How it all began

Prequel to Saramaya Island and What If Island

I will try and post something everyday so you can read how the stories What If Island and Saramaya Island came to be.

Chapter One

The doctor looked at my parents and said, “its a girl.”
My mother told me how excited she was that I was a girl. They could have found out sooner via an ultrasound but chose to be surprised. The reason they were excited is that my mother and father had a named picked out for a girl but not a boy. At least that is how the story goes.

“Have you picked out a name?” the doctor asked.

“As a matter of fact we have. Our daughter’s name is Tallahassee.”

“Tallahassee?” the doctor repeated not sure he heard correctly.

Yes that is right, Tallahassee Lucille Montgomery my mother said proudly. My father nodded in agreement but not as enthusiastic as my mother. I want my children to have unique names my mother explained as the doctor wasn’t sure what to say next.

“Welcome to the world Tallahassee Lucille Montgomery. You are the first Tallahassee delivered by me and I can't wait to tell my wife. She always trys to guess the names of the babies I deliver.”

My mother now had a big smile on her face and told my father, “I told you so.”

I went home a couple days later and met my sister Charlotte and brother Raleigh. We are all named after cities for no particular reason other than my mother wanted us to be independent thinkers and thought having a unique name would guide us in the right direction. She was right in the sense that a name like Tallahassee does force one to be independent since there are very few of us. I am now 37 and haven’t met or heard of another person named Tallahassee. Maybe if I lived in Hollywood there might be another but not in the small midwestern town of Oakton Minnesota where I grew up or for that matter anywhere in the midwest.