So after five years, I did learn that the name on my public hospital records was William Henry Weaver, although my parents told me my true name was Rumpelstiltskin named after my grandfather's favorite fairy tale who died two days before my birth. In my honest opinion, though it was a bit odd because you'd think they named me after my grandfather but to each their own, different families have different traditions and all that.
I also learned that I was born in New York, the state not the city, and more specifically born in a small town that was near some factories alongside a mine. Pretty much the only jobs available in this town beyond the few small businesses and fast food joints/restaurants the normal kind, nothing fancy or overall expensive as from the occasional walks I did around town, this place wasn't that well off.
In fact, my parents put me to work right away, finding me a minor job helping transport coal and other materials out of the mind. I would then help load them into the truck which was extremely difficult considering my weak little body. Now to mention detrimental to my growth and well mostly my lungs considering I was working near an active mine.
Although I guess I was lucky considering I wasn't put to work as a miner right away. However, that was mostly because they already had plenty of workers for that including child labor.
Another thing to note was the end of World War 1 and the beginning of the Roaring Twenties, well at least for the middle class and wealthy. Well, they'd soon find out anyway, because once the eventual collapse comes welp we'll all be equal then, except for a few people who profited from the situation. Even then they were still better off than most other people.
I digress though as my own childhood wasn't as bad as it could've been, was it a cakewalk no but it was fine, I had loving parents, and the job I was able to take on wasn't the absolute worst so it was fine.
Better than what was to come, and the absolute damage the great depression would do to people, just thinking of it sends shivers up my spine.
Now I did try to figure out the best way to warn people, to get them ready for it but well no one is really going to listen to a five-year-old. Most would just brush it off as nonsense or some bad dream I had recently. So one of the perks of being a child laborer is that sometimes instead of going to my parents I would get it every once in a while.
Allowing me to hide it away, the emergency fund so to speak which was not a whole lot considering the economic difference between the 1920s and 2024 with twenty dollars being worth a whole lot more now than in the future.
Well, I would only hope that I get to keep this job in the future during my teenage years, that and at least a portion of my health. I would rather live a long life after all to see if I could do anything to try and create a brighter future.
...
Ten years passed by quickly and I was now a miner to replace one of the various workers that died. I think that was due to black lung although it could've been the rare but still possible tunnel collapse as those take one or two miners if we were lucky.
Every day was filled with pain as I swung my pickaxe down, helping expand the tunnel looking for coal or anything of worth. My muscles roared to life with each swing as my body cried with agony. Normally you'd developed some form of muscles by now doing such intense work but proper nutrition was a must as well.
Without it, there was only so much the body could take before it reached its limits, and while I would love to get a good meal.
There was only one problem with that, the great depression was in full swing and everyone in this little town was suffering. That and my emergency fund had long since been depleted, along with any other funding I had gained from this job beyond some food and blankets the owners would give instead of cash.
Even then the small amount of cash they can actually pay us everyone in a while was way smaller than when this place was in full swing. That and well let's just say the news was becoming odd, some of the few times I was able to get my hands on a newspaper, I read stories of extraordinary individuals performing heroic acts.
Although the writer was extremely skeptical about it, the article writer debated whether or not they were real, summarizing by saying it was probably blown out of proportion.
Although I wasn't as much of a comic reader during my life, I did know enough to recognize the people in the pictures. The Flash, Hawkman, Black Canary, and alongside a few more I didn't recognize.
Which meant I wasn't on a parallel version of my earth but rather a completely different one altogether. Which meant my presence here would not change things beyond what has already happened.
That also meant the possibility of magic being real as well as even some of the gods. Which was a worrying thought while the concept of magic was amazing on paper but the price you have to pay for such power. Well, even then it all depended on the type of magic you used and who could tell which was dark magic and which was not, well not a newbie at least.
Honestly, when I was younger in my last life, I had always wanted to be a magician, not the stage magic kind but a true one. In the end, however, we all have to give up our dreams and move into reality, to find passions more rooted in the real world. For me that was history, I always loved studying it and figuring out how certain events came about, how small things led to big ones.
Yet that was also a way to gain power in a world like this, a way to not be one of the countless beings massacred in the wars between villains and heroes. That or one of the people erased in universal ending tragedies. That and the occasional reset of a universe as well if it was following the comics.
Magic was one of those things that could help bypass things like this, to sidestep it so to speak. Well under the right conditions and circumstances, alongside a lot of preparation, I was guessing.
Right now though it didn't matter, I had to help take care of my new family, and I wasn't old enough to set out on my own quite yet. That alongside the lack of a vehicle to properly travel long distances alongside the funds to properly fuel it.
Well, there was always the option of hitching a train ride to try and get wherever I needed to be.
Right now though I just needed to bid my time, to make sure my new body was going to be healthy enough for travel, that and the future conscription. If I was going to be fighting in a war I would rather be healthy and fit for when the time comes. Even if I've never fought as a soldier before it would be best to increase your odds of survival.
Righ tnow though I would simply swing my pickaxe down, gather the coal and get it ready to be sold or however it happened.