homework

If you couldn't tell by the title, this is a homework assignment.  We were supposed to start a new story that began with the last line on an old story that we wrote.  So that's what I did.  The old story was not pleasing to me, I just did what I had to do.  But it was a dialogue between a woman being released from prison and the officer releasing her.  It sucked and I just did it so I would get credit.  It ended with the line, "Well alright, bye."  Which is where this one takes off.  I wrote it in about twenty minutes and didn't really read over it once I finished it, so feel free to take out that red pen and mark it up where I used incorrect punctuation or spelled a work incorrectly.

“Well alright, bye.”  She said as she took her first step toward the door.  She never looked back, she just walked right out through the door and immediately embraced her renewed freedom.  She stopped on the sidewalk and looked around.  Her new surroundings were vastly different from the prison cell that she had spent the last twenty years in.  To her left, where her bunk would have been, she found a bustling street filled with people.  To her right, where there was nothing but a cinder block wall, she saw a museum, filled with beautiful paintings and sculptures.  And the most profound difference was directly above her.  Where there was only dull gray cement ceiling in her cell, she could see the infinite sky, clear and blue.  

She stood there, outside of the prison doors for several minutes, just listening to the sounds of the city.  The sounds that she dreamt of while in captivity.  She stood there, listening, and looking.  Staring at the sky, watching the birds soaring effortlessly.  She followed one with her eyes for as long as she could see it.  She watched the way it flew around, looking for a good tree branch to land on where it could find some plump insects to lunch on.  She watched the way it landed on the branch; swooping down while in flight, approaching the branch with speed, then flapping it's wings backward to slow down causing it to hoover for an instant before setting down onto the chosen branch.  She marveled at the delicate grace of the little blackbird and watched it until it flew away.

She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath.  She focused on the air  she was breathing and felt it travel through her body filling her lungs wholly.  The air was hers, the world was hers, she was free.  She held the air in for a few seconds and then slowly released it back into the atmosphere.  She pretended that she could see her exhaled breath leaving her body and traveling upward into the sky.  It moved lightly, higher and higher until it reached as high as the tallest building.  She saw it stop and turn around, her breath came back down to her and told her, “Thank you, thank you for releasing me.”  It floated away again and dissipated into a million particles that mingled with the rest of the air.

She began to walk down the sidewalk, the world was new, all was fresh.  Liberated and free she strode along the bustling sidewalk and disappeared among the millions of people that she now shared the city with.