September 11th, a day of sad memory. Always remembered.
If you are doing the morning writing, please set your timers to fifteen minutes.
Not a joyful piece of writing but it does have an element of hope and dark humor as far as Dana is concerned.
Thursday, September 11th: I want to go home.
“I want to go home,” Zoe said. Dana sighed. It was the fifth time Zoe complained. The situation had been explained by their mother, their father all three of their brothers and herself. Zoe didn’t want to hear it and Dana was getting tired of hearing the story told repeatedly.
They were moving. Their father lost his job and they were moving across country to his home town. His parents owned a large house and were willing to take them in while he got back on his feet. He had a new job in town. Their mother had a new job in town and Dana fully expected that once they arrived each of them would probably find a part time job after school to pay for any non essentials.
Despite the loss of the job and the relocation, Dana didn’t think it would be that different from before.
‘Well for me anyway,’ she thought.
All three of their brothers played sports and much of the extra funds went towards that with an eye to hopefully getting them scholarships. Dana pointed out once that if they saved the money they spent on the elite training and other sports related things they could have just paid for college. She was told it was just sour grapes because she didn’t get the money she wanted for a field trip and had to pay for things from the modest savings she had from her afterschool job.
As all of her events and activities were paid for from her afterschool job it wasn’t a surprise. It was just extra annoying to watch her siblings have their way paved for them. Zoe was no different. She was their pageant queen. Dresses, singing lessons, dance classes and a host of other things Dana didn’t even want to contemplate were paid for. It earned her modest monetary amounts and a shelf dull of tiaras.
Dana knew the money there was supposed to be saved for college, but it hadn’t been. It had been invested on even more gowns and lessons.
All that was over now. There were no more elite sport training camps and no more pageants. Dana was the only one who had an afterschool job and when the others were told that any spending they did would have to come from jobs they would have to get, there had been a minor rebellion. Unused to being denied, they tried arguing, loudly. Their parents both snapped, their patience thin and nerves frayed. It caused a distinctly chilly atmosphere in the last weeks as they packed up the house and prepared to move to Fletcherton.
“I want to go home,” Zoe reiterated clearly irritated no one bothered to reply again. Dana knew she expected the answer to change at some point, someone finally caving and saying ‘well all right then we’ll go home.’
Except it wasn’t happening. Couldn’t happen. Their house was sold. Her parents managed to keep up payments, avoiding foreclosure until it could be sold, a minor miracle. However it meant there was no home to go back to.
Dana darted a glance to Zoe. She was sixteen but had her lower lip stuck out, pouting like a three year old.
Ten til Midnight 