Sunday, August 8, 2010

Movie Time! 'Sweeney Todd'

“Johnny Depp (in an Oscar-nominated role) reteams with director Tim Burton for this adaptation of the hit Broadway musical about the Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Depp plays Sweeney Todd, a man who becomes a deranged murderer seeking revenge after being falsely imprisoned. To add to the macabre nature of his crimes, he enlists the help of his lover, Mrs. Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter), who disposes of the victims by baking them into pies—sought after by all of London.”

It has taken me three years to see this movie (it came out in 2007. Boy, do I remember watching T.V. and seeing the previews for this and thinking, “god dang it, I can’t go!!”

I love Tim Burton films in general. I’m sure I haven’t seen them all, but I’ve seen quite a few (‘The Corpse Bride,’ ‘Edward Scissorhands,’ ‘Sleep Hollow,’ etc…). He always does an amazing job on all of his work. I love that the colors still come through, but are still very saturated with black and white. I like the old-fashioned costuming—the long flowing dresses that the women wear… the eeriness of them…

Sweeney Todd is no different when it comes to those things.

I loved the songs in this musical (as I write this, I have the song called ‘Johanna’ in my head. That was one of my favorites!). In truth, the songs are quite catchy. They reuse the melodies for background music when there are just places where the characters are talking. It’s different than ‘Phantom of the Opera’ and ‘Wicked.’ The plot itself is amazing! I can’t imagine myself ever lying in bed thinking up something like that.

What I didn’t like about this movie was that I had to wait over forty minutes before the blood started flying everywhere. I guess I expected it to come up right away, given that I had only seen the previews and it was implied. So while watching the movie, I had to step back and remind myself that they (being the writers and characters) need to give their viewers background information so they know why he’s doing what he’s doing. I just get really excited and I wanted to jump into the action.

I think my favorite character was Antony. He’s a minor character, but when he sang, he made me smile with his sweet voice (even though he made some freaky-looking faces when he sang). He was the romantic type, which was lovely.

Even though Johnny Depp isn’t well-known for his singing ability, I thought he did a fine job. Frankly, I was expecting a lot worse! Same with Helena Bonham Carter.

This movie is rated R for graphic, bloody violence. There’s a crap-ton of it. Even though the blood in the movie is obviously fake (if you look close enough, you can see that it has a bit of an orange tinge while real blood is typically darker… at least that’s what the costume blood you can find in any store around Halloween time looks like), if you are even remotely bothered by blood, this is not the movie for you. As for everyone else, I highly recommend it!

I swear, as I watch more movies like this, I can handle more and more grotesque movies… Two good things have come from watching more horror films: I have a stronger stomach (realized or unrealized before) and I’m getting more horror research for my own story!

Speaking of which, that’s coming up soon. I’ve said that a few times, but I’m not kidding this time. I have next to nothing going on this week, so it will be up. Then I can get working on chapter four!

Thanks for reading!

--Jude Rosenberg

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Movie Time! 'Secret Window'

You could call this research, I guess…

Let’s go back to 2004—the year this movie came out. Let me quote the description that was on the Netflix movie sleeve:

“Mort Rainey (Johnny Depp), a writer just emerging from a painful divorce with his wife (Maria Bello as ‘Amy’), is stalked at his remote lake house by a psychotic stranger and would-be scribe (John Turturro) who claims Rainey swiped his best story idea. But as Rainey endeavors to prove his innocence, he begins to question his own sanity. Charles S. Dutton and Timothy Hutton co-star in this suspenseful drama based on a Stephen King novella.”

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. I love Johnny Depp as an actor, which was what led me to request it. I didn’t know anything about this movie beforehand other than the preview looked good. So I was delighted to find out that this was based on something written by Stephen King. I’ve never read a novel of his, but now I just might. It might just be a book review to look forward to!

I liked this movie because it kept me thinking; everything I thought a certain thing would happen, the plot would take a turn and throw something new at me… most of the time it was something I wasn’t even remotely anticipating.

Towards the end of the movie, my computer decided that it no longer wanted me to watch movies. I was outraged! That simply wasn’t cool at all! This is another sign of a very good movie. If you’re not upset that it ended, it might just be a sign.

You really needed an actor of Johnny Depp’s caliber. For one thing, Rainey actually was a little insane. If you’ve seen the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ movies, you’ll know that he’s had a bit of practice. But he can also play some serious parts, and Rainey was serious (or rather, scared). Depp is one talented guy, that’s for sure.

This film is rated PG-13 for language, some sexual content (it passes very quickly and they don’t show anything) and… I believe violence. Believe me, there is plenty of weapons and blood to go ‘round.

Overall, this was an excellent film. If you haven’t seen it in the six years that is has been out like I did, I highly recommend that you borrow it from someone/somewhere.

In other news, I am almost done with my Architecture class, so you can certainly expect pictures (of the plans, of the finished model and maybe even the almost finished model). There should be an entry if not by Friday, then by Monday or Tuesday, definitely.

I have also rented ‘Sweeney Todd,’ so there will be a review on that as well. I’m very excited for this, actually!

I’m really sorry it has taken so long to put chapter three up. I will be working on it over the weekend and I hope to have it up sometime next week so I can continue on to chapter four.

As for ‘Mirror, Mirror,’ I am seriously still reading it! It has been forever! I have a stack of books I have already read ready to review, but that’s more work… I’ll give them to you as I have them.

Thanks for reading!

--Jude Rosenberg

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Sky Lanterns

We set off sky lanterns tonight because the conditions were perfect-- it was dark enough, and there really wasn't much of a breeze to speak of. All you do when you get one of these (and they're pretty cheap) is light the cloth that is in the center of the bottom of the lantern and then wait for the whole thing to warm up. Once it starts floating on its own, you can let go.
They're rise higher...
... and higher.

They're completely bio-degradable. They'll eventually burn up and they'll go back to the earth from whence they came. They're very beautiful.

Apparently they also have festivals where they set off thousands of these at a time. Go ahead and search for it on Google images! I didn't think to do it here, and I apologize.

That's it for tonight!

--Jude Rosenberg

Dogs on the Block

My family's beagle. We named him Louie :D He's two years old and he's not allowed off the leash (because he runs... fast!).
My neighbor's dog. I'm not sure what breed she is. Her name is Olive. She is allowed off the leash, is also very fast. Her favorite game is fetch. It's amazing that she actually brings it back! Louie would never do such a thing.

Chalk City!

These are pictures I took of some of the chalk drawing that were done in honor of the August 2010 Block Party. Everyone was asked to make a chalk drawing of their favorite place(s) around the neighborhood.
Everyone got to write their name on a slip of paper and then we had a drawing for prizes that were donated by various local business. I came away with $30 towards flowers. I'm very excited!
The Parkway is a small movie theater in my neighborhood. I've only been there once, maybe twice. It's like a regular movie theater (but older) in the back, but when you get to the front of one of the movie screens, there are couches that you are more than welcome to sit on. Again, this is mine, but it's still not on the bottom.
The Cottage House is an antique shop that I love going in. It's really different. It's only open for one weekend a month. For the rest of the month, they go out to auctions, garage sales, etc. They also paint the entire house differently. Every month. They've even joked that it's probably the paint holding the entire place up. This is actually my chalk drawing (I meant to put it on the bottom, but I'm not skilled with not embedding multiple pictures in a single post).
Turtle bread is actually a bread place. You can also get lunch there. It's really good! I'm working on filling out an application to work there.
I'm not entirely sure what 'Al Vento' is. A restaurant, from the looks of it. Minnehaha Falls in a place not far from where I live. It's a park that surrounds the falls (very beautiful). If you're not really into the whole park thing, you can head down two staircases and you will have to go across a bridge and then there's a trail where you can start hiking. It's really nice. There's a beach at the end of the trail if you're brave enough to go on, but I don't recommend swimming in the water...
I like this one very much. It's a great example of an awesome Minnesota summer!
I will create other posts because there are other pictures from the Block Party, but they're not related to chalk drawings. So wait to hear from me very soon!
--Jude Rosenberg

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Movie Time! 'Charlie St. Cloud'


I just saw ‘Charlie St. Cloud’ today with my mom and my sister. I think this is my first movie review, so here we go!
I’ll do what I do with my book reviews and quote someone else’s description of it (mostly because I suck at writing summaries). I’ll also do something different and put the trailer here above the summary that I found.
Charlie St. Cloud is a young man overcome by grief at the death of his younger brother. So much so that he takes a job as caretaker of the cemetery in which his brother is buried. Charlie has a special lasting bond with his brother though, as he can see him. Charlie meets up with his brother (Sam) each night to play catch and talk. Then, a girl comes into Charlie's life and he must choose between keeping a promise he made to Sam, or going after the girl he loves.” Written by CBlodg.
By clicking on ‘Charlie St. Cloud’ in the very first sentence, you will be led to the original page where you can learn more about the movie.
In the beginning, it was quite sad because that’s when Charlie lost his little brother, Sam in a car accident… an accident where Charlie was almost killed as well. He had made a promise to Sam that they would meet at the same place every day at sunset and they would play catch. This means that Charlie gives up a sailing scholarship, college, and a love life to be with his dead brother. Huh… I guess I just repeated the summary I gave you. Sorry about that!
I would have loved to have a good cry during the beginning because it really… sad just isn’t an accurate world. I mean, we were watching Charlie’s world come crashing down. It was horrible.
It made me a little angry that Charlie didn’t just go to college and move on after that, but I had to sit back and remind myself that what happened to him was traumatic and it would be extremely difficult to get past.
I thought Charlie’s relationship with Tess was very sweet. I love a good romance. Call me a sap. It felt like everything was moving very quickly, but it was beautiful nevertheless.
The only part that I found frustrating was once I saw Sam (after he was killed) I thought everyone around Charlie was also dead. Why is this? The dead appeared like they do in The Sixth Sense. They look normal and they wore the clothes they died in. The only difference is, they didn’t have any marks on them showing how they died (like in The Sixth Sense).
Ever since I watched High School Musical, I was not a big fan of Zac Efron. But because of this movie, I have gained a little respect for him. I never realized how beautiful his eyes were :D. When he’s not singing and dancing, I can take him a little more seriously.
I recommend this movie. 3.5 stars (out of a possible 5). If you have a couple hours, go ahead and see it. I would definitely not recommend this for littler kids (it’s a PG-13 movie for Pete’s sake!). I think I will have to pick up the book at some point.
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In other news, I am still working on that unnamed story. I have not finished chapter 3 yet. And even if I did, I couldn’t post it tomorrow because I will be pretty busy. I will hopefully have mastered the Metro Transit system in the next week! Wish me luck!

Saturday, July 31, 2010

Chapter Two

“Hugo!”

I opened my eyes. It was dark outside my window.

“Hugo! There’s food if you’re hungry,” said Mary.

“Woah! Mary! Wait a second,” I said, hurrying to get up off the floor.

I threw the door open and Mary was waiting with her hand on the banister, poised to head downstairs.

“What’s your problem?” she asked.

“I was just about to ask the same thing. Don’t you remember what happened about an hour ago?” I asked her.

“Hugo, what are you talking about? I was asleep,” explained Mary.

“You don’t remember anything strange happening? Nothing at all?” I asked.

“No… should I?”

“You let out this freaky scream. I thought someone was killing you or something,” I said. “When I came into your room—“

“You came into my room?!” she exclaimed.

“That’s beside the point! You gave me this really possessed look. I mean, it looked like you could have been sleeping, but you were more animal-like than human… it was weird.”

“I can’t believe that you’re already invading my privacy! We just moved here!” said Mary exasperatedly. “Seriously, Hugo…”

I looked down at my feet. This was not going how I had hoped it would.

“Maybe I gave you that demonic look because you woke me up. Did you ever think of that?” demanded Mary.

She stomped down the stairs and I was alone on the second floor.

That night, after eating a plateful of Chinese food for dinner, I crawled into my sleeping bag and went to sleep. I slept with my windows open to let the air flow through.

In the middle of the night, I became completely cold even though it was still summertime and I was in a sleeping bag that was meant to keep you warm in negative thirty degree weather. I pulled the blanket closer to me to prevent any more cold air from getting in. It was surprisingly easy to fall back asleep.

Next morning, I woke up to find my sister sitting on my knees. I let out a small yelp only to have it stifled by my sister’s hand.

“Shut up! Mom’s still asleep!” she said.

“What are you doing in here?” I asked her.

“I had to tell someone, but mom would have been too upset,” said Mary.

“Okay… what is it?”

“I think dad visited us last night,” she said.

I just stared at her.

“That’s ridiculous… you know as well as I that that’s not possible,” I told her.

“I’m not so sure anymore, Hugo,” said Mary. “Last night, when I was in bed, I swear I felt someone brush my face and kiss my head. I know for a fact that it wasn’t mom. I was half-asleep, but when I felt something touch me, I opened my eyes and there was no one there.”

“Mary… I don’t know what to say. I think you’re still getting used to the idea that he’s gone. You still want him back,” said Hugo.

“Of course. He’s our dad. Don’t you want him back too?” asked Mary.

I didn’t answer her question. She didn’t know about everything that happened.

“Can you get off me now?” I asked her.

She nodded and got up. She made to leave the room, but then stopped in the door way.

“I’m sort of surprised at you, Hugo. After everything that man did for you…”

With that, she left and went downstairs.

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Here you go! Chapter two.

The reason I wrote this so fast is because it was all I wanted to work on last night. It was one of the few things I thought about. If I have another night like this, you'll have chapter three (currently in progress) in a day or two.

Tell me what you think of it. Just leave a comment below!

--Jude Rosenberg

Friday, July 30, 2010

Chapter One

We started building our new house about a month after the funeral. Mom called an architect and a group of two or three of them came out here a few times to help her draw up the plans. Mary and I got to help design our rooms. Mary made hers relatively large (I noticed some erased pencil marks after the architects left. They trimmed off about thirty square feet from the original fifty-five square foot room). I kept my new room roughly the same. Even I couldn’t adjust to change that well.

One year later, and the entire house was ready to move into. So we packed up our things in our car and the moving van and started the drive to the new house that lay one hundred miles away. It was sort of a surreal experience because I was leaving my home only to go home to the new house.

Mary cried all the way until we got to the half-way mark. I expected nothing less. After that, she texted her boyfriend until she fell asleep. That’s when I took her phone and told her boyfriend that she’d text him in a couple hours when she woke up.

We finally got to the new house. Mary was still asleep, so we took everything out of the car and put it into the house. I took a good look. It was even better than the computer animations that the architects showed us and all of the pictures they drew. There were high ceilings and the banisters look like they had been varnished recently. Someone had thought to put flowers in the vase in the middle of the dining room table. The shades on the widows facing the sun were put down half-way and the candles on the mantle were lit casting a glow against the family picture that mom had put up upon her first visit.

“That’s really nice that someone put flowers in here,” said mom.

“That wasn’t you?” I asked.

We heard a creak and we jumped, only to realize that Mary had woken up and was just coming in the house just now.

“What’s your deal?” she asked.

I shook my head, dismissing the matter.

“Why don’t you go find your rooms?” asked mom.

We nodded and headed up the stairs. We knew exactly where our rooms were. They were on either side of mom’s room, which was the biggest room upstairs. I opened the door to my room and the first thing I saw was the setting sun. It was beautiful.

“Hugo?” called mom.

“Yeah?”

“The moving truck came across some mechanical complications and they won’t be here until tomorrow. So you can sleep in your room, but we’ll have to use sleeping bags for a night,” explained mom.

“Okay. That’s fine.”

She nodded and left the room.

I looked around the empty room.

It was a little strange, knowing that I wasn’t going to have to share a room this time. I could only imagine what Mary was doing in her room. The walls were sound-proof now. Nothing went through them. But I figured she was probably texting her boyfriend; typing a million miles a minute.

I got up and went to look around the rest of the house. I started in the basement. It was a finished basement, covered in carpet and just waiting for our furniture to be moved in. There was a sun room off the side of the house. That’s where we would put the piano that dad used to play. Mom claimed that she would take lessons so that at least one person would play it. It’s a beautiful, black grand piano and it would be a shame to just see it sit there standing idle. The kitchen was a dream with its perfectly clean granite counters and wood floors. I was a little scared to walk on or touch everything for fear of smudging anything. I left the kitchen and went back to my room.

Mom had put the sleeping bag in my room, so I unrolled it in the middle of the floor and lay down on it. I closed my eyes with the intention of getting a minute of rest.

I was awakened a few moments later by my sister’s high-pitched shrieking.

“Mary! Shut up!”

She didn’t shut up, so I got up and went two rooms over to her room. I opened the door to her empty room, but she wasn’t there.

“Mary, this isn’t funny. Where are you and what are you screaming about?” I asked her.

I held my breath because I was breathing so hard that I couldn’t hear anything. I heard tiny sobs. They were coming from the direction of the closet.

“Mary?” I called to her.

I could hear her breathing again. It was almost like she was getting ready to scream.

“Mary, Mary! It’s okay, I’m right here!”

With that, I threw open the closet door. There she was, just lying there, curled up in the fetal position. She tilted her head up towards me. She had dark bruises all over her face and her hair was tangled. She looked like an animal. I had never seen her this way before. My fears were confirmed: girls really were demons.

“Mary, what is your problem? Why did you scream?” I asked her.

She just stared at me. She had given me freaky looks before, but none were as sinister as this one that she was shooting at me now.

Finally, she broke her gaze and closed her eyes. She was motionless, and then suddenly, she gave a huge breath, like she had been choking and now her air ways were clear again.

Mary looked peaceful in her sleep now; there was nothing wrong in her world. I took the blanket that was around her ankles and brought it over her shoulders, taking care not to wake her. I stopped short when I noticed something on her ankles: there were gruesome, red rings around them and scratches up her calves.

With a pounding heart, I left the room and barricaded my door with my body so no one could come in.

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So here is Chapter One. Again, this is pure fiction. I'm kind of excited about this. I don't really know where it's going exactly, but if I knew, I wouldn't tell you. It takes me a couple days to write a chapter (because I want it perfect for you guys). Of course, I might read this and I'll end up making a few changes. I'll let you know if this happens.

Originally, the narrator was a ten year old girl named Elizabeth (she went by 'Eliza' even though her mother really liked 'Lizzy') but now it's a sixteen year old boy named Hugo. Of course, you wouldn't know that just from reading the story. I'll try to make it more apparent.

The reason I changed the gender was purely because I wanted to have the narrator make a comment about how girls were demons. If Elizabeth were narrating, it wouldn't make a lot of sense because she herself is a girl. I changed the age because as I scanned through the piece, I was trying to think of one ten year old I knew that talked like that. I couldn't think of any.

Any way, I hope you enjoyed this chapter of The Novel Which Still Doesn't Have a Name.

I'm sorry for throwing blog entry after blog entry your way. I really don't like to see the same post for a long time. Since it's summer, I can change it very often. This will probably change once school starts again though.

--Jude

Thursday, July 29, 2010

I just wanted to share this :D
This isn't mine, but I found it on one of my Google searches and I thought it was beautiful!

A Long, Long Time Ago

Thanks to Scribd.com, I now have access to many of my favorite songs. Among them is this song, which you can listen to on YouTube. This is a cover by one of my favorite piano dudes. His screen name is ‘CalikoKat.’ Look him up and watch his other piano videos.

Pans Labyrinth Pictures, Images and Photos

‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ (the original Spanish title is ‘El laberinto del fauno’ literally meaning, ‘The Faun’s Labyrinth.’). If you have Netflix, you can watch it instantly (that’s what I did). If your first language is not Spanish, you don’t have to worry, because it has English subtitles throughout. This is probably one of the best movies I have ever seen. It’s beautiful and the music is simply haunting. Do you see why I wanted to find sheet music for the lullaby (titled: A Long, Long Time Ago). Any way, I just thought I would share this with you.

Thanks for reading!

--Jude

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Phantom Craze

So I have started watching ‘Phantom of the Opera’ again. I think I took a little break after my birthday treat of getting to see the show live at the State Theater (I think it was the State… I don’t think it was the Orpheum…).

I read a blog entry by Beth who wrote something about the movie. It made me get a little nostalgic because it is one of the best movies I have ever seen. The music is… every word I can think of just isn’t adequate enough. I need an incredible synonym for ‘beautiful.’ The costuming is stunning, colorful, and artfully done. Carlotta’s seems to be the most complicated while Christine’s is rather dramatic—very fit for the theater and an opera singer.

A few of my personal favorite songs are ‘Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again’ (if you’re familiar with the movie or the musical/play, it’s the song that takes place in the cemetery. I seem to be impartial to cemetery scenes in cinema. Sort of a morbid fascination I guess…),

(Courtesy of the YouTube user 'carolynroxsox')

Passing bells and sculpted angels, cold and monumental
Seem for you the wrong companion, you were warm and gentle
Too many years
Fighting back tears
Why can
t the curse just die!

‘Past the Point of No Return,’

(Courtesy of the YouTube user 'carolynroxsox')

Past the point of no return

No backward glances

Our games of make-believe are at an end

Past all thought of “if” or “when”

No use resisting, abandon thought and let the dream descend…

and ‘All I Ask of You.’

(Courtesy of the YouTube user 'Julinhaaaa')

Say you’ll love me every waking moment

Turn my head with talk of summertime

Say you’ll need me with you now and always

Promise me that all you say is true

That’s all I ask of you…

Seriously, I have watched this movie so many times that I can now sing along with just about every one of those songs. I try my best to hit those high notes and in a few songs, I get them, but notes like the one at the very end of ‘Phantom of the Opera’ (the song) I cannot reach, no matter how many times I’ve tried. My voice cracks terribly, and I really shouldn’t even attempt to hit that. I can only imagine what wonders that does for my vocal chords… of course, I don’t do the songs much justice any way. It’s just for fun.

The only annoying thing I can find with this movie is Eric (that's the Phantom's name. It pays to read the book, no matter how tedious Christine's dialogue is) starts out with sleek and shiny black hair that you just want to run your hand over constantly and then, as soon as Christine takes off his mask at the end of 'Point of No Return,' it magically turns to blonde. Not white blonde, but blonde enough to tell that it's not the same color is was two seconds ago. That and when the Phantom chokes Raoul, he has a huge snot string (I know, gross and crude terminology) hanging from his nose. He must have had hay fever when they filmed this part or something like that. How unfortunate that they used that frame among any others the director might have filmed. I challenge you to look for that if you're really bored one day. I didn't even notice it until my little sister pointed it out.

Other than that, it’s just an amazing movie. If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend that you go to your computer and get it from Netflix or go to your local movie store or Redbox and rent it there. Or borrow it from a friend, whichever comes first.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Bad Habits/New Habits

So I found something interesting just by watching a video called ‘Life in a Day’ by Alex Day, also known as Nerimon on YouTube. He took a moment to show us his bracelet and tell us what it was for.

As you might be aware, it takes about twenty-one days to break a bad habit or to create a new one (thank you health class!). So what you do is, you make a goal; what is it you want to do differently? Alex Day’s goal was to complain less. So what you do is put the bracelet on one arm and then go through life normally.

If Alex is going through his day and he complains that, “Oh crap, I forgot to put gas in the car, now I have to go all the way over to the gas station…” you get the idea, right? Now Alex has to take the bracelet and put it on his other arm and his twenty-one days start over again.

To me, this sounds like a spectacular idea. I might try it. Maybe to stop biting my nails or something like that.

As far as I know, you can use any bracelet, as long as you remember to switch arms if you continue that bad habit.

Any way, I thought that was kind of cool and I wanted to share it with you guys.

Thanks for reading!

--Jude

Monday, July 26, 2010

Preface

I'm going to try something slightly new. I'm trying to write a horror novel (something I've never done before) and I'm going to post it here because I want to know if it's worth writing. So please, leave a comment below. Anyone can do it. I would also like to note that the work I will be sharing with you is completely fiction. Not one part of it is true. I'm not reporting things as I figure them out.

If I decide to do anything with this later, I will take this (and the other chapters) down for legal reasons, I guess. As of yet, I do not have a title. If you have any suggestions, feel free to throw them out there. I read every comment that comes in.

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My mother wanted to live somewhere new. After the death of my father, she wanted nothing to do with the house. She loved my dad very much. They had been married since they were eighteen years old. They had their first child (my sister, Mary) when they were twenty-four. They’ve been married for twenty-two years.

Mary didn’t take any of this very well. It’s never easy losing your own father, especially when you’ve had him for sixteen years like she did. In our old house, our walls aren’t sound-proof. I heard her cry sometimes because she had lost so much in such a short space of time. Now this move was taking a toll on her.

Mary’s seventeen years old now. She has another boyfriend, but she claims that he’s totally different than the others. I beg to differ, but I digress… She’s having a hard time packing her things because she knows what she’s leaving behind.

I’m leaving things behind too, but probably not as much as Mary. I don’t have a large group of friends. My best friend moved away from here years ago. I’m not well-liked by the other girls in my school, I don’t have a boyfriend… the only thing I’m leaving behind is the house.

Dad died a year ago. We miss him, but we’re still alive and we can’t go to the grave with him.

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Thanks for reading thus far. I'm working on chapter one right now. Please leave critiques in the form of a comment below (I believe there is a button that says comment).