The Dancer The young woman was exotic-looking. As she danced, the audience was utterly captivated. Then, as the lights dimmed, she pirouetted off the stage to the right. The sound of clapping hands was deafening. The beautiful prima ballerina performed the best performance of her life. Betty knew she had danced...
Aftermath MY FRIENDS ARE ALL LOSTOnly the two children and the principal are left standing this day. He was bleeding profusely. All my friends are lost. I could not help but think all my friends were gone. Would they ever come back? Would I ever see James again? All that was...
Thursday, April 20, 19323:12 p.m. It was 3:10; the first bell would ring in fifteen minutes. Miss Sheridan had her class put their books away. Before the bell rang, she told everyone to do a great job at the sports meet. Rachel went to her desk and took out an envelope...
Billie Joyce Billye Joyce Payne Second Grade A week before the explosion, my mom packed our meager belongings, and we moved in with grandma and grandpa Payne. Grandma had taken ill, and my mother wanted me close by for them. I had to start riding the bus to and from school....
Rachel Sheridan Third Grade Teacher Rachel Sheridan loved being a teacher. Her father said she had been born for the job. Rachel had a way of making a child reveal their inner self before they realized she had analyzed them. Rachel wanted to impart the future to youths whose past were...
As she told the stories, I could not help but think of how cleansing a thing it had to be for her. My mother had lived in a lovely house until the beginning of the Great Depression. The stock market crash of 1929 caused a downward spiral globally, propelling the depression....
Rory Rory was horrified at what his mother was doing to Rosy. His mother had the dogs’ wire brush, and Rosy’s skin was red and bleeding. He screamed your hurting Rosy, stop it! Stop It! Rory’s mother was scrubbing Rosy with the wire brush. His mother turned at the sound of...
Rosy and Rory were fraternal twins. Rory was the handsome twin, and Rosy, well, Rosy was plain. The sad part was that Roses’ mother was the one to tell her this well-known secret. Rose’s mother had only been home from the sanitarium for two days when she looked her right in...
Jimmy Third Grade Row Four Jimmy was fascinated with Joyce’s long hair. His favorite was when she wore a long ponytail. Most of the other girls except Cindy had short, cropped-off hair. Jimmy’s mother complained to his dad about the dancers cutting their long hair off. It was not decent, his...
Joyce Third Grade Row Four Big Bands and swing. The rage of the day. Duke Ellington. Joyce was in love with the music. The Payne Family owned the town mortuary, and while Joyce was never allowed to go to the building next door where her father worked, he put a radio...
