Orson) worked in the furniture store across the street from the office building Little Ronald worked at. He was twenty now, and had a new girlfriend (who shall remain nameless, as not even he can quite remember her name). But when he saw Julia Bryer, who would later take his own name, standing outside of the furniture store smoking a cigarette, he fell in love all over again. He had to meet her, to touch her, to have her, to marry her. Julia Bryer saw the ginger-haired man across the street and thought that he might be interesting to speak to, as she did not enjoy the company of any of her co-workers. So they began talking everyday at the same time, in front of the furniture store she worked in. Julia Bryer found it hard to deny Little Ronald anything.

Except marriage.

Little Ronald asked Julia Bryer four times to marry him. The first time was at his flat, after a particularly romantic movie. Julia said no, citing the fact that they had only been together for four years. Little Ronald had thought four years would be more than enough time.

The next time had been on the London Eye, as they pretended to be tourists (a past-time they were quite fond of). Julia said no, saying it just wasn’t right.
So, when they were still twenty-four, Little Ronald asked Julia to marry him as they ate at a romantic Italian restaurant full of people ranging in age, sex and ethnicity. Julia, however, threw her napkin down, told him no and ran out of the restaurant crying.

The last time Little Ronald asked Julia Bryer to marry him was when they were twenty-five. They had fallen into a routine and, as they lay in bed one night watching the evening news, he asked her to marry him. This time, Julia Bryer said yes and changed her name to Julia Orson three months later.
It was not until they had been married for seven years when Little Ronald called his parents to inform them that he had gotten married to a nice girl from London. He didn’t even have a grandchild to ease the hurt a bit.

When Little Ronald was thirty-six, his mother fell ill.

When Little Ronald was thirty-six, his mother was given months to live.

When Little Ronald was thirty-six, he went home.