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"Shoot."
I looked at the item I had just stole for the first time in my life. It was a small black device that had a huge silver circle, a lens the new museum people called it. It’s metallic black coating glistened in the hot sun as I stood outside, frightened and not knowing what to do . I was only seven at the time, and had taken the so called camera object out of the glass box just to examine it. I was used to examining things in the museum when my father was the owner of the place. Now he was the ruler of the civilization and I couldn’t do that. Not anymore.
My father was James Ryans and was way different as a museum owner. He was nice and never liked the government teachings. He was interested in the tall tales entitled “American history” ,which included so many stories about a country so similar to our civilization. But because of that people treated my family harshly and looked down at us, especially the government. Even though things were tough, that was the way my father always liked it; rebellion against the government along with action at every corner. Mom and I like this as well.
I remembered the day everything changed. He was originally going to show me the camera, but was one day taken by the people in the jumpsuits, who interview and take people to the mental institution for the government. Everyone knows by the news that the mental institution was a horrible place and therefore Mom was scared. They took her soon after father was gone and put me in a foster home with two horrible people. It was miserable in there and when they took me out on my sixth birthday, almost a year later, it only got worse.
When I saw my father I cried out of joy but he only nodded his head to me and ignored me for the first time. But of course it the first for many things. First time I learned the words ’legal’ and ’illegal’. First time I had to memorize rules and never talk about history. The first time I was yelled at and smacked for mentioning history. It was also the first and ongoing time that I disliked my new ‘better’ parents. Everyone suddenly liked them except for me. I never changed my ways or the beliefs my old father use to believe.
I guess that’s why I stole the camera. It was ours in the first place and was supposed to be mine. I knew I shouldn’t be doing it, for my 'new daddy’ would smack me again for the umpteenth time. But I was used to that and did not care.
I started to run as fast as my little feet could go towards the direction in front of me. I used a new word I read from a book which my parents restricted me from saying, claming it was a bad word; my feet hurt like crazy and the camera burned in my small stubby hands.
I heard the sounds of sirens and I said the bad word again, this time in a high-pitched squeal- I wanted everyone to know that the ruler’s daughter was rebelling against her own parents. I sprinted across the parking lot and into the playground, kicking my new but muddy flat shoes off. I climbed up the slide and jumped off, grunting as I hit the sandy floor but moving on into the shopping center.
I ran inside and to the center of the shopping area, circling around and around the pole that had the video camera. It was live so I was hoping the security guards would just get dizzy watching me. Of coursed my seven year old brain had not thought out the plan entirely and I ended up the only dizzy person.
I soon saw people in jumpsuits and police officer coming in through the shopping center’s doors, along with the security guards running downstairs towards my direction. I gently put the camera down and used my last act of defiance before the police harshly grabbed my tiny arms and cuffed me.
“Shoot.”
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This article has 12 comments.
Hey!
You know, I think your writing just keeps getting better and better! The plot here is short, sweet, and genius! Keep on writing!
Interesting! I like the whole situation that you've set up here. I think the new dynamic between the father and daughter is really fascinating - almost haunting! One criticism I have is that the story reads almost like a summary instead of events that the reader can watch unfolding. I think if you expand this piece with more detail, you could have a really amazing beginning to a novel! Keep writing!
PS. Is there any play on words with the word "shoot"? (as in the double meaning of camera and exclamation) Maybe I'm just reading too much into it :)
I, for one, loved this! (: I love the idea that the father has changed, but the daughter still remembers everything and keeps his "dream" alive in that way. Did that make any sense?
I suppose a seven year old wouldn't know about some of things mentioned...but, then again, I didn't take her to be a normal seven year old even when I had just begun reading.
Anyway, I really loved this and hope you do a continuation.
As far as I could tell, the story takes place in a dystopian future.
The hardest part for me, though I really liked the ending (and I'm not just saying that, trust me) is that the story is from the perspective of a seven year old. A seven year old does not know what 'mental institutions are' (not a normal seven year old, which is what the protagonist is, as far as I could tell), the girl would just realize that her dad was gone. You didn't really sell me on that part.
I also thought that some of the writing was a bit choppy, incongruous even, with sentences in paragraphs abruptly breaking off from the original ideas.
I think that you could have also developed the plot a little bit more, if you had expounded on the idea of the girl taking the camera.
Why did she take it? How did she take it?
That sort of thing.