The Youth of Emily Greenstone

Young

My name is Emily Greenstone. I am six years old. My school is called Pearl of the Sea Primary School. My friends are Camilla, I call her Cammy and Sara-Lee, she is just so sweet!

I like to visit the beach and collect sea shells. I love eating pasta and icecream. My favourite drink is soda because it bubbles and it fizzes.

I used to live in a suburb called Promise with my friends and family. But if I told you where I live now you wouldn’t believe me. You would just say that I’m lying or that I’m just a kid who likes to play pretend. Well, I do like to pretend but I am telling you the truth when I say that I live in a cemetery.

I even have my own Gravestone. It reads:

Emily Greenstone

1990-1996

A joyful sweetness in the air.

I was young and still am. This is my story.

Life

“Hi Emily,” cried my friends, Cammy and Sara-Lee, waving their arms about and jumping up and down.

I waved back with a great-big smile. I was not feeling happy today, I was feeling sad. I am always sad, but I never show it when I go out or in front of my friends and teachers at school.

Today, I arrived at school at eight-fifteen. I walk to school because it’s not that far from my house. It’s about three-blocks down the road. My friends get dropped off by their parents in the morning. They usually arrive about five minutes before I do. I think its five minutes, maybe it’s more but that’s what they tell me.

I was wearing my jumper over my summer uniform. My uniform is a dress with blue and green checks. It has three buttons, starting from the collar and ending at my chest. My jumper is dark blue, but you can also buy it in dark green. I think my uniform is yucky!

It’s supposed to be hot today. That’s what the weatherman, Mr Thompson said on the T.V. I think he said it was about thirty-three degrees. But I don’t know what that means. Cammy and Sara-Lee were not wearing their jumpers today.

I wish I could take my jumper off, but I keep it on because I don’t want anyone to see my arms. My arms are always sore. Mummy says that I can’t do anything about it. It’s always my fault. I believe her.

Nothing is ever as it seems…

My friends asked me why I never take it off in hot weather. I reply that my arms get cold very easily, but they never understand. I wouldn’t understand either if I was them. After playing together – this is usually a game of tips – the bell rings at eight-fifty-five. This means we go into kindergarten.

I am the oldest out of my friends because I am already six. They are still five. I turned six on January 25th. Some kids just say that I started school late, maybe it’s true, but I don’t know.

I am always happy at school. I never have to worry. If something happens at home, I can’t exactly leave the house. I am too young to do anything, or so my mummy says. I wish that I could tell my teachers, but I can’t. I wish that they would notice me, notice the pain that I’m hiding.

I’m not allowed to say anything. So I just pretend that nothing ever happened or that I wasn’t there to see it happen… Or experience it. I wish that I could stay at school all day long, but it finishes at two-fifty every day. How I wish school would last forever.

Today, in kindergarten we made paper owls. They were too flat to be real, but I thought that they looked real. On my owl, I stuck some coloured shapes that I cut out onto the “base” – as my teacher calls it. I made green circle eyes and orange triangle feathers. The beak was a triangle too, but it was yellow and I stuck the triangle upside-down.