roro0130-blog

[roro0130-blog]

Another story

(hamlet remake)

  Love at the hands of death

Once upon a time there was a girl, her name was Julia. Julia loved to bake, from cookies to croissants, she loved it all. She often sold her treats at school, and because her a lot of her fellow classmates were also poor, she would sell them for 3 cents, she had to make a profit somehow. Her dad, Miguel, always said to her “Don’t make them pay a lot but make them pay something.”

 Miguel, was an extremely hard worker, he was an immigrant who married a woman and came to America to have the “American dream.” He expected to have kid who would go to college and become a big business owner, because he could not, or so he thought. When he first got to america he made lots of friends. He loved meeting new people, he is such a people person, whenever he made a new friend he would invite them to his house, offer them a beer, and talk about sports, bake them a treat (from scratch, he hates boxed desserts). Then he would talk about his life, and he always seemed to say, “The first love of my live is my beautiful wife Lina” He said with his Argentinean accent while smiling revealing a deep dimple on the right side of his cheek, “My second love is numbers.” He was phenomenal with numbers, Pythagorean theorem, trigonometry, algebra, anything, he..was...good, especially finance.

One time when he was talking to his newly made friend, Joel, he made in the middle of a store, the man was very invested into the way he was around people, it was his smile, his eagerness to know someone. At the end of the conversation Joel asked him to come in for an interview, for the spot as a receptionist at one of the biggest hospitals in the state. Joel met Miguel at the entrance and took him to the interviewing spot which was a plain white room with a big whiteboard on the side, on the whiteboard there was a unsolved math problem.

 When the interview started, he was of course impressed by his communication and was willing to give Miguel the job on the spot, but something unexpected happened. As Miguel was talking he suddenly stood up, Joel was about to say something but he couldn’t. Miguel picked up the dry-erase-marker and solved the problem. Joel’s mouth was wide open, this problem had been attempted by everyone in the office and no one could solve it, and now this man who apparently was a secret math wizard. Miguel sat back down like nothing had happened. Joel was stunned, he left the room to get his boss, a short haired and statured man, who wore heavy perceptions glasses that made him hunch forward. When Joel came back into the room he showed his boss the magically solved problem. His boss amazed and immediately asked who finally solved this problem. Joel pointed at Miguel, “Well don’t just stand there, give him a job as an accountant!” the hunched man said.  “Do you have an degree in accounting?” Joel asked Miguel “No” Miguel stated. The smaller man walked over to Miguel and offered a deal, for him to go to college for an accounting degree paid by the boss, or to take a job as a receptionist..

So that’s how Miguel was able to become on the best accountants in the country. It had been about 18 years since he was employed as an accountant, since then he had a daughter, Julia, and divorced with his wife. “She always said I worked too much.” he complained to one of his older friends “But if I didn’t she wouldn’t be able to afford those shoes” He and his friend laughed together. Miguel was growing old and his work just didn’t give him the same thrill as when he started, numbers and numbers all day long, he barley had any time for his baking. He felt like he was a “growing dead man”

Nonetheless, Miguel taught Julia how to bake so, she was extremely excited to know that her dad was planning on buying a bakery. He announced his retirement to the company, and they all seemed happy for him except for one person, one co-worker. Julia and her dad loved to bake together after all he is the man that got Julia hooked on to baking. Julia’s father was set on opening a bakery called “The love bun” he always said this name was perfect because he baked with love. Everything was planned, he had enough money to buy the bakery, had enough money to buy ingredients, and he didn’t have to hire anyone because Julia would be working with him, and he didn’t have to pay her if she didn’t know what minimum wage was.

 Unfortunately, her dad couldn’t buy it because the day before he was planning on buying it, his bank account was hacked, after trusting an online website that said “We can help manage your money!!!”. And all the hardworking money he had in that account was gone. Devastated, Julia’s father went back to work, he worked, and worked, and worked. Eventually he was diagnosed with depression, and one day when he got back home from work, and Julia was at her mothers house, after she recently was just let out after 2 years. As the night went on he made the sad decision of taking himself to heaven. Everyone was destroyed, even the company took a day off in memory of their best accountant. Julia went numb, she knew that even thought her dad was depressed, he would never do this to himself. She just knew it, so she was determined to find out who. When she was looking through her dad’s stuff she cam across various letters, two about a bill, three from his friends, and one from ‘unknown’ at least that’s what they named themselves. She opened the letter and it read

“How dare you walk around this office and not be ashamed of what you have done to me! You will pay for the discourse you have caused me! You dragon”

She gasped at this, who dare say this to her father? The next day she took it to the office he retired from, “Hello, my name is Julia, daughter of Miguel.” The receptionist immediately took her hand off the keyboard and froze, she looked up at Julia with a tear in her eye “I’m so sor-” she was cut off by Julia saying “It’s okay.” She held back her tears which so desperately wanted to come out. “I just need to find the person who wrote this letter.” She gave the letter to the receptionist, and she immediately was appalled by what it said and who wrote it. “Oh, you don’t want to-” again she was stopped by Julia “NO!” She screamed, she took two deep breaths and continued “Please I need to know who wrote this, I think my dad was killed.” Her tears won and escaped her eyes, running down her cheeks before they were wiped away via Julia’s hand. The receptionist immediately understood, “I don’t recognize this handwriting, but I can show you who I think it is.”

 She stood up and walked with Julia upstairs. She walked into the office and stopped “there” she whispered, pointing at a man in the corner of the room, talking with a co-worker “that’s george, he was miserable when he didn’t get the job he wanted.” “Why didn’t he get the job?” Julia cursorily asked. The receptionist looked around and whispered in her ear “because of your dad.” Just then George’s head whipped back to look Julia straight in her eyes. Julia’s eye’s went wide, she wanted to walk to him and give her a piece of her mind, but something within her told her there was more. She thanked the receptionist and walked to her boyfriend’s house, Kole.

Kole was a big burley man who loved Julia, he was also crushed at the news of her father, but he wanted to make sure Julia was okay first. Julia went to his house and explained everything to him. “Ever since he looked at me I couldn’t help but feel like someone is watching me.” Julia said while looking around her, her phone rang, it’s her mom. She didn’t trust her mom, not after what she said about her dad after his funeral, calling him a lowlife, a “wanna be white man” She rolled her eye’s at the call, she still answered because she knew her mother was lonely.

“Yes mom, what is it?” Julia said while rolling her eyes

“Julia! I’m getting married!!” She squealed over the phone, making Julia flinch.

“You getting married?, to who?” Julia asked

“His name is george!”

Then Julia froze, could it be the same george who wrote that letter, no th-that can’t be. Kole’s eye’s widen, he knew her whole family dynamic, her mother an alcoholic, her late father a serious businessman who had a soft spot for sweets, and now her mother is getting married? This shouldn’t make him suspicious, but he couldn’t help feeling a knot in his stomach.

1 month later Julia and Kole found themselves at Linda’s wedding. They held tightly on each-others hand, they were two out of five people there, all five of the guest had been the bride’s guest, none from the groom. Then the music started and the groom came out first, Julia’s eyebrows furrowed as she looked at the man. He was wearing a horse mask, was this a joke? Then her mother came out, looking sober (finally), she wore a short plain white dress, which was unusual. Her mother liked to be dramatic with everything, Miguel always said “you so dramatic, woman!” when they would fight over the smallest things, she acted like he was pouring her wine down the drain, he might as well have, it would have done better for her and the family. When they were ready to give their vowels the man made a little joke about Julia’s father.

“You my dear finally look alive, it was as if you were a princess trapped in a castle, and I slayed the dragon and claimed my prize.” Both the bride and groom laughed. Julia’s eye’s jumped wide open, that was all the proof she needed. With that they finished the vowel portion of the wedding.

“If anyone objects, speak now of forever hold your peace.” The priest announced to the smallest crowd in the world.

“I OBJECT!” Julia screamed, everyone looked at her even Kole. “THIS MAN” She pointed at the horse mask guy, “KILLED MY FATHER!” She announced, everyone gasped. Her mother began to cry, covering her smeared maskera with both her hands . “WE BOTH KNOW YOU WROTE THAT NOTE, THEN KILLED HIM!” Her voice cracking in the process, tears again wanting to come out, but was fenced up by her fiery anger already out.

“ I DID IT!” Her mother managed to scream over her. Julia froze, only her eye’s darting over to her mother.

“what?” Julia’s tone changed completely, instead of her anger in charge of her emotions, sadness over took her.

“I KILLED HIM” Linda again renounced. “That man ruined my life! He was so controlling, no wonder I drink Julia! Use your brain, an addict doesn’t come from no where!”

“B-But he wrote the note?” Julia sobbed.

“I wrote the note....then HE” she pointed at the horse mask man “He made me do it, he gave me the idea” Linda also sobbing, but still managing to talk through it.

“You were destroyed!” The man began to yell, “You needed out.”

“I’m so confused.” Julia said, still sobbing

“After your father and I divorced, he still wanted to help me with my addiction. He wanted to in his words “change my life”, he wanted to meet up at a restaurant with me. He told me to wear something sensible, he drove me, but when he parked we were at a mental hospital. I fought that man with all my strength, but he was stronger. So then that day I was admitted into the hospital, that’s why I was out of your life for 2 years....” She explained, as she hung her head low.

“but-but I was with you that night” Julia reasoned “You couldn’t have killed him-.” Then she understood, that man who was standing there in wait to marry her mother, that was the murder. He slowly took off his mask, and showed just who she thought, george from the office. A smile smeared on his face, Julia knew he had no remorse.

“I’m not the bad person here, I’ve helped so many people Julia, SO MANY!” He started to walk forward off the stage, “I helped your mother become happy again” he pointed at Julia “I’ve helped you father, know his place” he looked down and spat on the ground, “and I'll help relieve you of your grief.” With that he pulled out a small pistol and aimed it at Julia, he pulled the trigger.

Julia still frozen, sh closed her eyes expecting this to be her last day, but was very surprised to feel nothing. She opened her eyes glad to see she wasn’t hi, but not glad to see her boyfriend standing in front of her with a dark spot on his clothes. His body fell in front of her feet, she fell with him and caressed his face, giving his forehead a kiss. Her tears invited themselves out of her eyes making sure they fell on his forehead as well. She knew she couldn’t save him, so she said her goodbyes.

When she stood up, george was closer. “Why did you kill my father?” Julia looked down shaking her head, no one could see if but in that moment she wasn’t herself. This 15 year old was ready to kill.

“He ruined my life, I was supposed to be the one who got that accountant job! I WAS SUPPOSED TO BE THE BEST! He was a no one, and I was everything! I had more experience, i had the degree ready, and all he does is solve one problem and he get the job? Tell me how that’s fair!” He got closer to Julia lowering his gun, Linda screamed. “I was supposed to be the king of the company, and he stole that from me, so he had to pay.” Julia shook her head, “your crazy, he was everything you wanted to be but couldn’t, not because of him, but because of yourself.” Julia whispered. He raised his hand with the pistol up towards her chest “say hello to him for me.” he said.

Just as he was going to pull the trigger, Linda yanks his arm back, she reached for the hand with the gun, she tries to yank the gun out of his hand. “NOT MY BABY, GEORGE” She pleaded.He fought for his arm back trying to push Linda out of the way, “LET GO! SHE DESERVES IT” he yells, his hand still gripping on the gun, however Linda  accidentally forced his finger forward making him fire the gun off, in her chest.

Linda stepped back, her eye’s as wide as the blue sky, she couldn’t cry, then everything went black and she fell to the ground. George sighed turning back around “you see what you did, you killed your mother!” Julia unable to talk went off, she kicked him down the ground and started punching him in the face, she raised his arm that didn’t carry the gun and forced it in a way that didn’t bend, breaking his arm. She then took her foot which was dressed with a heel, and started stomping on his stomach creating a bloody hole in his chest.

He groaned and finally had enough, he pointed to gun at her head and shot, but he missed. Julia stopped for a second and said “my father always said “Don’t make them pay a lot but make them pay something.” She stepped back, letting him think she was going to let him go “good think I’m not my dad.” she said as she pulled her fist back, and with all the strength in her body, punched him square in the face. She felt something hard and sharp hit her head, but it didn’t phase her.

After he stoped squirming she pulled back noticing his head was now caving in, her head hurt like hell so she sat down not to far from him, she looked around just now noticing how bloody the scene had gotten. Of course no guest were there anymore, they were all probably outside screaming bloody murder and calling the police, she didn’t care tho. She looked over to her left and noticed Kole, he looked so cold, she crawled to him touching his skin, he was cold. She went behind him and put her arms around him, she could hear someone calling her name, she looked up and saw Kole, he reached his hand out to her, and she took it.

Again idk what this was, it was just an assignment for creative writing. Sorry there’s a lot of spelling errors.

[roro0130-blog]

A story I wrote:

Freedom in the hands of a former Slave.

Once you hear the first crow of any bird, wake up but not too late. Get dressed but don’t disturb the others, lord knows you will be in much more trouble than they would if you did. Put on your raggedy dress that was “new” even if it was covered in dirt and blood, and smelled like human scat. Tip toe over to the shoes and carefully slide on the footwear that wasn’t your size. And don’t you dare complain about how much they hurt your feet, because neither mama nor daddy got any shoes when they worked. Speaking of mama and daddy, don’t speak of them. Quickly snatch your apron out of the grip of one child who was consistently covered in dirt and smelled like insides,insisting on sleeping with it because it was soft. Walk out the barn you call a “house” because this was luxury for a slave, and send a kiss to the sky even though it didn’t do anything for anyone. Strut over the mansion, and unlock the door with the key given to you by the master of everything you knew. Go to the kitchen, ignore the shotgun plastered on the brown wall and resist the urge to test it on your head, and start making breakfast in the kitchen where many people failed to make the food just right. When done cooking breakfast put it on a tray and tip toe upstairs. Do. Not. Fall! Walk into his room only hoping to drop off his breakfast and nothing more. Do not remember the last time you dropped off breakfast! Carefully place the tray next to his bed and open the shades. Don’t wake him yet, open the window. Now you can leave. Tend to the crying baby in the nursery. Feed her, stroke her precious white skin and hope that maybe one day you could magically be like her. Do this for the rest of your life. 

Or so liberty thought, she was never wrong, but this time she was. She reached out for Harriet’s hand and ran alongside. They stopped running because they could hear the dogs running after them, and they were much faster. Harriet pulled Liberty into a bush, pulled out pepper and sprinkled it on Liberty and around the bush. The dogs tried to sniff out where they were but they couldn’t, thank god they couldn’t. When they got to the river bank there was a canoe and farther in the distance were rocks. And on top of those rocks were small buildings. Liberty thought it was another world, and she wasn’t wrong. 

“Wait, maybe we should go back-” Liberty whimpered. 

Harriet pulled out a pistol.“You're either free or dead.” She pointed the pistol at Liberty. “ Don’t be a turtle now.” Harriet said, still pointing the pistol. Liberty got into the boat, making Harriet hide the gun. 

“Row, don’t stop rowing until they stop you. Once you see the white men in red. They will help you.” Harriet said. Liberty asked no question, she rowed, and rowed, and rowed until she saw the white men in red. They looked at her and knew. 

“Welcome to Canada” One said 

++++

“Where’s my dinner' lady!” He screamed from the living room 

“It’s comin’ right now, baby!” She announced back to the rude man on the couch, she rushed bringing the food to the table in the living room. She shook as she brought cups and plates to the table as well. Then she hears her baby cry.

“Damn woman you're like a dog who has six hands and is somehow still slow! You better be glad the couch isn’t edible, anything would taste better than your cooking” He screams back “Jesus, woman, you cant’ even set the table right. And get that damn baby!” the tyrant screamed at her, his hand lazily holding a beer can. He stands up and walks over to the dinner table shaking his head, he scoffed looking her up and down, “such a pig.” The baby cries more “I’m coming, Damnit!” He screams to the baby, while walking into her direction. 

Clean up the table once dinner is done. Bring Willa back to her crib. Wash the dishes. Grab another beer for your overbearing husband, passing the shotgun on the wall, once again thinking of all the ways to test it, just to make sure it works. Walk over to the half-sleep half-awake husband who refuses to go asleep around you, he knows what you can do. Take the 5 other empty beer cans off the stained couch, don’t pretend to care about the couch. It's been ruined for many years now, ignore his grunts. Watch your husband go up to his room to sleep, knowing you can’t because you're still not done with your chores. What happened to my life. Don’t dwell on that thought for too long, your life was better than it was years ago. Don’t look at the magazines on the table, you don't know how to read. That’s a lie. When will you stop lying to yourself? Ignore the words “PAID” and “AUTHOR NEEDED” . Pick up the magazine and start reading it. A company in need of authors, ignore it. Do not grow an ambition in your mind like you did when you were a kid. Do not pull yourself and your dignity to go running out that door to find that company. Do not go wandering out on the streets, seeing the gorgeous trees swaying back and forth because of the crispy air you never seemed to notice. Do not go into the company's work place and ask for a job. 

“Are you qualified for a job like this, little lady?” The bearded man said with his eyebrow raised. “You’re a mouse, and I don’t hire scared people.” He said firmly.

“Let’s find out,” Liberty said confidently.

++++

Do not spill the ink on your fresh piece of paper, after all they could easily make fun of a famous author for spilling ink, a colored one at that. Do not think of all the death threats you get on a daily basis. Once the day is over, go home to your beautiful house that was an actual house and not a dirty barn. Open the door and smell the clean, cozy, smell, with a smile finally taking place on your face. Open the window and see an eagle flying and breathe in the air knowing that you are immune from corruption. Don’t think of your past life that was constantly passed over, finally this was yours. Instead of going to the kitchen, go to the piano and start playing random music no one but you understands. Don't stop playing until you're hungry. Don’t think of your past and all you had to leave behind. Think of your life now, a colored woman, making a living on her own, living without a man or kids…. Go open the door because the doorbell rang. Open the door and….

“M-Mom…” Willa says while standing blankly into Liberty’s face. Liberty stares back, her breath hitches as she looks at her forgotten daughter, all grown up.

“Willa-.” Liberty falls into her arms. Both smile while crying, they hug each other, a hug that can only be described as something both never felt but were able to give, pure love.

———————————————————————

Inspired by: Girl by Kincaid and Hills like White elephants 

Theme: Freedom 

Literary Devices: Metaphor, Simile, Imagery,Symbolism, hyperbole

Plot: A former slave by the name of Liberty, runs away, and goes to Canada with Harriet Tubman helping her. Years go by and she still feels like a slave because she is expected to have children, she has a husband who is abusive to her when drunk. So she makes the unfortunate decisions of running away from her home, leaving her baby, Willa, back with her husband. She goes to Quebec,and becomes a famous author and finds peace. And later reunites with her daughter, and finds love. 

REFLECTION (457)

Reflection: The theme is freedom, I don’t have a specific reason why I chose this, but I knew I was going to write something sad, so why not have them find peace and love at the end. But now I think that this fits perfectly with people who leave hard situations, not because they want to but because they know they have to in order to survive. 

There is a bit of symbolism in there like the main character's name; Liberty, meaning being free. The eagle at the end of the story represents that she is now free. And even the characters themselves mean something, Liberty meaning free but also representing how far you should go to find your own peace. Willa, representing love being hidden and away, but coming back to find you once you're at peace. All the men who treated her wrong represented the hard choice she had to make of either leaving or staying, and the risk she would put others at, like her family on the plantation, and her baby.  Once you see all these things you’ll understand that sometimes you need to be selfish in order to find peace and love within your own life, then you can finally live. (that was oddly poetic) 

I think my imagery in this needs work, but I was really trying to move the story along because of the word limit, trust me if I had no word limit you could smell the grass and the wind from the story. 

I could’ve done a better job with metaphor, similes, and the hyperbole, I’m just proud that I put them in there because if i'm being so honest. I challenged myself by including hyperbole, and I think it stands out a bit but it matches the tone of the whole story. As for the metaphor and simile it was a little bit easier to put them in there because I'm familiar with them, and it went with the story perfectly. I chose Girl by jamaica Kincaid, and Hills like White Elephants as my apprenticeship because I loved how jamaica Kincaid wrote Girl, I immediately chose her because I was very inspired when I read her story. As for Hills like White Elephants, I chose that one too because I wanted to include the characters' dialogue as well (I will always put a dialogue into my story), but also in that story the abortion that they are discussing is hidden a little, it feels like you know what their talking about but because they don’t outright say it, it’s kind of a mystery. So I wanted the moral to be hidden as well, hopefully after you read this reflection a light bulb lights up in your brain.