Sapphire Overkill

Sapphire

It was Monday in the summer of 2000. The sun shone through my bedroom window, and the rooster crowed outside. I rolled over to the other side of my bed. It was too early to wake up right now. Then I heard my mother calling me to breakfast. I could smell eggs sizzling, and boy did they smell good. I groggily lifted myself out of bed, and made my way downstairs.

There I found my mother and father waiting at the table for me. Eggs and bacon were laid out across the counter.
My father was sipping a cup of coffee as my mother skimmed a magazine. "Hello, Mother." I said. She looked up at me and smiled. "Sapphire, my dear, why don't you come sit down." She replied. I walked over and sat down. My father put his coffee down and started fiddling with his eggs. There was a silence until my mother asked, "So, Sapphire, how did you sleep?" I swallowed some of my eggs before replying, "I slept good, Mom, What about you?" My mother grinned and said, "I slept just great, honey." She then turned to my father and said, "Herb, how about you? How did you sleep?" My father, still clearly half-asleep, mumbled "good" before going back to the eggs.

Most of my family's mornings are like this. We aren't really morning people, but my mom says we always need to get up early, to be fully prepared for the day. And by that, my mom means that we need to do our chores. And she says that because my family lives on a farm. We have a small house just right outside of London, and everyday we go out to the barn and tend to the sheep, goats, horses, chickens and cows. We don't have any domestic pets, but there is a cat that roams through the barn sometimes. I named him Barry. My mom and dad sell the things we get from the animals, like eggs and milk and cheese. And we get good money for our products. But my parents prefer to just put the money away, to save it for an important time.