When I reached my home, I went to my room and laid down. I turned toward Grace to find her sound asleep in her own little dream world. My mother knocked on our door lightly so she wouldn't wake up Grace. She came in and sat on the edge of my bed. "Any luck?" she asked. I straightened my back against the wall so I was able to look at my mother. " Yes I did, at a clothing factory in Manhattan. Did you find anything?" I asked. She shook her head 'no' and replied, " I've been trying, just not at the right places yet." She smiled and told me to get some sleep. She walked out of our room. Then, I went to sleep. I was in the jungle again with Little Black Sambo. He was crying under a palm tree. I walked up to him and asked, "What's wrong with you?" He wiped his tears and said " Everything I have is gone." I felt bad for him. I understood how he felt. I woke up as my sister tried to get me to wake up for the first day of work. "Wake up Martha! Wake up!" Grace was shouting, bouncing on me. I opened my eyes, grabbed her and tickled all the laughter out of her. I smiled and got ready for school. No, not school. It was work for me, now. I put on thin black tights, my wool light brown skirt, and lucky green short sleeves sweater. I ate my breakfast and right before I left, I grabbed one of my father's brown caps. I put my sunflower blond hair in a ponytail and put it in the cap, making sure what happened yesterday wouldn't happen again. I walked Grace to school then headed toward the McWhirtersfactory. I did my work until 5pm. The work was difficult, but I learned the tricks to it quickly. I followed the schedule everyday and did want I needed to do to get food on the table and a roof over my family's head. We were going to get through this Great Depression. I knew we could. I was getting paid 5 cents an hour, but I didn't complain. Rumor has it that the men who worked on the soles of shoes were paid extra for no good reason. Anyone can glue a sole to a shoe. Even my sister could. It made no sense to me why it was that way. The skin was almost ripped off of my skull and those men were being paid extra. The worst that could happen to them would be glue on their fingers. When I found out those rumors were true, I almost exploded.I didn't want to say anything because I was afraid to lose my job. After working at this factory for 4 months, I realized my birthday was tomorrow. I'd turn 18 years old. I'd be an actual adult who could anything she wanted to do.
YOU ARE READING
Cut by Thread
Historical Fiction17 years old girl named Martha Johnson soon to be 18 in 4 months is getting a huge chunk of what the real world like. She lives in New York City,the big apple. She was raised in a somewhat wealthy family that was stable enough to get through the Gr...
