Leeanna Litwack

April 23, 2015

8th English

Mount Vesuvius

Mother was crying. Usually I would be the one to cry, since I'm only eight. When I

hugged her she said, "Dear girl, if only you understood."

Her tears fell on my face as I looked up and asked, " Mother, may I go outside to play?"

"It's too dangerous." That was when I noticed the smell. Instead of the usual, hot air

mixed with the tartness of grapes, I smelled something burning. The acrid smoke accompanying

it stung my eyes. When I looked out the window, instead of fluffy white clouds, there was one

monstrous black cloud. It was moving faster than the fastest chariots toward us! That must be

why Mother said it was too dangerous. I wondered what was making it move so fast? There were

even small rocks, unbelievably, flying through it.

"Mother, what is that?" I asked as I pointed to the cloud.

"The mountain isn't a mountain."

"Then what is it?"

"I don't know, but it's blowing up!"

"Sh-shouldn't we leave then?" This was really scaring me. It reminded me of when Father

died, not being able to understand what was happening to me, except for that I would never get

to see him again.

My mother shrieked, "Why would we leave? There's nowhere to go anyway! Nowhere to

go!" After that she started to hyperventilate.

I may have been scared, but I needed to be brave for Mother. "Mother, it's okay. If we go

quickly we can get out of the city," I said as I grabbed her hand and tugged her toward the back

door. She didn't reply, but she did follow after me.

I charged through the door and ran dodging the cattle in the pen connected to the house,

but I tripped and fell taking Mother down with me, both of us getting grass cuts on our faces.

Suddenly a cow stepped on Mother's leg, which made a cracking noise. Mother screamed in

agony.

"Mother?" I asked as tears fell down both of our faces.

"Go!" She yelled.

"No!" I didn't want to leave her, I wanted to stay with her even if I died too. If only there

was a way we could both go

"If you want to live, leave! I can't go like this," she said, pointing to her now broken leg,

"You're going to have to leave without me. I can't support my weight on this leg and you're much

too small to help. If only your father was still with us!" The mention of him made her cry even

harder.

"But I don't care if I live!"

"You have to, do it for me and Father. Child, run to the edge of town and look for food,

shoes, and clothes. If you don't find any just leave the city and go to the south. There you will be

safer."

I reluctantly followed her request, feeling the salty tears sting the cuts on my face, I knew

I would regret this later some way or another. I left the yard, but not until after kissing her

forehead, squeezing her hand, and waving goodbye for the last time, then I was off.

Not long after leaving I knew why Mother told me to get shoes. My feet ached and I felt

as if I couldn't walk anymore, but I really needed to. I could feel sweat dripping off my forehead,

my breath was becoming shallow, and I couldn't take the pain in my feet another second, so I sat

down on the flattest boulder I saw near me. I found it odd that no one was passing by, even

though people should be evacuating. In the far distance I finally saw someone. I decided to

massage my sore feet until the person came.

He was tall and skinny, not just thin, but starved skinny! I guessed he was probably a

slave, but this was a life or death situation so I decided to take my chances and ask him for help

with my predicament. "Sir?"

He turned toward me, seemingly staring into my soul with ice blue eyes. "What?"

"My Mother sent me to go to a safer place, away from Vesuvius, and I was wondering if

you could help me?"

" Yes, but you have to promise that you won't tell anyone about this, though."

"What do you mean 'this'? We're about to die!"

"'This' is a Greek slave traveling with a Roman commoner. People would start making

assumptions, which always ends up with someone getting hurt or something. Usually the person

who gets hurt would be me, and I have quite a lot of experience with these things. One time my

master said I assaulted his wife, and I had to do community work for a month, which was

terrible! And another time"

I stopped listening a little bit after he started monologuing (in proportion to how much he

talked). "Wow, you really are Greek."

"I could easily tell that you were Roman. A little snob, you are."

"At least I don't talk for eons and I actually think about what will happen after death!"

"At least I don't have any comebacks," that made me smirk.

"A Greek at a loss for words? What a phenomenon. And to lose to a little girl, a Roman

little girl at that!"

"The black cloud will be catching up to us! We need to get over our differences and leave,

unless you want to die! I'm sorry for saying what I said."

"Me too. Now let's leave already, we have to go!" It was like he could sense my hunger.

"I know your hungry!" I scowled, but nodded, "Then let's go find some food."

That was the first time I had ever stolen anything. We found an abandoned house and

took bread from the pantry and bags to hold the bread. After we left with full bags I had to ask,

"You must have experience with that kind of stuff, being so stealthy, even when we knew the

owners had evacuated."

That made him blush, "Maybe I do."

"You just said you've stolen before, but we need to get away from the cloud quickly!" I

then came to the realization while walking away from the house and cloud that I didn't know his

name, "Hey, what's your name, anyway."

"Akakios."

"At least now I know you're not evil. I'm Petra."

"Your brain must be a rock."

"Shut up! I didn't pick my name, so you have no right to make fun of me because of it!"

"If we can make an actual truce then this can stop and we can go to safety without being

killed. You can easily see that the cloud was coming very quickly towards us and if we keep

walking at this pace much longer we will die!"

I stopped walking, spit on my hand, and put it out to shake, Akakios did the same. Then

we shook hands signifying that the truce had been made. "Let's go!" I yelled.

We ran as fast as humanly possible through the abandoned city while simultaneously

jumping hurdles. Then it happened: my toes caught on a box making my ankle twist and I

collapsed. Akakios, luckily, was behind me and saw everything. He ran to my aide and asked me

"What hurts?" Then assured me I was going to be okay. I knew he wasn't only saying that, but I

couldn't comprehend much given the pain in my swelling ankle. I just knew I was going to end

up like Mother, dead and covered with ashes. Of course I didn't want that to happen, but if

Akakios were to live it would only be because he left me.

"You have to go!"

"Wh-what?"

"Akakios, if you want to live, leave me."

"I could carry you on my back."

"No you can't, you're too weak, plus you have no connection to me other than that we met

in a dire situation of life and death. You can't feel bad about this anyway, we hate each other."

"That doesn't mean that you're not a little kid about to die!"

"I don't care if I die! Go!" And with that he ran. He didn't really care about me, after all,

he was just trying to be kind.

He was going to get away and live a long life after this, and I didn't care. I just wanted to

see Mother and Father. It was almost here, but before I inhaled the noxious gases, I prayed to

Jupiter for Akakios' safety.