Chapter 1

Life sucks. It just does. I can’t do anything about it. Then again, I get the easy jobs around the house. Take care of Alli, almost 24/7, which is somewhat amusing. Usually, Uncle Jay or Timmy (my older brother) get to take care of the fields, which is okay, but I just want to be a boy for once and be able to get down and dirty and have no one stare at me for it. When I’m cooped up all day inside the house my mind wanders. The house is tiny and covered with disarrayed dirt. All the walls are brown, and our pictures cease to exist anymore under all the muck.  I start to imagine life before the stock market crashed in 1929. I wonder what happened to Ma, how far she went, where she went, stuff like that. But the one question that floats through my head is… will she ever come back?

We had been with Uncle Jay now for about six months. We lived in Lagrange, Missouri, and at this point I didn’t even know if Ma was still in the country, let alone the state.  And Pa, well he died of Tuberculosis, so there wasn’t much to wonder about. 

“Timmy,” I said as we stared up at the sky. “Do you remember what life was like before the stock market crashed?” I glanced at his deep, brown eyes.

“Yes, I guess we took life for granted;  we had food and toys and clothes. Nowadays, I would kill to go to school.” 

“Good, I thought it was just me. I can’t remember the last time we played a game.”

“If I try real hard to remember, I can just barely make out our nice, full table and our nice, cozy beds.”

“Hey, we’re pretty lucky though, at least we aren’t living in a shanty, in Hooverville. “

            No one has fun anymore, I found myself thinking,  Not even Uncle Jay.

Uncle Jay used to be the life of the party. He was never one to sit in the corner and watch life go by. But now, of course, everything was dull and stupid, and no one cared about anything. Life seemed to pass us  by in black and white. Not a spritz of color anywhere. I tried to bring that spritz of color into our lives, but it never worked.

I started to think differently about myself, myself as a person since disaster struck our family. What I could have done differently, to have stopped this from happening.  I had begun to see the world through a new pair of eyes, and these eyes picked up on everything. The tiniest details. When your whole world changes, you start to take notice of things.

Alli could cheer me up no matter what. She would laugh and giggle without a care in the world. Alli was not even a year old yet. There was no way she could understand what was happening, which I thought was a good thing.

It was a Thursday morning, and one of the nicest days we had seen in awhile.  I was outside, playing with Alli and gazing at Timmy and Uncle Jay working in the fields.

It was getting harder and harder to grow crops as the soil was so dry. When the wind kicked up it would create huge dust storms that made it impossible to see or breathe. Still, I was tempted to leave Alli for just a few minutes while I watered a plant or mowed a section. But sadly I was snapped back into reality.

“Good morning!” A fella with a small, brown hat said to me. I jumped because I was in the middle of daydreaming. He had managed to make his way up the gravel road unnoticed. I looked around for signs of a car or horse but saw nothing.

“Oh, sorry, darling, I didn’t mean to scare ya.” He kind of chuckled at the thought of it.

“Oh...um it’s fine, I was just dreaming of… better days, I guess.” I felt very uncomfortable as I said the last few words.

“Aren’t we all? Hey, anyway, is your Uncle Jay around here anywhere?” He started to glance around the fields.

“Ya, he’s out there somewhere.” I laughed at that one too.

“Well, ah, when you see him give him this, would ya?” He handed me a sheet of paper.

“Sure thing, have a nice day sir.” I didn’t know what else to say.

“Thanks, you too,” and just like that, he was gone. I know I shouldn’t have, but I did anyway. I flipped the paper over and read it aloud.

“No rent, no house. You have been not been paying rent lately, and we hear that you don’t take care of your sister’s family. You have exactly seven days to either move out or pay up.” I was confused at first but then read the very top of the paper.

“Eviction Notice!” My heart stopped beating. My lungs stopped breathing. I couldn’t believe it and wouldn’t believe it. What would I tell Uncle Jay? I never should've read the damn thing. I wonder how Uncle Jay would react. The house wasn’t much with its broken windows and saggy couches, but it was still home.

“Hey, Lilly, everything alright?” Uncle Jay hollered from amidst the fields.

“Yeah, everything’s  fine.” I tried to sound positive even though everything wasn’t “fine.”

All day I worried about how I was going to break the news to Uncle Jay. He probably wouldn’t be mad, would he? My mind played tricks on me, deciding on one thing and disagreeing on the next. I finally thought I would first tell Timmy privately and then have him deal with it. But would Timmy be mad at me? Maybe Alli could solve all my problems; it was worth a shot.

I sat down next to Alli, spying on her through the bars in her crib. Oh how I loved that crib. How it rocked just right and it was the perfect shade of blue. We only had one blanket that Grandma Nancy had sewn way back when, but it was pretty damn soft.  Alli seemed kind of fussy, so I tried to calm her down.

“Hey Al, wanna solve all my problems for me?” She stared at me blankly, as if I was an alien with three eyes and four noses.

“Will you seriously help me though, Alli? You’re good at making ideas appear in my head.” She ignored me and stared at the ceiling. I tried a different approach.

“Hey Alli, Alli where am I?” I covered my hands over my face to try and “hide.” She started to giggle, and I knew it was working.

“Peek-a-boo!” I shouted and fell on her stomach laughing. I did it again.

“Alli, where am I? You can’t see me.” She snorted and clapped her hands. I hid behind my hands again. Her laughing ceased, pretending she didn’t know where I had gone.

“Peek-a-boo!” I shouted.

“Wait, that’s it!” I also shouted.

“I’ll just pretend I haven’t seen it and leave it on the table for Uncle Jay to find. That way he wouldn’t be mad at me and I could see his real reaction. Timmy would also not know I had read it.

“Wow, Alls, you’re really good at that.” She laughed once more and laid down.

I was setting the table when I called for Timmy and Uncle Jay. The table was a little rusty, and one of the legs was broken, but we made do.

“Time for supper!” I screamed as loud as I could.

“Coming,” Timmy yelled.

“Same here,” Uncle Jay hollered. I quickly grabbed the eviction letter and placed it on the table. As soon as Uncle Jay saw it, I acted casual.

“Hey, what’s this doing here.” Uncle Jay picked it up questioningly.

“Someone came by and delivered it this afternoon.” I kept my eyes glued to a tree in the yard.

“That’s unusual.” Uncle Jay flipped it open and started to read.

“Stop!” Uncle Jay shouted suddenly. I was so scared I dropped my fork.

“Don’t eat anything else, this might be the last meal you ever eat.” Uncle Jay looked back and forth between Timmy and me.

“What are you talking about?” Timmy stood up and grabbed the letter.

“We’re being forced to move out.” And just like that my life went from bad to worse. From sucky to really sucky. From terrible to horrible. It was hard to imagine life before everything happened, but there really was “life.”

And this is how it all started.

-Riley Grimm