Separation

Max Sugarman

12/14/05

Block 1

Choice Writing

“Come inside for supper, Lars!” yelled Lettie, Lars’ mother. Lars entered the stone cottage and placed his gloves onto a rusted aluminum rack. Supper was bland, only chicken McNuggets and gelatin, but it was filling. He went to bed and stared out the window, wondering what lay beyond the toxic waste that kept them from the outside world.

Lars awoke to the sound of the town gong. He walked to the town plaza where the mayor was giving an announcement. Everyone was there, his best friend Lisa, the school bully Lloyd, even old Mrs. Aspen.

“Citizens of L.A.,” shouted the mayor in his baritone voice, ”We are pleased to announce that the Ceremony of Separation will occur exactly one week from now on Saturday the eighth. As you all well know, Separation is the time when the thirteen-year-olds that have survived childhood decide if they will leave L.A. and go to the outside, or stay here. This year I am proud to announce three thirteen-year-olds who have survived childhood: Lloyd Arai, Lisa Alvarez, and Lars Amundsun.” A cheer erupted from the crowd as the three teenagers were shoved on to the stage. “It is a small group this year (last year it was a record eight), but that doesn’t matter…” said the mayor with a grimace. “May the celebration begin!”

Now Lars had to make a decision; should he stay or should he go? His brother Lawrence had stayed in L.A. to help the city by being an ancient computer researcher. Sadly, while trying to retrieve data in the rubble surrounding the city, he was killed by electrocution. Lukas, his next-door neighbor had left the city hoping to come back with a savior. Sadly, he was never seen again, probably due to the radiation in the rubble. His parents had stayed and they were happy and he didn’t really know what happened to Lukas. Lars was split; he just couldn’t make a choice.

The next day Lars asked Lisa, “What are you going to do?”

Lisa took a deep breath and replied, “I think I’m going stay. I want to be a garbage-woman and clear away the mountain of toxic waste that encloses us from the outside. I would leave, but look at what happened to Lukas.”

Then out of the blue Lloyd shoved into their conversation.

“Hey four eyes,” sneered Lloyd, “I’m going to the outside. I bet that you just too scared to leave this stupid place.”

Before Lars could reply, Lloyd punched him in the face, crushed his glasses, spat at him, snickered, and ran away as fast as he had come.

On Monday Lars entered the tiny learning building for his daily lessons. His knowledge giver was not there; instead two of the ten L.A. council members were there. The class billboard was covered in an odd assortment of posters, fliers, and candy wrappers, all stapled onto the board and never taken down. Today, a poster was on the billboard.

“You see,” spoke a wide man who had a large moustache and a monocle, ”Separation is a decision between life and death. Go to the outside and you could be forced to eat chocolate or you may meet a hummingbird! Stay here and you can continue eating chicken McNuggets and gelatin dessert!”

Then a lady who was very thin and very tall said, “If you leave, you will have to cross the toxic waste! Stay here and become an official citizen of L.A., receiving smog every day!”

Lars had no idea what smog was, but one hundred years ago before the great earthquake, L.A. was known for “smog.” He assumed that smog was your paycheck or your bills, because that was all that his parents received from the government.

By Thursday, Lars had made his decision. He would stay. Who in L.A. would want to leave? Anyways, he didn’t want to go anywhere else with Lloyd. But he still was very curious about the outside. He really wanted to know if hummingbirds were truly dangerous flying lawnmowers or if chocolate was really a choking poison.

Using his unicycle, he reached the L.A. library by mid-afternoon. Inside, books lined the shelves on every topic. Many were found in the rubble, and most were in poor condition. New books were mostly opinions on why the world had decided to trap the citizens of L.A. by surrounding them with a mountain of radioactive rubble. There was no organization and it took him hours to find useful books. He found three encyclopedias that were about 100 years old, but they were coincidentally missing every letter except for L and A.

In frustration he kicked at the shelf in front of him causing a book to fall from the top shelf. It landed on a page about a place named Los Angeles. It wasn’t an encyclopedia, an atlas, or an almanac; the book was called Percy’s Trip to California. Lars learned that California is famous for gold, bridges, earthquakes, movies, and beaches. When he thought about the city called Los Angeles, he placed the pieces together and realized that he was in Los Angeles! He shouted, “Eureka!” and realized that he was extremely late for supper.

The morning of Separation, Lars ate his usual breakfast of chicken McNuggets and gelatin dessert. He slowly walked to the plaza and finally made his decision.

“Today is a solemn, yet joyous day. We have one child leaving and two staying to become citizens of the great city of L.A.!” pronounced the mayor. “It is now the time to Separate! Lloyd Arai!” shouted the mayor, “We will miss you and we give you our blessing on our journey. Lisa Alvarez! We gladly welcome you as a citizen of L.A. receiving smog every day!” Lisa smiled as she received her medallion of citizenship.

“Lars Amundsun!” screamed the mayor “We gladly wel-“

“I’m sorry, I can’t.” stuttered Lars as the crowd gasped. “I know the truth and I must leave.”

The crowd was now silent. Then the mayor broke the silence saying, “Well, this has never occurred before, but if that is your wish then we will miss you.” “Don’t I get a blessing?” Lars retorted.

“No, you have brought shame to our fair city by breaking our fair tradition of having only one thirteen-year-old leave. Go away!”

Even Lisa looked away, ashamed that Lars had broken tradition, but Lars remained stiff. “I will not let tradition decide who I am!”

Lars jumped off the stage and ran to the toxic waste that surrounded the city. He ran, not looking back, knowing that behind him was his pitiful city and ahead was hope. Crossing the mountain of toxic waste, Lars didn’t even care if the radiation killed him, and then he stopped. In front of Lars was a deer staring at him. They were on a grassy ridge that allowed him to see beautiful scenery for miles. Fields of flowers went on for miles along a small brook. The deer gracefully galloped away as Lars sat and stared in wonder. When he finally felt at peace with himself, he walked down the ridge where a man in an orange space suit was staring at Lars.

“It is time to go.” Said the man. Lars nodded unsure of what laid ahead. He was led to a red, white, and blue space shuttle with the letters U.S.A. written on them. He entered the shuttle, sat down, and buckled his seat belt. Then another person wearing a space suit with a nametag saying Lukas said, ”It’s time for supper Lars!” And on Lars’ tray was a chicken nugget in the shape of a hummingbird and gelatin with chocolate whipped cream.