Fairmont: An Experience That Changed My Life

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You never forget the feeling. Fear. Desperation. Loneliness. It never fades from your mind. You wake up and regret. You sleep and your dreams remind you of it all. Then you wake and regret it some more. It haunts you daily and no matter how much you beg and plea for forgiveness, it comes back. This is how I feel when I think of Sayla May. Fairmont was a pretty hard place to live. The streets where about as dirty as the felons who resided there. I guess you could say I lived in the ghetto. I never really saw it as such because I hadn’t known any other way. My daddy died in 1999. Cancer is what momma says. The streets say different. When Daddy passed I was two years old. Daddy stayed out late most nights, but others he was home and asleep. …show more content…

I often heard momma sing this song as she cleaned the dishes. I never understood much of what Momma talked about but I knew if momma said it. It was important. I was a good singer. I even sang in the church one Sunday. Hearing momma sing those old Negro spirituals really took a toll on me. They were hard to get out of your head but even harder to get them out of your heart. I stepped back off the road when I heard the squeaky buss tired coming up the road. I was normally the last kid they picked up, so I always had to sit right behind the bus driver. While all the other kid yelled and laughed quietly sang the rest of wade in the water. It helped relax me... Singing those Negro spirituals reminded me times could be tougher then what they was. The bus slowed to a stop infront of a house I had never before seen. The yard was big as surrounded by an iron gate that said, “May” on the front. The white paint that swallowed the house seemed as if Picasso himself had painted …show more content…

She was beautiful. Her perfect piggy tales hung down over her lacy pink dress she wore perfectly. She was like the girls you see in the ads for toys. Trying not to stare I looked out if the window not noticing her eyes on me. I looked at her questioningly. “May I sit with you?” The question completely slipped my mind. All the kids on the bus stared as she ignored the need for permission and sat down. Even the bus driver raised a brow but biting his tongue kept driving. “What is your name?” she asked. I looked at her confused as if she was talking to me. “I’m Shayla,” she interrupted the silence,” Shayla May.” She put her hand out and I just stared at it. “I’m not going to bite,” she said as if she was joking, but in a way it was serious. “My name is Jwavar Jersey, but momma called me JAY.” I said trying not to be rude. After trying to say my name she looked at me and proudly, ‘Jersey it is.” After a minute or two of silence she began to hum, “Wade in the Water.” Without knowing I began to sing along. Her eyes glow big as she stared at me. “JERSEY CAN SING!” she shouted. I crunched at all the stares and blushed. “Not a lot.” I replied trying not to show how good it made me feel to know somebody was happy with

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