Only half an hour to go. The clicking noise of the sewing machines pounded, hammering away at the headache I always got towards the end of the day. My hands were heavier and I longed to be rid of the claustrophobic tables.
“Did you hear that Violet in our building got engaged to a man in Virginia? I envy her for she plans to move with him after their marriage in the fall,” the girl sitting next to me blurted out.
Beckie lived in the same building as me and was quite a plethora of information. I had learned early on that any personal information I shared with her would spread like wildfire.
“I heard rumors, but I was very unsure as to if it were true. Violet is not one to divulge every aspect of her life.”
“Oh, I only found out because I noticed …show more content…
Nothing annoyed me more than the idle and incessant conversations Bessie and so many others were full of. Bessie must have gotten the message because she closed her big mouth and turned back to the garment she was working on.
I looked up again when I heard giggling and laughing coming from the cloak room. A girl started singing a popular song, “Every Little Moment Has a Meaning of its Own”, in the cloak room. The girl, Rose, has such a lovely singing voice. It’s a shame she is stuck here day after day and not sharing her gift of song with the rest of the world. Only a few minutes till quitting time. I could hardly wait. Mama would certainly have dinner by the time I was home with Josie, and then after completing a few chores, I would finally be allowed to sleep. Something felt wrong, though. I could not shake the feeling of absolute dread. And then, I saw the …show more content…
The flames were scorching and murderous as I approached the eighth floor, and they forced me back up as the flames crawled along the floor and twisted around the walls. I continued up the stairs, stopping at the ninth floor again, before running up the tenth. I was breathing hard from frantically running and being choked by the fire’s smoke. “Hey, you. Hurry up to the roof!” a man yelled at me as I burst onto the floor. I nodded my head, and I picked my skirt up and ran up another flight of stairs onto the roof. A group of workers from the tenth floor and two men in rather nice clothing whom I assumed to be the bosses we rarely saw were grouped on the roof, shimmying their way across wooden boards into the university next to the Asch building. Smoke leaked from the roof door, and the sky above was darkened by the ominous and frightening swirls of death. I collapsed to my hands and my knees, gasping and wheezing for fresh air. The sound outside horrified me. Sirens wailed and people screamed and yelled from below. The peacefulness I had always associated with the street was gone and accompanied by terror and
“Did you hear that Violet in our building got engaged to a man in Virginia? I envy her for she plans to move with him after their marriage in the fall,” the girl sitting next to me blurted out.
Beckie lived in the same building as me and was quite a plethora of information. I had learned early on that any personal information I shared with her would spread like wildfire.
“I heard rumors, but I was very unsure as to if it were true. Violet is not one to divulge every aspect of her life.”
“Oh, I only found out because I noticed …show more content…
Nothing annoyed me more than the idle and incessant conversations Bessie and so many others were full of. Bessie must have gotten the message because she closed her big mouth and turned back to the garment she was working on.
I looked up again when I heard giggling and laughing coming from the cloak room. A girl started singing a popular song, “Every Little Moment Has a Meaning of its Own”, in the cloak room. The girl, Rose, has such a lovely singing voice. It’s a shame she is stuck here day after day and not sharing her gift of song with the rest of the world. Only a few minutes till quitting time. I could hardly wait. Mama would certainly have dinner by the time I was home with Josie, and then after completing a few chores, I would finally be allowed to sleep. Something felt wrong, though. I could not shake the feeling of absolute dread. And then, I saw the …show more content…
The flames were scorching and murderous as I approached the eighth floor, and they forced me back up as the flames crawled along the floor and twisted around the walls. I continued up the stairs, stopping at the ninth floor again, before running up the tenth. I was breathing hard from frantically running and being choked by the fire’s smoke. “Hey, you. Hurry up to the roof!” a man yelled at me as I burst onto the floor. I nodded my head, and I picked my skirt up and ran up another flight of stairs onto the roof. A group of workers from the tenth floor and two men in rather nice clothing whom I assumed to be the bosses we rarely saw were grouped on the roof, shimmying their way across wooden boards into the university next to the Asch building. Smoke leaked from the roof door, and the sky above was darkened by the ominous and frightening swirls of death. I collapsed to my hands and my knees, gasping and wheezing for fresh air. The sound outside horrified me. Sirens wailed and people screamed and yelled from below. The peacefulness I had always associated with the street was gone and accompanied by terror and