Books

A Chapter by FrozenTears

The birds chirping woke me up this time, rather than the neighbors. From what I can tell, they’re crying because they’re mother still hasn’t come back.

I looked at the clock. It was 8:30. Either my uncle was too lazy to have me wake up, or he tried very hard but I just slept very deeply. But I’ll go with the former for this one. He doesn’t care when I get up.

I wandered off into the kitchen. My uncle wasn’t there. The meals for the day were already displayed on the counter. Next to it was a note written in Chinese, saying “I have some business to attend. Here’s your food for the day.”

I opened the container. Nothing special. Just rice, as usual, with fried fish and potatoes. I sighed and took out the chopstick from the drawer and started to pick bits of the fish and adding it on to the rice.

I didn’t want to spend the day in the apartment again, so I decided to head off to the library, the only place where I can do things for free. I thought about going to grandma's house, but she lives 20 miles away. Can’t blame her though. Her house was huge, and why would she pass up that chance to come live closer to me?

The light breeze swished past my face and into my hair….so calm. Summer in Pennsylvania was never hot. Then again, this was coming from a person whose hands are frigid no matter how high the temperature is. I don’t mean they’re plain cold…..they’re as freezing as ice.

Cars screeched as I entered the library. I opened the door. Nothing unusual. Just people reading, doing homework though it’s summer, going on the computers, and checking out books.

I approached the young adult section. Mysteries….too suspenseful. Biographies….too boring. Sci-Fi….too much hatred on humanity.

I wandered the young adult section a bit more, until something caught my eye. It was a book called Annie. Isn’t that a musical? I wondered. I read the blurb:

Adapted from the musical, Annie is the girl who lives in an orphanage during the Great Depression. Though she’s in an orphanage, Annie is set stone that her parents are still alive. Annie desperately tries to find ways to look for them, having constantly being stopped by the mean headmistress, Agatha Hannigan, until she meets Oliver Warbucks who was more than willing to help her locate her parents. In this tale, Annie discovers the meaning of family and trust as she desperately tries to seek the location of her loved ones.

I looked up and sighed. This girl lives in an orphanage, and she is determined to find her parents. But why does she have so much hope? Even if her parents are alive, does she really think that someone who gave her up in an orphanage would take her back again? Even if they did, wouldn’t they have come to the orphanage itself?

Still, at least this girl can’t confirm the existence of her parents. I can. They died right in front of my eyes, and I watched as they burned to ashes. I can hope all I want that my parents would come back from the dead, but that’s just the way of the universe. People are born, and they die eventually. No one's ever heard of a person coming back to life. Even if reincarnation was a thing, it’s still technically another life.

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