A Little Life

Hayes T. - 8th grade

“I woke up on my fifteenth birthDAY, and the realization of how close I was to the bottom of the room!”

We live in constant fear, terrified for our lives. First, it was my mother, but we knew it would eventually happen to all of us. We just didn’t expect it to be so soon. By the time I was thirteen, I had lost my whole family.

I avoided making new friends, as I knew they would be taken from me eventually. I figured I could save myself from the heartache. We lived in an overcrowded room. All of us piled on top of each other, never a single moment of privacy. Truthfully, I was almost excited for my time to finally come, even though it meant a long, drawn-out, painful death. 

I woke up on my fifteenth birthDAY, and the realization of how close I was to the bottom of the room. I looked out through the walls, constructed of clear unbreakable glass. I saw one of them walking towards us. I heard others around me growing frantic, knowing what was soon to come. 

I was not going to be in the first round, but I was nearly guaranteed to be in the second or third. I watched as they came up, holding the silver scoop of death. They held it underneath our room, and the screams began. I had to look away as innocent lives were ground up right in front of me. Then they slammed the metal press onto the remains, molding us into one big block. 

They took it over to the big silver machine, where the part takes place. I looked away as the grounds were doused with boiling water. My friends' liquid remains dripped into a cup and were sold so that they could profit. 

The life of a coffee bean.