Siobhan

Swing Scene

I was never really the one to be in the swing scene. My mother was a modern day flapper and my father had cash. Just like everyone in the "roaring 20's" its called. I wasn't like them. I was just a girl, white shirts, pink blouses and skirts, cigarettes, blush and curly hair. They're always out and about, in the city. Sometimes I was dragged out of the house with them, when really I was a bookworm. I'm just interested in my studies and nature. I liked to go out and walk around the streets, sit at parks, walk around carnivals and the beach. Cheap things that cost little to no money whatsoever. I enjoyed the little things.

Some would call me spoiled because they did buy me things. Anything I wanted, I have gotten. New radios, records, a gramophone, dresses, shirts, pants, shorts, bicycles, the newest inventions. I do appreciate it greatly, but I really don't need these things to make me happy. All I need are books, historical learnings, libraries, and animals. I needed to be out of that house more. I needed to be allowed to get away from the city. I would so enjoy the countryside with all the animals and trees, but instead I got a musty city with loud cars, trains, guns, parties and lights. Sometimes its not all that bad. Sometimes it smells sweet and is beautiful outside our loft. The streets are filled with vendors, children and mothers in all different kinds of colorful dresses. Those are the days I enjoyed walking around in the city. But those aren't the days that my parents decide to be out, the days they want to go out are loud and busy, we go to shops and malls. They go to parties with tons of bodies and drugs. Annoying music, the smells I can't stand.

My parents eventually stopped taking me out with them because I complained for centuries. They were telling me 'lately I'm too much of a wurp', so they either left me home or I could go out alone when I wanted to actually be outside. Which was wholly okay with me. Since then I didn't go out often, if I did find myself venturing out, it's during the night when all the others have gone to bed. Now some would say it's dangerous for a teenage girl to go off into the night, but we live in a not so bad neighborhood and further on, my parents couldn't care less. I steered clear of alleyways, generally, and definitely away from the loud parties I hear blustering out from club doors. At home, when I was completely alone, I finally got to listen to my things at high volume and dance, sing, and be jolly. I've read complete series' from Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Virginia Woolf books. Of course my favorite, despite the conflict of my interests, is The Great Gatsby. The books imagination drives me wild, although I myself would never enjoy that life. If it were to identify anyone in my family, it would be my lovely brother. He's not with us anymore due to a street fight, but he was exactly like my parents. A great man he was, just caught up with the wrong persons.

There was one faithful night I am here to explain, the night that turned my life completely upside-down. I'm writing this story to explain how I met her in a club, although I never wanted to be there.