Caroline+Wade+Vignette

Snap. Crush. Bang! That’s how it started. One of the “nobodies” had tried to kill an “elite”, again. It always happens the same way, and I always think to myself, “why do the “nobodies” keep attempting to kill off the “elites” when they know they cannot win?” Anyway, some “nobody” gets brave after a long day of working followed by a long night of drinking and makes a bet that he can kill of a certain “elite”. At first it looks like the “nobody” is winning; we all hear the snap of a bone of the targeted “elite”. Then, a crush of a body part of one or the other, but finally, like clockwork, a guard shoots down the “nobody”, and the show is over for that day with one less “nobody” to watch the next day.

Last week it was my brother, and today it was my neighbor. Since the separation of the citizens of what used to be Memphis, many of my close family and friends have died, all because of where we used to live and more significantly, money. All the city of New Memphis cares about is money, and as it is, my family doesn’t have any. We barely scrape by, especially with the food shortages. Everyone in my family works, including me, even though I am only eleven. It’s funny how one tragic accident can change everything. I used to be living the good life; I went to a great school, had amazing friends, and most importantly, a family. Now all that is left of my old life is my mother and my sister Judy. My father still tries to keep in touch, but he works so long at the factory each day, that we hardly ever see him. I wonder why all this happened to our city and not some other place.

“Lily, you better get yourself outta here before you’re killed too,” some lady whispered to me.

Quickly I snapped back to reality and realized where I was, standing alone in the middle of Poplar Avenue, just one hundred yards from where he had been shot. I turned to ask the lady if she would walk home with me, since she obviously knew who I was, but she was gone, and I was alone. I stood just one hundred yards from a neighbor who had just died, and that’s when I knew that New Memphis needed to change.