Laurentius Abberfraw

I remember something my father said to me in my youth, before my brother's accident, before my obligations, back when my main worry was the bees dying around our garden. “Get busy living, or get busy dying.” As much as I hated the old corpse, he was god-damn right. I loved the people I met at the Gazette, they were a second family to me, but the time comes when every boy must leave his family and venture into the great unknown. I had the fortune of growing up with the environment at my fingertips, and now that beautiful landscape of my childhood was burning down around me. I had to do something, and so I did. I put my wealth and writing skills to use, not as a journalist, but as a producer. Humans are empathetic animals, if we could animate a movie of the sea life they bring so much pain to, it could cause real change.

Thus, Finding Norman was born, a movie about the horrors of commercial fishing, ocean pollution, and pet stores. On the topic of pets, about 45 odd years ago, I got one for myself, an African Grey Parrot named “Smart Elis.” He's old now, but he's still with me to this very day. Finding Norman was a success, much to my and Elis' toy budget's delight. I went on to produce successor movies, Finding Dorito, Finding Eugene, and most recently a live action remake of Finding Norman. It is remarkable how technology has evolved to the point where we can now understand real fish enough to hire them as actors. Of course, they couldn't speak, so we still had to dub them over.

When I was 45, and right after Finding Dorito released, my brother William died. With the death of my biological father too, I was now alone in this world, except for the companionship of Elis. I did indeed inherit my brother's seat in the upper house, but at the age of 55, the same age my brother died, I retired from the seat, leaving it in disuse until another member of my extended family should choose to claim it.

On the topic of family, in my time in the Upper House I did meet a man named Eugene, and although we would never have romantic feelings for each other, we became good friends, and lived together until the day he died. We also adopted an 8 year old child named Alme when I was 48 and he was 45. Just recently she got her doctorate from Seldona Royal University, and I could not be more proud of the child we raised. Finally, I managed to continue writing odd guest-opinions for the Gazette for the next fifty years, I was always proud to support my family.

Now, most of that family is dead, as is Eugene. I am dying. As I look up to the stars with Elis, however, I remember my father, and how busy I got living indeed.

Written by Imran