Categories > Celebrities > My Chemical Romance > Our Time Is Running Out
"I have questions you have promised to answer," Gerard said slowly. Frank stared at Gerard with his hazel eyes.
"What do you want to know?"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Everything. Tell me about your life and how happiness felt," Gerard decided to answer. He was very curious to finally hear how life had been once upon a time. Frank licked his dry lips as he got ready to speak.
"I was born October 31th 1881 in New Jersey, screaming and covered in blood like all infants are. My first years of living me and my parents lived in a big farm which we were running. Mum milked the cows, made cheese, took care of the animals, sew clothes out of pieces of fabric and leather and spread seeds onto our big cropland. Dad took care of the heavier things like carrying big sacks of hay for the animals. He also harvested the crops in the fall and drove them in a wagon which our kindest horse Patsy pulled.
Dad sold the crops at a big annual market in the city closest to us. It took him four days to drive the wagon to the city and back so it was always a happy occasion when he got home.
He often brought me a small brown paper bunt filled with sweets which I so happily sucked on.
The amount of money we got there at the market was practically what we could spend and had to economise with the following year.
As you probably can understand that kind of life didn't fill our wallets but we were happy.
Me, mum and dad could manage to survive by making most of the things we ate and wore. We couldn't afford anything else though and that meant that I couldn't go to school like some of the other children did.
No one thought it was necessary as they all thought that I was going to grow up to be a farmer just like my parents. Then all I had to learn was right where I lived and not in some classroom.
You asked about happiness? It's hard to describe for a person that has never had the privilege to feel it.
Have you ever seen a stream so bubbly and full of life that you could practically hear the water speak? That's how it feels like in your body. Feverishly hot and everything seems to fall into place for a brief moment.
Happiness is the feeling of safety and love.
Laughter is another thing I adored. It's the way your soul sings.
1890, when I was nine something happened which rocked my safe world filled with routines. Mum was about to deliver another baby since she had gotten pregnant again but died. The baby died too.
Dad and I couldn't keep the farm running without her. She had just been too important and dad was so sad about losing her that he couldn't work as hard. Our source of money was cut and we didn't know what to do.
Dad eventually sold our farm and we were forced to move to the city where the jobs were. Because of the industrial revolution work in big factories was basically everything the society could offer you. Urbanisation had forced most of the people to move towards the cities and the places were overpopulated.
We moved to a tiny apartment in the middle of the city and dad started working in a factory which was producing weapons. He stood ten hours every day and watched the machines to make sure that everything was OK.
My world was turned upside down. Now the springs weren't about sticking seeds into soil. Now the summers weren't about picking berries. Now the falls weren't about harvesting crops. Now the winters weren't about getting firewoods to feed the warming fire with.
Now we simply had to work in our grey environment to survive every day of the year.
Even if I was a young boy, far too young to work, I had to get a job. I started delivering newspaper on rich people's doorsteps for a couple of coins every week. I also took the job of helping a local butcher out in his shop.
Our money still didn't seem to be enough and we had a hard time getting food on the table. I couldn't take another job and my dad certainly couldn't either.
It was kind of an evil spiral since we couldn't afford sending me to a school and without education I wouldn't be able to get a good job.
That was until I fell in love with a rich man's daughter. One day when I was sixteen years old I ran to deliver a newspaper to a big house in the outer corner of the city. Even if it was very early in the day she stood outside and watched me come running with the paper in my hand.
Anna-Belle. She was such a beautiful woman and I couldn't help but fall in love with her. I could literally drown in her mysterious eyes and the smell of her honey hair still haunts me.
Anna-Belle and I met every morning and soon she started falling for me too but it was a forbidden and dangerous romance. Her rich and powerful father would never let his pretty little daughter be together with a stray like me.
That didn't scare us though and our love grew stronger.
One day Anna-Belle stole a great amount of money from her family and we, her and I, ran away together. Before leaving the city I made sure to leave enough money for my dad to get himself a better life.
Me and Anna-Belle ran to New York, the city where dreams came true. There we lived in peace until year 1900.
I was nineteen when the big cloud arrived and sucked happiness out of earth..."
"What do you want to know?"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Everything. Tell me about your life and how happiness felt," Gerard decided to answer. He was very curious to finally hear how life had been once upon a time. Frank licked his dry lips as he got ready to speak.
"I was born October 31th 1881 in New Jersey, screaming and covered in blood like all infants are. My first years of living me and my parents lived in a big farm which we were running. Mum milked the cows, made cheese, took care of the animals, sew clothes out of pieces of fabric and leather and spread seeds onto our big cropland. Dad took care of the heavier things like carrying big sacks of hay for the animals. He also harvested the crops in the fall and drove them in a wagon which our kindest horse Patsy pulled.
Dad sold the crops at a big annual market in the city closest to us. It took him four days to drive the wagon to the city and back so it was always a happy occasion when he got home.
He often brought me a small brown paper bunt filled with sweets which I so happily sucked on.
The amount of money we got there at the market was practically what we could spend and had to economise with the following year.
As you probably can understand that kind of life didn't fill our wallets but we were happy.
Me, mum and dad could manage to survive by making most of the things we ate and wore. We couldn't afford anything else though and that meant that I couldn't go to school like some of the other children did.
No one thought it was necessary as they all thought that I was going to grow up to be a farmer just like my parents. Then all I had to learn was right where I lived and not in some classroom.
You asked about happiness? It's hard to describe for a person that has never had the privilege to feel it.
Have you ever seen a stream so bubbly and full of life that you could practically hear the water speak? That's how it feels like in your body. Feverishly hot and everything seems to fall into place for a brief moment.
Happiness is the feeling of safety and love.
Laughter is another thing I adored. It's the way your soul sings.
1890, when I was nine something happened which rocked my safe world filled with routines. Mum was about to deliver another baby since she had gotten pregnant again but died. The baby died too.
Dad and I couldn't keep the farm running without her. She had just been too important and dad was so sad about losing her that he couldn't work as hard. Our source of money was cut and we didn't know what to do.
Dad eventually sold our farm and we were forced to move to the city where the jobs were. Because of the industrial revolution work in big factories was basically everything the society could offer you. Urbanisation had forced most of the people to move towards the cities and the places were overpopulated.
We moved to a tiny apartment in the middle of the city and dad started working in a factory which was producing weapons. He stood ten hours every day and watched the machines to make sure that everything was OK.
My world was turned upside down. Now the springs weren't about sticking seeds into soil. Now the summers weren't about picking berries. Now the falls weren't about harvesting crops. Now the winters weren't about getting firewoods to feed the warming fire with.
Now we simply had to work in our grey environment to survive every day of the year.
Even if I was a young boy, far too young to work, I had to get a job. I started delivering newspaper on rich people's doorsteps for a couple of coins every week. I also took the job of helping a local butcher out in his shop.
Our money still didn't seem to be enough and we had a hard time getting food on the table. I couldn't take another job and my dad certainly couldn't either.
It was kind of an evil spiral since we couldn't afford sending me to a school and without education I wouldn't be able to get a good job.
That was until I fell in love with a rich man's daughter. One day when I was sixteen years old I ran to deliver a newspaper to a big house in the outer corner of the city. Even if it was very early in the day she stood outside and watched me come running with the paper in my hand.
Anna-Belle. She was such a beautiful woman and I couldn't help but fall in love with her. I could literally drown in her mysterious eyes and the smell of her honey hair still haunts me.
Anna-Belle and I met every morning and soon she started falling for me too but it was a forbidden and dangerous romance. Her rich and powerful father would never let his pretty little daughter be together with a stray like me.
That didn't scare us though and our love grew stronger.
One day Anna-Belle stole a great amount of money from her family and we, her and I, ran away together. Before leaving the city I made sure to leave enough money for my dad to get himself a better life.
Me and Anna-Belle ran to New York, the city where dreams came true. There we lived in peace until year 1900.
I was nineteen when the big cloud arrived and sucked happiness out of earth..."
Sign up to rate and review this story