Family of five

• Jenna Emery, Grade 11
• Short Story
• 2006

There is a family of five. A mum, a dad, two girls and a boy. They all have their own dreams, their own ambitions and their own self-confidence. As we get older we make our own decisions, we grow up… move away from the ones we love and know, make our own choices and have only ourselves to confide in.

First of all it started with the oldest daughter. She completed her schooling in a small rural town, got herself a job and moved away. Although she only moved 42km away it still feels like a lifetime away. By her moving she left just the two of us. My brother and me. Then it came my brothers turn.

This one happened on a nice warm day in summer. They went to the city , watched their only son enlist, took him to the airport and watched him fly out. Even though it was a nice day outside, it was a sad, cold, miserable day on the inside. It made me feel a sense of loneliness and emptiness knowing that it was just going to be me when they got back home.

Now it was just me, their youngest daughter left. She finds it hard to cope… its hard for her to fit in anymore, to feel apart of anything. She has lost a part of her heart… a part of her soul. Will she ever be the same again? One day her time will come, when she to has to move off and make a name for herself.

But as the days go by it gets closer and closer to being her turn. She is sure of where she is going and what she wants to be, but what she is not sure of is herself. She is scared of what she is becoming and what will eventually become of her. She cries because time is going too fast, but she has no control of this… she has no control of anything anymore.