The meaning of my name is "Life" so here is a moral about life. Might be a bit cheesy, but I'm proud of it. Storytime: Kata ran into the house as her best friend, Eva had just told her devastating news. She was to move away. The next day. She couldn’t tell Kata until now and it just felt heartbreaking that her only friend, that she’d known since they were three was going to disappear. For good. Tears rolled down her cheeks. Her father was reading a newspaper at the marble kitchen table, on a leather stool. He noticed. “You okay Kat?” That was his nickname for Kata. Kata didn’t respond and tore into her room, tears flying and slamming the door behind her. She collapsed into her bed and let the tears flow until she was fast, fast asleep. “Pleeeeaaaaseeeeeeee,” Kata begged Grandmother, climbing into her lap. “Another story, just before night time!” Her grandmother chuckled, smiling warmly, her wrinkles scrunching as the fire cracked. “This time I will tell you a true story. This story won’t have any fairies or dragons,” Her grandmother told Kata in her hoarse and dry, but still soothing voice. Kata’s shoulders slumped. “Awwww.” “But I promise you it will be twice as interesting,” Grandmother added, setting Kata down on the floor so she could be closer to the blazing fireplace which was already pretty warm on the leather couch, but she knew Kata liked feeling the warmth and being closer to it. “Once upon a time- Actually quite long ago. When I was thirteen, a lot older than you,” Grandmother remarked, pausing for a second. “But before you know it you’ll be my age.” She laughed a soft, but dry and throaty laugh that Kata did not understand. “I had a best friend named Penelope. She was a very, VERY,” She emphasized the very. “Good friend.” Kata smiled her five year old chubby cheek smile. She knew that her grandmother was about to say an interesting part. “We had known each other since we were just your age! We would sleep over together, exchange stories-“ “What does exchange mean?” Kata asked, tilting her head. Grandmother smiled again and leaned forward and patted her granddaughter’s head. She liked telling Kata new things. “Exchange means I give you something, you give me something back,” Grandmother explained. Kata nodded in understanding. “So I was giving her a story, she gave me a story back.” “Now for a while I hadn’t heard from Penelope for a while. She hadn’t spoken to me for a week!” Kata gasped, even though she didn’t know how long a week was. She just knew it was long by how her grandmother spoke. Grandmother nodded sadly, but Kata could see her grandmother wasn’t really sad, by how her lip curled slightly and how her cheeks wrinkled, like she always did when she was going to add a twist to the story. All that looked sad was her eyes. “I was very sad. I didn’t see her at school and that was certainly odd,” Grandmother said, slowly. “Penelope loved school and loved to learn.” Grandmother’s eye twinkled as she looked Kata in the eye. “Reminds me of somebody I know.” Kata giggled. “Then after a few days I saw her father at school,” Grandmother said, smiling. “I asked him where my friend was and he said….” She paused for suspense. Kata leaned in curiously, her heart beating. When her grandmother continued to wait she grew impatient. “Tell me!” She whined. Her grandmother laughed her throaty and dry laugh as if she waiting for her to say those exact words. “Penelope had fallen sick for the last week and he was picking up her homework from the school,” Grandmother explained. “I was terribly sad that she was sick. And so I waited.” She paused. “And waited.” “But Penelope didn’t come to school, so I visited. She had been terribly sick with….” Her grandmother thought. Kata was too young to know of the flu. “A bad cold.” That Kata knew as she had gotten sick recently. “But now she was getting better and was to go to school the next day,” Grandma smiled. Kata smiled warmly back. “Life is full of ups and downs. Sometimes you go down. But then soon enough it will jump right back up. It will seem like forever, but soon it will be higher than ever. If anything bad happens just tell yourself that you’ll be higher than ever.” Kata nodded, not knowing however useful this thinking would be in her future. Kata awoke the next day and thought for a second, remembering the month she’d spent with her grandmother before she died. She’d figure something out. She smiled, confidently. She paced for a while around her room until she’d thought of something. They’d keep in touch. Maybe they’d visit each other every so often. It’d never be quite the same, but it was the best she had and so she would use it.
Relates to me a lot right now critique is open!
