Dubliner Story
Posted by Ana Castillo on Friday, July 1, 2011
Sandra sat on the bench as the day got colder, her life seemed like it was about to reach the ground end of eternity. The past couple of days had been raining like crazy, and she was already worked up to her finals at school. Nothing was going well. And then today when her mother was off from work she had nowhere to go. No money in her pocket to use a pay phone and call her mother, and obviously no cell phone. It was already getting pretty late and the temperature was slowly dropping.
Where was she to go, if wherever she went it would cause her mother to be extremely worried? It had happened before, but now it was up to the point that she felt abandoned. Her mom was pretty stubborn to just be leaving her out like this two times in a row. The neighbors just walked by and stared at her as she sat down in the doorstep to her apartment building. Everything seemed so perfect around the neighborhood, the usual people and the usual stores. Within her laid fear because she didn’t usually hang outside like this. The usual case was that she stayed home and didn’t even socialize with the neighbors outside.
That’s when she though of the only peaceful place where she considered to be protected and far away from any danger. Morton Place Park, it wasn’t the greatest thing around but it felt like the right place to be. Sandra needed a place where she would be able to relax and forget about all the drama going on in school and with her family. Although the library in university it’s a very quiet place, it doesn’t beat having a whole park to yourself while people just walk by right in front of it. Once Sandra was at the park she sat on one of the benches that faced the new building in university avenue. Here she stared at the big grown men who worked on repairing the building. With their green eyes and ripped muscles showing as they rested from all the hard work.
It was very entertaining for an athletic girl who spent most of her days watching Yankee games and deciding who the hottest players were. It wasn’t every day that a girl had the chance to stare at some construction workers do their job and actually enjoy it. However, as the day got colder things began to feel a little bit awkward. Sandra was already freezing cold, and her legs where shivering like two canaries inside a cage. So she decided to get up and have a walk back to Harrison to head home. As she turned and saw the last couple of people that walked by the park she was questioning where they were going. Most of the people would be headed up to university to the apartment stores rather than down to Burnside and university where the buildings and houses were. The only thing nearby the buildings was the bus stop which was not so far away before the park.
But there was something in university Avenue that Sandra didn’t consider important, life. She remembered walking down university herself the previous summer; it’s always very solitary but long and enjoyable. At the mount of the street are the apartment buildings which face the collage of neighborhood houses. These all where very mysterious, especially because they were somehow connected to the park she was already sitting on. When Sandra got up from the bench and looked thru where the basketball court was she saw a door. Is not a door that you would expect to see, because right behind the park there are houses and they seemed to have a sort of connection to this gate. But as Sandra came closer she realized that there was a lock on the gate and she tried to imagine where it was going to lead to. It seemed impossible to believe that this gate could actually lead her to where the neighbors lived, but how would that even be possible. How can any house in the Bronx be connected to a park, was that even legal?
The day was growing dark, and Sandra’s question seemed like an investigation that would take months to solve. So she decided to head home, but then behind the slides she saw a big wall that looked very fun to touch. Sandra was very smart, and although she though she would look awkward reading from a big wall in a park she took the risk and did it anyway. Is not like her life depended on what the few people and hot construction workers would think by seeing her there reading. Besides, her mom was nowhere near home and her brother was a very paranoid driver. So she went and read the information on the wall, she then realized that that gate had a purpose to be there. The park was actually a head quarters for people to get water during the First World War.
It seemed weird, to just look around into a place that once before was a part of American history. People never really mentioned the park having any significant meaning to the neighborhood. Before people had fun here like today, there were actually people who depended on this park for survival until all the water delivered to it was impossible to attain. This may be why the gate was there, locked, but still having a connection to the park. Sandra stood by and just picture people walking through that gate with buckets to carry some water back home. It seemed like a long walk through the forest to find some comfortable hospitality back home. Sandra walked around in circles to find any of the pipes mentioned in the text, but it was impossible to determine where they were.
Sandra made her way home, stopping along the way to look back at the park. “This park wasn’t here so long ago. But now I see that it connects every house in this neighborhood, and it makes it easier to even decide why it is that the neighborhood is arrange the way it is. Why there is a homogenous structure of houses that take over half the neighborhood, now I just wonder what will this place look like after I leave 10 years from now.” She shivered as these thoughts ran through her head. She made her way across the concrete grounds of the street and the leaf less trees. Squires running all over and birds headed south in companion. Suddenly her mom pulled over with her brother, both in his car. She stared at the sunset that faced the park, and then looked at the sorry look on her mothers face. She seemed indifferent unlike before when her head throbbed with anger.
Where was she to go, if wherever she went it would cause her mother to be extremely worried? It had happened before, but now it was up to the point that she felt abandoned. Her mom was pretty stubborn to just be leaving her out like this two times in a row. The neighbors just walked by and stared at her as she sat down in the doorstep to her apartment building. Everything seemed so perfect around the neighborhood, the usual people and the usual stores. Within her laid fear because she didn’t usually hang outside like this. The usual case was that she stayed home and didn’t even socialize with the neighbors outside.
That’s when she though of the only peaceful place where she considered to be protected and far away from any danger. Morton Place Park, it wasn’t the greatest thing around but it felt like the right place to be. Sandra needed a place where she would be able to relax and forget about all the drama going on in school and with her family. Although the library in university it’s a very quiet place, it doesn’t beat having a whole park to yourself while people just walk by right in front of it. Once Sandra was at the park she sat on one of the benches that faced the new building in university avenue. Here she stared at the big grown men who worked on repairing the building. With their green eyes and ripped muscles showing as they rested from all the hard work.
It was very entertaining for an athletic girl who spent most of her days watching Yankee games and deciding who the hottest players were. It wasn’t every day that a girl had the chance to stare at some construction workers do their job and actually enjoy it. However, as the day got colder things began to feel a little bit awkward. Sandra was already freezing cold, and her legs where shivering like two canaries inside a cage. So she decided to get up and have a walk back to Harrison to head home. As she turned and saw the last couple of people that walked by the park she was questioning where they were going. Most of the people would be headed up to university to the apartment stores rather than down to Burnside and university where the buildings and houses were. The only thing nearby the buildings was the bus stop which was not so far away before the park.
But there was something in university Avenue that Sandra didn’t consider important, life. She remembered walking down university herself the previous summer; it’s always very solitary but long and enjoyable. At the mount of the street are the apartment buildings which face the collage of neighborhood houses. These all where very mysterious, especially because they were somehow connected to the park she was already sitting on. When Sandra got up from the bench and looked thru where the basketball court was she saw a door. Is not a door that you would expect to see, because right behind the park there are houses and they seemed to have a sort of connection to this gate. But as Sandra came closer she realized that there was a lock on the gate and she tried to imagine where it was going to lead to. It seemed impossible to believe that this gate could actually lead her to where the neighbors lived, but how would that even be possible. How can any house in the Bronx be connected to a park, was that even legal?
The day was growing dark, and Sandra’s question seemed like an investigation that would take months to solve. So she decided to head home, but then behind the slides she saw a big wall that looked very fun to touch. Sandra was very smart, and although she though she would look awkward reading from a big wall in a park she took the risk and did it anyway. Is not like her life depended on what the few people and hot construction workers would think by seeing her there reading. Besides, her mom was nowhere near home and her brother was a very paranoid driver. So she went and read the information on the wall, she then realized that that gate had a purpose to be there. The park was actually a head quarters for people to get water during the First World War.
It seemed weird, to just look around into a place that once before was a part of American history. People never really mentioned the park having any significant meaning to the neighborhood. Before people had fun here like today, there were actually people who depended on this park for survival until all the water delivered to it was impossible to attain. This may be why the gate was there, locked, but still having a connection to the park. Sandra stood by and just picture people walking through that gate with buckets to carry some water back home. It seemed like a long walk through the forest to find some comfortable hospitality back home. Sandra walked around in circles to find any of the pipes mentioned in the text, but it was impossible to determine where they were.
Sandra made her way home, stopping along the way to look back at the park. “This park wasn’t here so long ago. But now I see that it connects every house in this neighborhood, and it makes it easier to even decide why it is that the neighborhood is arrange the way it is. Why there is a homogenous structure of houses that take over half the neighborhood, now I just wonder what will this place look like after I leave 10 years from now.” She shivered as these thoughts ran through her head. She made her way across the concrete grounds of the street and the leaf less trees. Squires running all over and birds headed south in companion. Suddenly her mom pulled over with her brother, both in his car. She stared at the sunset that faced the park, and then looked at the sorry look on her mothers face. She seemed indifferent unlike before when her head throbbed with anger.
Tags: school assignment <3
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Media Studies Major at Queens College
Photographer, Writer and Enthusiast
The world is my my book,
I edit the pages.
