Trapped

by Ayana Alamgir, age 10

Hi. My name is Treise. I’m 13 years old, and I have to say, 13 is the age where life seems so tough, you just want to crawl into a hole and sleep until your teen years end.

Pt.1 Beep Beep Beep. I didn’t hear the rest of it. I woke up, blinking my eyes, thinking it was a dream. I pulled the covers over me and stuffed the other half of my pillow on top of my head. Next thing I knew, my mom came screaming into my room like a lady who never learned her manners. By the way, my door always creaks when you open it, but my mom has a magic touch, quote unquote. “What,” I say miserably. “GET UP! GET UP! THERE’S ABSOLUTELY NO TIME TO WASTE! EVERYTHING IS BURNING”, my mom yells like her own head is on fire. “Whatevs,” I say, not sure if this is happening. I fell off my bed hitting the floor. I opened my eyes and it was like the whole world could see my room, as the late December wind was blowing on my skin. “What in the-!” I exclaim. My room was all that was left of my big ol’ house. I couldn’t find my parents, but all of the sudden, they appeared from a gust of wind that came from nowhere.

Pt. 2 “Um, what do we do now,” I ask nervously, and sheepishly as I stumble from my bed, onto the hard cement. “We do nothing. I told you to get out of the house as fast as

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you could, but you disregarded my concerns for you, and now, hope is lost. Farewell, and good luck daughter,” my mom said. Woah woah woah, since when did my mom start to speak all mannerly?

I stood there, speechless.

And just like that, my parents were gone . . .

Pt. 3 You’re probably wondering where I am now. There’s nowhere to go. You’re probably thinking that I should’ve gone to a friend’s or relative’s house. But my house was gone. Everything I once owned became extinct. The state of me is a mess. My hair was tangled, my drool dried up on my cheek, and I was just wearing my nightgown from last night. But I couldn’t just dwell on the past. I had to move on. I wandered down Wrecks Avenue, so confused. It was a Saturday, gloomy morning and the fact I had to go to school in, like, 2 days did NOT help either. I don’t want to go to an orphanage or stay anywhere. For a while, I knew we were going to be tight. At the mention of we, I think I forgot to introduce someone.

Pt. 4 When I was younger, I thought that a dog was the MOST easiest animal to take care of, but now, I take that back. Dogs need a lot of care, bathing, expensive food, and grooming. I have a corgi, an Italian dog, and you know what that means. Expensive raw chicken all day long. Since I had cancer from age 10, Apricot was my guide dog from that point on. She didn’t care if I didn’t have the proper food for her, or that I wasn’t the best caretaker. She only cared for my love. She was the only girl in the whole world who stayed with me at all times. At first I thought I had lost her in the fire, but all of a sudden she popped out from a

26 Cartoons for all eternity • Caricaturas por toda la eternidad