Fever

August 18th, 1793

Waking up to my mother's shouting wasn't a new thing in the household. My left ear was occupied with the town people shouting, talking, added with wagons passing by the streets while the right was occupied with a louder shout from my mother.

"IS ALL YOU EVER DO IS SLEEP, AT THIS POINT WE'LL NEVER BE ABLE TO FIND A PROPER HUSBAND!" she cried out. Bright summer light filled the room as she open up the blinds. The room I slept in wasn't much so was the rest of the upper part of the bakery. I had grown tall enough that my head had started to reach the roof.

" Come on get your lazy self out of bed, there's work to be done." " Mary has a day off, so you will be doing all her jobs got it?" she said giving me a kiss on my four head. A mosquito must had gotten in from the window, adding more pain to my ear as it buzzed around my room.

"What the hell are you still doing in your bed. You deaf, I just said Mary is not here so you be doing her jobs for today and that does not mean you get to day dream.'' mother said as she slammed my door. I swear mother's had some kind of mood swings, they tell you how much they love you and then the next minute they're shouting at you.

Getting up from my damp bed covered by my sweat the only thing I thought of was, this going to be a very hot summer August day.

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" I can't tell who's lazier you or your sister, all you do is sleep and she does is read." Mother muttered to herself as she was cleaning the table for the afternoon costumers. Ma closed her eyes with a dreamy expression on her face " when I was a girl I would play in the sun, and had tea parties, oh those day ---" she had stopped her ranting with now a angry look on her face "but if I had not married him I wouldn't be here, I would be wearing the finest dresses, eat when ever I wanted and have a bigger room than what I have now." She stopped when she saw in the corner of her eye.

My mother had come from a very rich family, but when they found out she was dating a commoner they had kicked her out of the family mansion. She was left to marry him. They had a marriage of 6 years before he died.

"Don't just stand there go to work " she said. "The market is doing sales so once you're done in the kitchen go get the things we need for the week."

As I enter the kitchen a squeaking rat dashed across my leg followed by a cat. The rat ran to the nearest corner as it tried to escape from the hungry cat. Seconds later the squeaking had died out just like the rat.
" Bad Charlie! What was the reason!" I wasn't worried about the dead rat, Charlie could kill as many rats as she wanted but what I really cared about was the bloody mess she made. More work for me I guess. Before I could even say anything else the cat had already left the crime scene.
Now l had to face a the rather dead rat and wrinkled my nose at its foul smell. Picking it up by the tail, I carried it to the window and through it out hoping it didn't end up in somebody's stall.

From here you could see the city of Philadelphia wide awake. Below me was Maple street, you could hear the blacksmith hammer hitting the metal , children dancing, and wagons rolling back and forth. This was home to me.