After

This is just a little diddy I put together last year after reading Delirium, a dystopian novel by Lauren Oliver. It is a style completely out of my norm that I wanted to attempt. Enjoy!


Mirabelle woke to the shrill sound of the alarm screaming in her ears, just as she did every morning. She sighed, rolled on to her side and waited thirty seconds for the buzzing to stop. As soon as it did, she swung her feet off the bed onto the cold, cork floor. She made her bed carefully, leaving no visible creases, then grabbed her stack of clean clothes and made her way down the hall to the bathroom which, of course, was empty. She slipped out of her government issued night dress and pressed the shower button, slipping seamlessly into her morning regimen: wash hair, scrub body, rinse face. The water shut off after the allotted three minutes, at which time Mirabelle wrung out her long, auburn hair, dried off and put on her Monday outfit: white shirt, knee-length khaki skirt, red cardigan embellished slightly with a white ‘M’ on the right shoulder, underlined in one line each of grey and pink.
As soon as she dropped her night dress into the laundry chute, she raced down the stairs, hungry as she always was.
“Mirabelle, control yourself! Ladies walk, they do not tromp down stairs like young boys,” her mother crooned from the kitchen. As all mothers did, she had the ability to yell without raising her voice, because a lady never raises her voice.
“Yes, mother; I’m sorry,” Mirabelle responded, entering the kitchen and taking her seat for breakfast. Rumor had it that Before, when mother was a child, family members could have whatever they wanted for meals, they could even fix it themselves. But Mirabelle would never know if it was really true or not; mother refused to talk about it, and Mirabelle knew better than to bring it up.
“Your breakfast dear,” her mother said, wiping her hands on her apron. “Two egg whites, vanilla yogurt with granola and a serving of blueberries; enjoy!”
After eating her mostly bland breakfast, Mirabelle gathered her school bag and headed out on her daily walk to school. She saw other students on her way, making sure to wave cordially as was expected. Upon entering the school building, Mirabelle made her way to her locker-cube and set up for the day.