Short Story (2000 words)

Barni Nuur
6th Period English 2
Short Story
May.9.14

​Thomas sits in the diner thinking about his thirty-seven years of life. He looks at his coffee that was starting to get cold, and wonder what would have happened if he had come back earlier. “Here’s your sandwich, sir”, hesitantly said the waiter. Everyone was careful when they spoke to Thomas because after the death of his wife, he wasn’t the same again. It was especially hard on him because she passed away right before he came back from the war. He was extremely excited to tell her that he was going to retire, because she always complained to him about how much she disliked him being gone.

​Thomas grabs his sandwich, forcefully biting into it as if it had done him harm. Everyone in the diner watched his every move. They watched him blink, they watched him talk to himself, and sometimes even saw tears coming down his eyes. It was a small town they lived in, and everybody knew everybody. For some people, it was a job to gossip about everything that happened, even the tragic car accident that killed Thomas’s wife.

​Everyone loved seeing Thomas and Anna together. They were so young and vibrant, always smiling and holding hands. He always talked highly of her, though to everyone she was just a schoolteacher, and she was always boasting about how brave he was. Thomas was a real gentleman. He was always thinking about everyone else before him, especially with Anna. When they first got married, he bought her the most beautiful and expensive pearl necklace that anyone in town has ever seen. She wore it with her everywhere she went, and at the scene of the car crash, people saw beads scattered around the road near her lifeless body.
After Anna's death, Thomas was never the same. He stopped smiling, laughing, and even arguing with people about politics, which he loved to do. When Anna left, she took his heart attack with her, or at least that's how Thomas saw it. He stopped taking care of himself, and only ate unhealthy and greasy food from the local diner. It was shocking to see someone who cared so much about their appearances, become the way Thomas became.
The young waiter slowly walked towards Thomas to take his plate.
"Would you care for anything else sir?" said the waiter nicely.
Thomas just looked directly into the waiter's eyes and abruptly pushed his coffee cup right next to the waiter. Everyone looked on to see if the waiter was making a face. He only looked at his hand, where there was a few drops of coffee on his hand. He wiped it off on his apron.
"I'll get you another cup, sir." He said as he was walking away only looking directly ahead of him.
Everyone wasn't surprised with the young waiter's response. His name was Jacob, and Jacob was pushed around by people him whole life. In school when he was bullied for not being muscular or athletic, in college for being too smart and keeping to himself all the time, and at work. Old ladies would pinch his cheeks, teenagers would laugh at him talking about how they never wanted to be like him, and everyone teased him.

Thomas didn't know Jacob very well, sometimes when he would be walking down he street and they would see each other, they would just look and nod at each other. Every time Anna and Thomas would walk together, Anna would say "Hey, hun'", and wink while she smiled. Thomas wouldn't care. It's not like Jacob was better or stronger than him. He was no threat at all.

It was starting to get around dinner time at the diner and this was Thomas's least favorite time of the day. He would see happy families shares food and laughing while the parents would look into each other's eyes and if everyone in the diner looked, they could see how much they loved each other, and loved their lives together. The only person who would actually pay attention to this, would be Thomas. He saw himself and Anna in that happy couple. He saw the dream of having a beautiful family with Anna in the couples kids. Overall he saw happiness that he could never have again all because of a reckless driver.

Thomas also hated dinner time because of Daniel. Daniel was one of the only people in the town who didn't care about what anyone thought about him, and anyone could tell by his appearance. He always had the same clothing on, and everyday he wore it, it was more torn and smelly. His favorite hobby was to get drunk and high, so he always smelled of booze and was laughing out loud and running around the diner. No one ever said anything because they all knew he could be very dangerous. So when he would make a little kid cry or inappropriately touch a waitress, everyone just looked at each other and looked down afterwards.

Daniel and Thomas never spoke, mostly because Daniel would never bother Anna. She was one of the most beautiful girls in the town and every man, and most boys would look at her as she walked. Daniel, on the other hand, would never seem to care about Anna at all, she never seemed to care. And every time Thomas talked about how gross and annoying Daniel was, Anna just told him that talking about people isn't the right thing to do, and that he is just an innocent man. Thomas always shook it off. Anna's favorite thing to do was to gossip, but when Thomas said the name Daniel, she would shut him up as quickly as she could.
"Are you up for any dinner, sir?" said a waitress.

Her smile seemed to be the biggest smile Thomas ever saw, and she had pounds of make-up on. "Sir, we also have a great selection of dessert for you to choose from." she said winking.

Thomas just stared at her as she blinked. She was wearing long fake eyelashes and every time she blinked it looked like it hurt.
"At least she wasn't like you." whispered Thomas to himself.

"What was that?" she said looking confused.

"Cake." said Thomas who was looking at his hand.

"We have many---"

"Cake." Thomas said abruptly.
                                                             ……..
Its 6:00 in the evening and Jacob was taking out the trash. Even though he did that everyday, he looked differently this time. He was stepping on the ground harder, was looking on the group, and mumbling to himself. He looked really angry and nervous. Once he got to the dumpster and threw the trash in there, he stood there are waited. He was nervously looking around like a boy waiting for a girl on their first date. Finally he heard footsteps, but unlike the boy waiting for his date, he wasn’t excited. Instead, he took a deep breath and walked towards the footsteps.
“There was no reason for you to go that far.” said an enraged Jacob.
It was hard for Jacob to speak to someone that way because he was always used to people speaking to him in that way.
“You don’t know what she deserved.” said the large figure that completely stepped out of the dark. “You’re lucky that it happened quickly.”
“You’re lucky that I’m the only one who knows” said Jacob with a smirk.
The shadow stays silent for a couple seconds and then suddenly grabs Jacob from the throat and pins him against the graffiti filled wall.

Old money, New Money, and Everything Else (Blog #8)

In The Great Gatsby , the setting is split into three settings, West Egg, which is for new money, East Egg which is for old money, and basically everywhere else, is for everyone else.

West Egg, known as the home for new money which means people who actually worked for their money. If their parents have money, they choose not use it like Nick Carraway. A lot isn't known about some of them, like Jay Gatsby, but he makes up for it by throwing over the top parties, that everyone attends.

East Egg, known as the home for old money which means people who have inherited money from their family, and were born into money. People like Daisy and Tom Buchanan. People from East Egg look down upon people who live in West Egg, no matter how much money each have.

Other than the when and how they got their money, there are quite a few differences between people from West Egg and East Egg.  Jay Gatsby, who seems to be the only person in the book is truly new money, seems to feel like money is needed to be happy. He throws huge parties, hosting them with people he mostly doesn't know, buying them presents, all to impress Daisy. He goes to a lot of trouble  and uses a lot of money, to get Daisy. To him, being with Daisy again, he will finally be happy, and the can happily live together with his perfect house, and great shirts. People who live in West Egg however, have been used to a lot of money, even though they own a lot of  fancy, valuable possessions, they don't go to great lengths buying things to impress or show off to people. This is probably because everyone knows their names, and families, so they don't need to prove anything, unlike Gatsby, who has to because people assume things about him, like he killed someone, as well as other things. Also, people from West Egg are more social and outgoing because they want to meet more people, unlike East Egg residents, who are secluded, and have a few friends.