Our Side of the Mountain

an old lady and a girl

A Lesson to Live By

Sally Miller is a young teenage girl who has lived with her grandmother, Sandra, for the last five years to make a better live for her self.

One day she met this older boy at Bobby’s Meat Shop. He works there cleaning up part time. He asked Sally out for a date on Saturday night to the movies. “Give me your number and I will call you,” asked Keith.

She said, “I will ask my grandmother can I go.”

She asked her grandmother if she could go. Her grandmother said, “No! He’s too old for you!”

Sally went up to her room and slammed her door and cried. She thought to herself, “I am going if she likes it or not.” That night Keith called Sally at 9 o’clock. He asked her, “ Are you allowed to go?”

“Yes, I am allowed to go. Pick me up at Bobby’s Meat Shop at 6 o’clock ok? Bye.”

It’s Saturday. Sally went down to the meat shop to wait for Keith. He picked her up and off they went to the movies. He said, “I know somewhere we can go instead of the movies. Let’s go up to Blueberry Hill. My friends are going to be up there and we can drink some rum.”

Sally said, “I told my grandmother we were going to the movies.” Sally got very scared and told Keith, “I want to go home right now!”

He said, “ No, you are going up there like it or not!” Sally tried to jump out of a speeding car. He lost control of the wheel and the car crashed into a tree. Sally was very hurt but she managed to get away from him. She got to the top of the road and a nice woman picked her up and took her to the hospital.

She called her grandmother from the hospital and told her what had happened to her and said, “I’m scared and I’m sorry for what I have done. Will you ever for give me?” Sally started to cry.

Her grandmother came to see her and said, “I will always love you because you are all I have. Thank God you are all right.”

Robert Burke