I was in school. We were in the middle of our lesson when the alarms go off. I ran to go get Prim and she was sitting in her seat, waiting for me, like we always practiced it would go if this had ever happened. I grabbed her hand and pulled her out through the crowd hastily, to my mom. She told us to come to her and embraced us as she explained the fact that there had been a mine explosion. And then I made the connection...my dad had been in the mines. That's where he worked. I almost ran with my mom and Prim to the mines. I saw the mines and many families waiting for their loved ones to come free, and wishing I was one of those people who were crowded safely in their homes with their family beside them. "Dad!" I yelled as I ran toward the mines. Someone pushed me back and said it wasn't necessary, and they would get my dad out as soon as they could. I gave him the evil eyes that I always used, and then i tried to give him puppy dog eyes so that he would let me through. But he wouldn't budge. He didn't even look into my eyes the whole time...and if he had looked, he wouldn't have seen the real pain that I was feeling anyways, standing next to him. I went back to comfort my family. We sat there all night, and they gave us blankets as we waited in anticipation, hoping and wishing that my father could just burst free out of the mines and say that this was all a joke. But he never did. Even the hot chocolate that they gave us couldn't comfort our souls, or my dad's soul. The next morning, they came personally and told us that my father hadn't made it. My mother and Prim embraced each other and cried. I stood there with anger and hurt buried deep in my heart. I couldn't even react. But it took all I had not to collapse to the floor and scream his name. I was eleven...and I didn't have a dad anymore.
And I had to take over all of the jobs...because without me, we probably wouldn't have survived...and I'd be buried in the ground with my dad.
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