Sky Of Tears

• Ella Gill, Grade 6, Helensvale State School -
• Short Story
• 2018

Excellence Award in the 'Write Along 2018' competition

"You ignorant, lazy girl!" shouted Father, planting yet another slap to my face as I whimpered in pain, "I thought I told you to sell those wilted weeds until you had enough money for my beer!". My father stomped into his bedroom and slammed the door. The whole house shook and then...silence. I collapsed to the floor and hung my head. My father can get really violent sometimes and this wasn't the worst of it. I sighed and silently wondered to myself if I will ever have the freedom I so rightly deserve. CREAK... my sister's door opened, and I saw my dear Ruth standing there with the light from her bedroom illuminating her adorable face.
"Ruth, precious, how come you're still awake?" I questioned, standing up. I straightened my dress and rubbed my eyes.
"Are you okay?" my sister asked. I smiled, Ruth was only seven years old, but she was the most caring person I had ever met.
"I'm fine, thank you." I nodded in reply. I walked into her bedroom and tucked her in bed.
"You don't worry about me, dear Ruth. Goodnight." I whispered as she drifted off to sleep.
I awoke the next morning sitting next to Ruth's bed. I stood up and sneaked out of her bedroom as quietly as possible. We didn't have much money, so our rooms are very small. We only have three rooms in our house: mine, Father's, and Ruth's. We don't have a mother, she died before Ruth was born. If we did have a mother I'm sure she wouldn't have let us live like this. I walk into my bedroom and change into a clean dress and clean briefs. Every day we go to work selling flowers on the streets for a penny. I walk back into Ruth's room and gently wake her up.
"Ruth, we have to go to work now. Wake up!" I whispered, gently nudging her. My sister slowly opened her eyes and sat up in her bed.
"If Father gets enough money for his beer, can we go stargazing while he's out?" Ruth asked me. Whenever Father goes out, Ruth and I sneak outside with binoculars to gaze at the stars.
“Yes of course, now let’s go earn some money so Father won’t get angry.” I replied. I helped her put on a clean dress and we started walking outside. Prickles on the grass spiked our feet, since we didn’t have enough money for shoes. Our socks were ripped and ruined but we kept on walking. We looked back at our old and tattered house as we heard beer bottles clattering as our father woke up. We picked up flowers on the way to our main selling point. Then we started our day of work.

After work, Father went out to the pub and we stayed home gazing up at the stars.
“Will we ever get out of here?” Ruth asked.
“One day, dear Ruth.” I replied, “One day.”