The Kid Kronicles #2- Greattastic Adventures Arlo Vs. R4AGL Arlo
For any of this to make sense I need to state the obvious. Anything I write about my life is more like an artistic representation of what happened and not necessarily what happened beat for beat. Most of this comes down to the characters because to fit them into the short Rules for a Greattastic Life (R4AGL) installments, some characteristics need to be left on the cutting room floor. In other words the real-life versions of characters in my work are obviously superior to their R4AGL counterparts.
I prefer the characterizations of most of my “sisters” in “The Greattastic Adventures: Miracle Child” to R4AGL since that is a book so I had more space and less had to be left on the cutting room floor. However, for my youngest “sister” Arlo (Lo-lo/Kid) I prefer her R4AGL characterization over The Greattastic Adventures. Let me explain: In real life, while there was a time when all four girls hated me, I only ever hated the older three. I didn't necessarily like Lo-lo, as she was called then but because she was so young, it was more of guilt by association as opposed to real hatred.
At the beginning of “The Greattastic Adventures: Miracle Child,” Lo-lo is only six years old and by the end, she's seven. Because of her age in real life, she wasn't a major part of the events of that story. The only way to translate this into the book was to have Lo-lo in it, but have no real contribution to the story. What I'm saying is the only reason she is in Miracle Child is continuity! But because I never completely disliked her and I know how close we are in the present, “book Lo-lo” feels like a disservice to the real-life Arlo.
Throughout the rest of our childhood, while Arlo would become more relevant in the group, she wouldn't start developing her own agency (narratively speaking at least) until she was 13 years old when she asked to stop being called Lo-lo (and I gave her the nickname Kid). This agency wouldn’t be fully on display until Kid was about to turn 16 back in Season 2 of R4AGL. This was because August, Arden, and Aspen had all moved out.
When I discovered this to make up for how Kid’s Greattastic Adventures incarnation was turning out, I decided to make a mini-series within R4AGL called “The Kid Kronicles” to document our friendship isolated from the other girls. Covid obviously forced my plans for The Kid Kronicles back since August and Aspen moved back to Columbus for a while as result. I actually did write the first installment of The Kid Kronicles in December of 2020, because at the time August had moved and Aspen was supposed to go into the army in January, but that fell through, which is why this sequel is coming a year later.
There is one more reason I decided to do The Kid Kronicles. There are only two differences between “young Mitchell’s” characterization and Lo-lo's. 1. There is virtually no age gap between me and the older three girls, making the gap between them and Lo-lo seem bigger by comparison. 2. Miracle Child is told from my perspective, not Lo-lo’s. These two things together gave the illusion that I had agency in the story. I did fun things with the older three, but most of the stuff was their idea; I was just along for the ride. What I'm saying is even though I was more central to the story, Kid and I developed our narrative agency at approximately the same time.
While we are in different places in our lives we have had the same story ark throughout R4AGL. Season 1: We had to cope with the inevitability of the girls leaving. Season 2: We started to find ourselves after they moved. Season 3: Covid forced August and Aspen back to Columbus, placing Kid and me back to where we were in season 1. Season 4: With all of the girls gone again Kid and I picked up right where we left off and continued to move forward. Kid is a senior in high school, but she's taking college credit plus classes at Columbus State. And, next week I will be moving on to the next part of my life…
Have a Greattastic day and be safe!
J. Mitchie Ulibarri
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