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by Drew Katronick (7th)

Chapter 1

High up on the sixth floor, in a small, dark apartment, it is past midnight.  A sleepy young girl silently sits and shivers, partially out of fear and partially because of the cold.  She watches the TV as the reporters shout about violence on 34th Street.  Finally, she hears voices outside the door and her fear disappears.

A tired, sad voice says “I don’t know if we will be able to go to work tomorrow, it’s just-.”  “We have to go to work!” interrupts an aggravated voice. 

“Well, if we die on the way there we will still not be at work.” says the other voice, now slightly annoyed.

“Chris, we need the money!” says the aggravated voice, now also annoyed.  “Kate, we need our lives!” interrupts the voice named Chris “34th Street isn’t safe, and I’m not going to let us go there till it is.”

Of course, the walls of the apartment should have blocked out this conversation, but the apartment building was old and tired.  While the young girl is happy that her parents were safely home, she knew they wouldn’t be happy with her.  Then the doorbell rings and her bedraggled parents step into the room.  One of them, a tall, skinny, and stern-looking black-haired woman marches over to the couch where the young girl lies.

She picks up the remote and turns off the TV.  “That is enough TV young lady! And that’s enough popcorn, too!” she says as she yanks the popcorn out of the girl’s hands.

The girl just silently looks down at the ground.  “Why are you still up?” yells her frustrated mother “You should be in bed by now!”

“We all should be.” says Chris.

An awkward silence follows, and the girl doesn’t answer.  “Why?” Kate says sharpley “Answer me, young lady!”

“Um… I… a…” the girl mumbles quietly.

“Answer me!” yells the mother.

“Well I just wanted to make sure you were all right, with all the violence, you know” mumbles the girl quickly.

“I don’t care!  Get to bed- it’s a school night, after all.” says Kate with a disappointed look on face “We taught her better, right Chris?”

“Come on, Kate, she just wants to make sure we are okay, she cares about us.” says the exhausted dad “We should be happy that she cares.”

 The mother rolls her eyes and goes to put down her bag on the kitchen counter.  “Well, get to bed,” she orders “You have your final exam tomorrow, and I don’t want you losing any more sleep.”  “This final exam matters” Kate continues “If you don’t get a good grade, you will not get into a good high school, and then into a good college, and then into a good job.”

The girl nods her head timidly and walks to the bathroom door.  “I just wish you would care more about your grades.” her mother says in a disapproving voice.

Once in the bathroom, the young girl gets into the shower, and carefully washes her hair, as her mother always instructed her to do.  She wishes that her mother would be more considerate. 

“She is just always angry at me, trying to find any little flaw, and get me for it.” the poor girl thinks.  Then she gets out of the shower and carefully brushes her “pearly whites”, as her dad always called them when she was just a little girl.  But she doesn’t think about her dad, she thinks about the exam.  A long, grueling day of tests that determines her success.

Outside the bathroom Kate says “And I just wish I had cared more about my grades,” softly in a sad and disappointed voice.


Stay tuned for the next chapter of Sage.