So, who's doing NaNoWriMo? I am, for the first year ever! I will be adding on to a current novel. My username is Renata, so add me!
I wanted to show you my novel so far. I know it's not November yet, but I just wanted to have enough words so I can get more ideas rollin'.
Through The Eyes: 9/11
Chapter One
I laughed and
giggled along with my sister, Lilly Rose, at the soaring airplane above. We
were in Dad’s office, which is in the Twin Towers of New York. The plane was
full of passengers, and it was flying near the towers. Lilly Rose and I turned
away from the window to play with our blocks. We were trying to make a bridge,
for our dolls to drive across. We were
almost finished. Dad, sitting at his
desk, was trying to read the computer screen, as he was going to Atlanta soon,
for an important meeting. It was a long email, but I couldn’t read it. All the
words were just a blur. He has been reading the important e-mail for about 10
minutes, but then he stopped and took a break. He turned his chair away from
us, to read the newspaper and to take sips of a smelly, brown, drink. Lilly Rose then looked up at the airplane
again. I was still playing with our
blocks until I heard a stammer from Lilly Rose. “Daddy . . . Why is the. . .”
She got cut off from her sentence from the horrific boom and screams. Daddy grabbed
us from the arms, and then started running as fast as he could from his office.
Lilly Rose’s eyes were as big as watermelons. My eyes were shut as tight as I
could get them. A tear drop fell from my eyes, not understanding what was
happening. Daddy swore under his breath.
I opened my eyes, to see Lilly Rose looking at me with red eyes and tears
running down her pale cheeks. I then
realized that, I, Scarlet Mae, was the older sister, and needed to show her that
we were going to be okay, even though everything else wasn’t. I took and held
her arm tightly, forcing back tears of fear. I looked straight ahead, to see
all of the people screaming and shouting, furniture flying, and pieces of the
ceiling coming down. I whispered to
Lilly Rose to duck and cover her head, as I was doing. We were almost to the
entrance of the building. We just had to pass a few more offices and then we
would be there. We were past the
shouting and screams. Past the cries of help. Past the horror of 9/11.
Chapter Two
When we finally reached the door of
the collapsing building, my dad flew out the door, and then handed us off to a
tall, scary-looking, man. I assumed it was Daddy’s co-worker, one of the other
firemen. Daddy then sprinted back to the building, after gathering his supplies
and throwing on his uniform and boots. He was after the people on the top
floor. The people who had no choice but to stay and suffer on the top floor.
They were stuck between the ceiling and ground.
They had no choice, but to stay. “I love you, Daddy!” Lilly Rose and I
shouted. Daddy heard us, turned around, and with a tear in his eye, mouthed the
words back. He whipped his body around, and then hurried into the scary
building. We were pulled away from the towers from the tall man. Lilly Rose tried
to ask him where we were going, but he didn’t hear her. We ended up far away
from the towers. The man was saying something, but all I could hear were the
screams of terror. We paused for a moment, apparently to check if we had any
burns or cuts. When both were fine, we were told to stay with a nice woman,
whom I have seen before. The tall man ran back to the building as fast as he
could. The nice women, whose name was Ms. Johnson, carried us to her car, and
drove use to the nearest day care, but I couldn’t understand what was happening.
When we finally got there, she talked to another woman, and all I could hear
was “Dad” “Crash” “Building” “Mother” and “No Parents”. Mrs. Johnson then left
us there, and drove back to the building. The woman, who appeared to only be in
her 30’s, took us to a room full of other little kids.
We were told to sit in a circle. Lilly Rose and I obeyed,
and the women started talking. I couldn’t pay attention to her. I was trying to
figure out what was happening to Mommy and Daddy, until the young women called
out to me. “The girl with the braids!” She said. I looked down at my hair and
realized she was talking to me. I looked up, and tried to pay attention. She
was talking about sharing, I think. I looked to my right. Lilly Rose’s lower
lip was whimpering. That meant she was trying really hard to fight back tears,
just like I was when we were hurrying out of the building when it got hit. I
then looked straight ahead, and grabbed Lilly’s hand and squeezed it hard. I
saw her look over to me, but turned her head back.
Chapter Three
It wasn’t until about midnight when I fell asleep at the daycare, but Lilly
Rose fell asleep almost right away. Lucky her, she’s seven, and she doesn’t
have much to worry about because she couldn't understand what was happening.
Age ten, I understood and had a lot of questions to ask that no one could or
will answer. Questions like, Will Daddy and Mommy come back? Will they be okay?
Or won’t they come back? What will we do? Where would we go? It turned out I
cried me to sleep, according to my wet cheeks and red eyes. I just couldn't
keep my mind on anything else but on what will happen to Daddy or Mommy.
When the day care teacher, whose name is Ms. Lauren, came
in, she announced it was time for play time. Lilly Rose and a few other girls
her age darted for the dolls. I just stood up and walked around for a while
until I decided to play with the dolls and Lilly Rose. The girls and Lilly Rose
were playing ‘house’ with the dolls. One girl, named Abigail, asked me to make
a bridge for the road to their doll’s house. I tried to, but I just couldn't. I
tried hard to fight the tears, but they just came out. Flashbacks before the
plane crashed into the building haunted me. I threw the blocks down and ran out
of the room, past the gym, past the shouting voices of the teachers, and into
the bathroom where I let it all out. After about 10 non-stop minutes of crying,
someone came into the bathroom and knocked on the metal, stall, door. I let a
moment pass until I said ‘Who is it?’ A concerned voice answered. “You know
who.” I suddenly burst through the door, and gave her a big hug. It was Lilly,
my amazing sister. I sobbed and sobbed on to her shoulder while she kept
hugging me. “I am so thankful to have you as a sister, Lilly Rose.” “And I am
too, Scarlet Mae.”
Chapter Four
We stood there hugging there for a long time. We didn’t stop
crying, either, until a teacher came in. We stopped hugging, pulled away from
each other, and looked down at our feet. My two, long, brown braids hung from
each shoulder, while Lilly’s hair was in two French braids hanging down her
back. We knew we were in deep trouble, big time, until the teacher patted us on
the back and led us back into the classroom. When we were walking, we were
completely silent. After we reached the classroom, everybody was starting in
complete disgust at me. I whipped my head down to my feet almost right away
when I saw everyone’s faces. Suddenly, I was jostled. My head came up, and I
looked to my right. Lilly Rose motioned me to follow her. When I did, she led
me to the paints. She sat down, and so did I. She opened up the plastic paint
sets, got some clean water, and handed me a paintbrush. I dipped mine in green,
while she dipped hers in blue. Together, we painted beautiful pictures. We
spent some much time on them, and before we knew it, it was time to clean-up
and time to sleep another night at the daycare. We carefully dumped out the
dirty paint water into the sink. We then closed the paint sets and put our
still wet paintings on the bulletin board to dry. Lilly Rose and I climbed into
our sleeping bags and whispered until we could not keep our eyes open any longer.
We drifted off to sleep in no time, leaving all what happened that day behind.
I didn’t catch the digits on the bright clock before I fell asleep, but I knew
it had to be late. I slept like a baby, not even waking up once. Lilly Rose and
I both didn’t wake until about 9 o’clock the next morning. I climbed out of my
sleeping bag, and skipped over to our paintings on the bulletin board. They
were now dry, and as pretty as ever. I unclipped them from the board and walked
over to Lilly Rose to show her how pretty they turned out. I walked around the
room for a while, trying to find her, until I finally found her talking with
Abigail. I tapped Lilly on the back. I must have scared her, because she jumped
when I lightly put my fingers on her shoulder. She whipped her head around, and
looked at me with startled eyes. Without talking, I lifted up our paintings of
the Twin Towers with one hand. Abigail said that they were “so very much
beautiful” after she had stared at them for a moment. Lilly Rose thought they
it was the most beautiful picture she had ever seen in her life. I smiled at
this, as I knew she was talking, kidding of course, about her own painting.
Lilly Rose caught my eye, and starting laughing, too. Abigail, Lilly Rose, and
I continued with Abigail and Lilly’s house for their dolls. With no tears
getting held back, I helped with the bridge to their house.
Chapter Six
We played for hours with those silly, little, beat up dolls.
We continued to make a whole town for them. We didn’t stop until Ms. Lauren
said it was story time. Even though I am little old to have a story time, I
didn’t mind. It was my favorite book when I was younger, Little Red Riding
Hood. I was so happy just to listen to the cheerful book, in the hard times
I had to go through right now. All the kids sat criss-cross applesauce on the
colorful rug. I sat right next to Lilly Rose and Abigail. Not for one moment did we stop listening to
the wonderful book.
The book was short, though, as she finished it in less than
ten minutes. After, it was time for snack. We went to Ms. Lauren, along with
many more little kids, to get our snack. Today, it was Goldfish, Lilly Rose’s
all-time favorite snack. The moment Ms. Lauren handed Lilly Rose her serving,
she scarfed it down in a millisecond. On the other hand, I ate each Goldfish,
one by one, savoring the golden, salty goodness.
Longest post ever right there. ;) So, what do you think of it so far? I have to do quite a few tweaks, but I should be fine. :) I can't wait to be in this fun event! I hope to get a free copy of my book and maybe even sell it on Amazon. Sounds cool enough for ya? Haha!
I hope for my goal to be at least 5,000, but I can't decide yet. I am going to be so busy with dance and homework. I might have it be around 3 or 4 thousand, and go over my goal, so I can at least say I reached my goal, you know what I mean? I would love to bring in a copy of my book for my classroom. . .would be so cool!
