The New Me

A New Vision in the World

By: Hazel Ann

             Twas the night before Mother’s Day. The crisp breeze brushed my hair back. I could barely make out the night sky with the curtains gently draped against the old window but, through a peep in the curtains I saw the stars shining in the light and the full moon glowing. With the silver spoon in my mouth, I gulped down the sweet, warm soup my mom had made for me. I pushed the tray away,
 “That’s it! It’s 8:00, Hazel Ann go to the bathroom brush your teeth and go to bed,” my mom said to me. I swept my feet across the wood floor. PLIP! PLOP! PLIP! PLOP! As I got back into bed I asked….
“When’s Mommy coming back, Mama?” I asked hopefully.
“I don’t know sweetie. The only thing that we know is that Gran is going to pass away, that’s what God wants.” Her eyes started filling up with clear water, her face turned from me as she picked up the thermometer. I stared up at the ceiling wondering what life would be like without Gran. We would have no one to replace her. Mommy would be so sad, nobody to look up to.  BEEP! My temperature had gotten worse, 102 F°. “Hazel Ann, please go to bed soon, we’ve got to get you well. ” My mom said as she cracked the door closed. I look at the moon again. I prayed to the moon which God stands by and whispered, “God, when Gran goes up in the Promised Land, take care of her. Make her life beautiful like it is with us, tell her that I love her, miss her, and that I always will remember her.” As I said my last few words my eyes started to go and I was sound asleep.

The moon glinted in the sky, the light beaming on me, sweat trickled down my head onto my neck, my legs were moving viciously, and my fever was piping up. Looking up at the ceiling, I saw something. It took a while to find out it was just a light. I looked toward the window hoping to find the moon and the stars but, they disappeared. All I heard was rain thumping against the window, the thunder was rumbling, and the jagged lines of lightning shadowed against the wall.
Scared, I looked to see if anyone was still awake, there was Mama at the iMac computer. There were tears rolling down her cheeks. “Goodbye, Hazel, we’ll find a way together. No, it can’t be”, Mama whispered.
“Mama, what’s wrong and Happy Mother’s Day,” I whispered.
“We will talk in the morning, Hazel Ann, and thank you” she said through her tears. She got into the bed.

The sun came out from behind the clouds and rays of sunshine lined the floor. Curtains back, flowers blooming but, still no answer to my question. I walked in to see Mama’s eyes still fixed on the computer. “Marmee G, so I arranged the tickets for tomorrow. We are flying Delta Airlines. You are leaving at 2:00 pm to go to JFK. We are leaving tonight at 11:00 pm. I will see you tomorrow, I love you, Mom.” After a few seconds Mama ended the call.
“Mama, why did you arrange tickets?” I whispered.
“Well, this leads back to tell you the bad news…..,” she stopped…, “Last night, as the thunder struck, Gran…… closed her eyes, and was lifted up to heaven. Which leads to why we are going to America…. for her funeral,” she said trying not to cry.

The news hit me, like somebody punching me right in the guts. My head started turning, my stomach started hurting, my eyes started tearing. No, no. How? What would we do without her? Tears of sadness came down my cheek, my mom’s feet raced towards me  and wiped the tear away. “Hazel Ann, she needed to go into heaven. If she stayed any longer she would have more pain. Her last words were, Nama-stay.
My eye’s blurred, my face hurt, I grabbed my mom and hugged her saying, “Please don’t leave me, I love you! Happy mother’s day.”
My mom hugged me like the light giving you warmth. “Hazel Ann, I won’t, I will always be with you not matter what.”

With the sun shining on both of us as we hugged this voice came to me, it was Gran’s voice saying, “Hazel Ann, it’s Gran. Please don’t be angry with me but, I needed to go. I am trailing up the way to heaven where God will place me next to Pop, your Grandfather. I love you and my soul is with you, I still have my heart and my mind. I LOVE YOU.”

I realized that having a bad mind about it will only leave negative thoughts in your mind. If you think positive about it, remembering that your loved ones which have past will always be with you then you will think positively. They might not be right there with you, but they will be in your mind, your soul, and your heart. From that day, I tried to think positively about the new space in the world I was living in.

At the begging of the year I was a okay writer. Throughout 7th grade, I have learned about so much, like grammar, craft moves, membean words, domain specific language, and so much more. Two places I have improved in are my sentence structure and craft moves.

Last year, my stories were sometimes phrases or simple sentences. Though this year, my teacher really helped me. We learned about compound sentences, were to use commas to sound better so no comma splice. My grammar has definitely improved. The sentence structure is very important, it makes your story have more meaning to it. The comma is were you are breathing so put comma's to enhance for the meaning.

Craft moves in your story makes your story go from zero to hero. This is something that I didn't think was important. Though, I have learned it makes it go from boring to really interesting. Like, putting background information, dialogue, and talking about the character. Craft moves will bring you from an okay writer to a great writer.

RLA in 7th grade has taught me so much and I can't wait to find out more about writing and how I can improve.