There Once Was A Girl Named Sara

A while ago I had to write a story for my drama class. It was supposed to be a monologue, which accounts for the lack of real dialog, but it came out as a narrative. I hope you enjoy...




This story is about a girl named Sara.
Sara had a happy childhood, better than most, until her father died. He was always a kind, loving father and every night she went to bed, he read her a poem...

when she felt alone and no one was around,
when she felt like all the chips were down
I was there...
she said I would always be there, and she wasn’t wrong
because when everyone had left her and even I was gone...
still, I was there


One day Sara was at home with her mother watching a movie and her father was out at the store. There was a knock on the door ... it was the police. Sara's father had been killed during a car jacking. Sara's mother, Anna, went into a deep depression for the next four months.
Eventually, she tried to get back into the social world. But after several back to back dead end relationships, Anna took a different route. She met a girl named Rose. Anna became a lesbian with Rose and they began a happy relationship. But it didn’t last as long as Sara would have liked, because she actually liked Rose. Rose left Anna, telling her that the relationship was missing something. Soon after, Anna met Cierra, Sara didnt like her very much but she seemed to make Anna happy. Then one day, Cierra introduced Anna to heroin.
For months, Anna never seemed happier... always smiling, always happy. Then she got fired from her job for slacking so much. Sara seemed to immediately sense trouble. Cierra left on finding out she would no longer have easy access to her addiction. Sara watched her mother slowly decay alive. More and more appliances disappeared, more and more guys came over for short visits. One day Sara came home to find the TV gone. Though she had found so much relief in that school day,(it was her first kiss and she was 14) it was only temporary. Her world crashed in when she opened the door. everything was gone. Including her father. Her eyes watered up as she thought about how he said he'd never leave. She quickly wiped her eyes before a tear could drop and started dinner. She found two eggs in the fridge. That was all. She scrambled and cooked them.


Sara took the two scrambled eggs and brought them to her mother. Her mother was high again, but Sara offered the eggs. Anna told Sara to sit down. She started talking about what a beautiful women Sara was becoming. She stroked Sara's hair and stared into her eyes. Sara got up and tried to leave, but her mother held her back by her long hair. Sara told her mother to stop as she started to stroke her back and forced her head forward for a kiss. Sara snatched her hair away and ran from the room. The next day Sara had her second kiss (with a guy), for ten minutes. She wanted so badly to be distracted. When Sara got home that day, she closed the door, leaned up against it and cried. About ten minutes later, she heard the shattering of glass in her mother’s room. She rushed there to find it empty, a gaping hole where the window used to be. There was a note on the table that read:


im so sory
I owd yu so much beter... jus remember I lve u
when she felt alone and no one was around,
when she felt like all the chips were down
I was there...
she said I would always be there, and she wasn’t wrong
because when everyone had left her and even I was gone...
still, I was there...

Sara stayed in a rundown apartment that she paid for by working at a grocery store and Mcdonalds, until she was 17. She never broke up with her boyfriend (who had given her her first kiss) and when she was 17, he came and took her to his new apartment to live until he could afford a house for them both to live in.
Four years passed somewhat smoothly. But the war the country was in was growing. Eventually, the country had to resort to a most controversial strategy. The military draft. Sara was 4 months pregnant with her boyfriend Michael's child at the time. And they were engaged. A month passed and Sara worried more everyday. No matter what Michael did he could not console her. She couldn't avoid the idea of him leaving her and their coming child. The third month after the draft had started, Michael was called in. Reassured of her worries, Sara stayed in front of the TV watching the news. Everyday she saw the numbers of dead soldiers’ names roll across the bottom of the screen. Every night she cried herself to sleep. The birth date of her child got closer and closer.
One day, two months after Michael had been drafted, there was knock at the door. Michael had been killed in action. He had arranged for there to be a letter sent on event of his death. It said...

Sara, I'm sorry. I wish I could have seen our kid. It’s odd how things seem to play out. Your father died and your mother turned away from you. Well, I guess this is your chance to right her wrongs. Raise our child like I know you can Sara. I love you, and remember...
when you felt alone and no one was around,
when you felt like all the chips were down
I was there...
you said I would always be there, and you weren't wrong
because when everyone had left you and even I was gone...
still, I was there...
Sara clutched the letter to her chest and cried a deep, soul satisfying cry. Two weeks later, Sara delivered a baby girl. She named her Hope.


Hope grew up loved and happy, or as happy as she could be without her father. Sara always spoke highly of him though. From what Hope had heard his name was Michael and he had died in the military. Sara told stories about him every night along with a poem Sara had been told by Hope's grandfather. It went...
when she felt alone and no one was around,
when she felt like all the chips were down
I was there...
she said I would always be there, and she wasn’t wrong
because when everyone had left her and even I was gone...
still, I was there...
Hope was always worried for her mother, she was always sick. They were staying with Michael's family who had happily agreed to have them stay with them indefinitely. One day, when Sara was off work, she went to her room and locked her door. Then, she sat on her bed and thought about her old life. Being at home, alone, surrounded by syringes, hot plates, spoons, filth. Then she remembered her father, how he loved her so much. Then she thought about Michael, and all the small things he used to do for her. She smiled a tearful smile. Tears flowed as she thought about what she would never have again. Then there was a knock at the door. She heard a voice call her name. Light, cheery, girly, happy. "Mom!" And she smiled.
Four months later, Sara died of pneumonia. Hope was fourteen when her mother passed. She grew up living with her father's family, Michael's sister playing her role of an aunt. Hope went to med school and became a surgeon. She is now the best surgeon that hospital has ever had. And every time she treats a child, she reads them a poem that says...