One step at a time.

The beginning

                                     

She was a miserable little old woman, who sat in her own filth, and scared the children of Rosebury. Her name was Mrs.Wumpt. Mrs.Wumpt wasn’t married but she always said “ To be married is a blessing, not to be married is a sin.” 

The whole town didn’t believe that, they were becoming modern, leaving those horrible old ways behind them. But not Mrs.Wumpt. She would march around the town holding a stick,  jabbing the young people of Rosebury with it. 

She would come home everyday, set the dinner table formal like, pour three glasses of water ( cause she wanted only one kid) and say the blessing. You could hear her chanting, making up for the lost voices that she had in her mind. 

Annie was a vibrant little girl, who could run and play for hours. Annie would sprint around Mrs. Wumpt’s house, tempting her to call the police. On any given occasion you could hear Annie screaming “ I like kitties, I like puppies, but what I don’t like are old miserable hags.” Annie wasn’t mean you see, but she was the one that was tormented the most by Mrs. Wumpt. 

Her fiery red hair would bellow behind her as she sang, and at the tender age of 8, she was wearing short shorts and tank tops. 

She would go to school of course, well thats not completely true. Annie had made a chart for herself, on which days she would go to school and not. Annie went to Rumbridge elementary. It had pure green manicured gardens, huge oak trees that dropped acorns from time to time, and on one side of the playground was a fairy land. Annie didn’t care for that though. 

She knew that this was just a quaint little town, with no real excitement. Her dreams were of LA or NYC, she would always tell her parents, “ Why do we live here? We have the money, why not get a thrill in life, and move to LA. I have done research, and I have found some pleasant houses.”

But all she would receive is a smack on the butt, and a grounding. Then her parents would walk her to school for two weeks, giving Annie no way to escape. Then she would have to sit in her desk and listen to Mrs. Wumpt drone on. 

On the days she was not escorted to school, or on the days her chart said to miss school she would have a blast! In the morning she would get into her vomit colored uniform, with a even more horrid tie, grab her school bag, put on her black Mary Jane shoes, and walk out the door.
Once at the shrub that was the sign that the house belonged to her father, she would grab the little plastic bag, and run to the nearest public bathroom.

After she had gotten changed as a boy she would run to the skate park. Pull a hood over her head, cough about six times, lower her voice, and grab her skate board from the hollow tree near the skate park. 

The smoking boys would wave to her, and call out to her. Annie would slowly walk over to them, trying to have swag. Right before she would reach the dudes, she would grab her skate board out of her backpack and do a trick. And as it went every day, she would blush, and smile. She would spend the whole day there. Doing tricks and impressing the boys. She was very tall for her age, looking about 12 in height. The boys just thought she was a very, VERY small 12 year old boy. 

At about 5:00 Annie would again make the sprint to the public bathroom, change into her school clothes, and skip home. Everything was always alright, she was a genius, in disguise.

        On one exursion, Annie had come bounding into the room, slamming the front door, plopping her school bag, and procceeding to scream, " I'm HUNGRY."

Only then did she notice her mother sitting at the little brown table. Her eyes downcast and puffy. " Your father, he has left us. Never to return to anybody. He is gone. But please remember honey, Death is one form of Life, and Life is one form of Death."