• I spent the next day preparing myself for the Poetry reading that would be occuring the next day. I was scared and thought that maybe it wouldn't be so bad after all. Of course that was just mental preperation. Lizzy would come over and help me pick out the best poetry I had written.
    "Lindy Loo, you are the greatest friend for doing this with me." She wrapped her arms around my neck and nearly suffocated me.
    "Lizzy. Can't. Breathe. Suffocating. Me." I wriggled my way out of her grasp.
    "Sorry. I still apologize for making you do this too. I just knew that if I told you what this was, you would have walked away."
    "That still doesn't make it alright to lie to me like that."
    "Well, technically, I didn't lie. I just didn't tell you any details of it."
    "And that is till wrong."
    "Well, still..." Lizzy grabbed a peice of paper and read it. "How come I haven't heard this one before?"
    I took the peice of paper from her and read it myself.
    "It's good. Keep it." Lizzy took it back from me and tucked it into the folder that we made labled 'Contest Poems'.
    When it started to get dark, Lizzy left and told me what time I had to be there by. They were going to narrow the fifty down to twenty. It was about seven thirty when my Father called me down for dinner. He was a little more cool with the fact that I wrote poetry. He thought that I wrote good things about the Lord. I had a pile of those on my dresser so if he ever wanted to see what I was up to he could just read those and be pleased with his daughter from above.
    "Mom, Dad, I have to go to Lizzy's house tomorrow. She would like me to sleep over."
    My mother eyed me suspiciously, and my Dad just nodded his head.
    "Thats fine angel. You go and have fun tomorrow." My dad got a cold look from my mother.
    "Now George, don't you think she should be spending more time at home with us?"
    "Darling, she had been home all week. I think it would be alright for her to go to Lizzy's house."
    "Fine, but for the rest of the break you are to be home." My mother pursed her lips and excused herself from the table. A loud clank and shatter came from the kitchen and my mother swore.
    "I'll go clean it up." I stood and grabed my plate and cup and took it to the sink. My mother was propped against the counter.
    "Melinda, I know where you are going tomorrow. I do not appreciate your disloyalty. I am very disapointed in you."
    "Mother, I don't know what you are talking about. All I am going to do is go to Lizzy's tomorrow. I don't see how that could be so wrong and disloyal."
    "You're going to that, that poetry reading tomorrow. I know you are. I saw you in line. Saw you buy the ticket. Saw you go to the CoCo Bean afterward. I came right home and told you father. Why he is going to let you go to a Satan worship center is beyond me."
    "Mom, have you even stopped to read my poetry? Have you ever supported me in anything I wanted to do?"
    "Of course I have. Watch your tone or you'll be home bound."
    I bit my lip and started on the dishes. My mother never liked what I had to do. It seemed she was always trying to live her lost youth through me. I hated it, I wasn't her and I wasn't going to make the same mistakes she did.
    I finished the dinner dishes and headed up to my room. I was surprised to see my mother in there reading the poems about god that I had written for show. I took a good look at her and saw that she was crying.
    "Mom, whats wrong?"
    "Where are the real poems?"
    "Those are the real poems."
    "Rubbish. I know you. I am your mother for crying out loud. Where. Are. The. Poems?"
    I walked over to my closet and pulled out a box of my poems. I didn't want the chance that she would rip up the poems I was going to use tomorrow.
    One by one she took out the poems, scanned and ripped. It became a system. Take out a poem, scan, and rip. Take out a poem, scan, and rip. Each poem that got torn up was like a stake through the heart.
    "I'de like to see the rest of them huney. Where are the others. Don't try and fool me. I will turn this house upside down until I find those poems."
    I looked at her mortified the obayed. I took every notebook, every peice of paper, ever dream and hope that I had, and handed them all to her. She scooped them up and left the room.
    "Come along darling. Lets go out side to see these lovely poems that you have written." She said Lovely with such venom, such animosity, that it shook my bones.
    "Comming." I stood there, looking out the door where my mother had left. After that everything was automatic. The walking down the stairs. The opening the door of the back door to the outside. That was all done on auto pilot. I watched as my mom threw my poems, my deams, my hopes, and my heart into the little fire pit. I watched as they went up in flames. Tears flooded down my cheeks. I knew I couldn't forgive her for this. I knew that she had taken everything away. I knew that I would always veiw her as a monster. And my dad? He was her acomplice.
    About an hour later I called Lizzy up and told her what happend.
    "What a which! She can't do that! The poetry reading is tomorrow. TOMORROW!!" She screamed the last part so loud that I had dropped the phone into my lap.
    "Lizzy, I know. I guess I'll just have to wing it. I didn't even want to go on this anyway. I was forced by you."
    "Lindy Loo don't play me like a fool. I saw the excitment in your eyes as we picked out poems. You want this. I know you do." She started humming a tune of her own as she let her words sink in.
    As always she was right. She always was right and she knew me better then I knew myself.
    "I'll have to wing it." I just repeated it but with out the whole 'you forced me to do it' bit.
    "Thats my Lindy Loo. Now get some sleep. We have to be there by seven." The line went dead as she hung up the phone.
    I sat there for about ten minutes before I started to get ready for bed. I looked around me and wondered what I was going to do. I had no back up plan. My mother had destroyed all of my poetry. I had nothing as of right now. N.O.T.H.I.N.G. I layed in bed and pulled the covers over me thinking about what a disaster tomorrow would be,
    I was running. I was late for the poetry contest. I got there and it was my turn. I read a poem out loud and every one laughed at me. I heard my mother over the others. 'You can't do this! This is the devils work!' Lizzy was next to my mother agreeing with her.
    "Lizzy, You are supposed to be my best frined? Why are you doing this to me?"
    Lizzy just scoffed at me and soon I was falling down a black hole that opend up right under my feet. I kept falling and when I saw the ground I covered my face, reading myself for the impact that fallowed when I suddenly woke. My heart was racing and my hair clung to my face. I was breathing hard and my mouth felt dry. I went to the bathroom and splashed some cold water on my face.
    "It was just a dream Lindy Loo. It was just a dream." I repeated that to myself while I got in bed and pulled the covers over me once more. I soon fell under a deep slumber.