When Alyssa was a little girl, her grandmother sent her a music box for her birthday. It came wrapped in lavender colored tissue paper, with a small bow on top, and a note that said, "This was mine when I was a girl. I want you to think of me when you hear the music. Love, grandma." Alyssa was six years old. Whenever she opened the box and heard the beautiful and enchanting music from within, she smiled and thought of her grandmother. When she grew up, though, Alyssa began to ask questions. "Why don't grandma and grandpa come to visit more often?" she asked her mother one day when they were in the car. Alyssa's mother seemed startled by the question. "Why do you ask?" she eyed her daughter suspiciously. "I was just wondering," explained Alyssa. "They write me letters but I don't see them very often. Is England too far away?" Alyssa's mother seemed slightly relieved. "Well, dear," she replied, "England is not so far away that it would be impossible for them to visit more often. But tickets from England are expensive, and your grandparents simply don't have the means to pay for two tickets any more than we can afford to pay for tickets to go and see them." Alyssa pondered this for a moment, and in the end she was satisfied with the answer he mother gave her. The years went by, and Alyssa sent letters and photos to her grandparets and her grandparents sent letters and photos to her, and Alyssa grew up. The pieces of her childhood were slowly moved out of sight, her porcelain dolls packed away in a large plastic container, and the music box put in to a box and carried up to the attic. Until one day, in the year that Alyssa turned 15, when she found it again, dusted off the top and opened it up, and began a series of events that would change her life forever.