Katherine James

“Katherine James,” my mother calls from the other side of the hallway. When I hear her call my name I say,”Coming mother, just one second.” Thats me, Katherine James, I am 14 years old. I live with my mother, Aurinda and father, Connor James, who are from England, and my younger sister Eliza. Eliza and I were born in an upperclass family. Our parents put me and eventually Eliza in the Dame School, because that was the only school that upper class girls were allowed to go to. My role in the family is to wake up before the sun comes up to attend school. When I am home I see my mother and Eliza, but I don’t see my dad because his job takes up most of his time. When school is over I have to rush back home and take care of my sister so my mother can go weave and overlook the cooking and cleaning.

My day begins when I hear church bells at 6:30 a.m. That’s when I get out of bed and put on the clothes that my servant Martha has laid out for me. After Martha helps me get dressed, she leads me downstairs to the kitchen where my breakfast is waiting for me. As I enter the room I can smell the familiar scent of cinnamon. I don’t know exactly what it smells like, but it has a unique smell compared to the other spices I’ve had. Every morning Martha pours me a fresh glass of milk, some type of oats and a bowl of fruit. I can see the white glass of milk sitting right above the knife, the bowl of fruit above my fork and my oats in the center of the tan placemat. As I get ready to put my fork into the bowl of fruit I can see green, orange and red fruits mixed up making the colors stand out from one another.  When I am at the table Martha asks me either what I dreamt or what my homework was.

When I am finally done, Martha and I go to the bathroom so I can wash my face with cold fresh water. After I am done in the bathroom I go to the front door where Martha comes and says good-bye. I put on my jacket, shoes and backpack. As I get ready for school I always say, “Martha, make sure that mother knows that I will see her after school to take care of Eliza.” Then Martha says, “Yes Katherine, I will make sure that your mother knows.” As we talk to each other I am half way down the stairs when we both finally say, “Good-bye.” Then I am off to school. Along the way I meet my friends, Jason, Abigail, Mary and Jonathan. As I walk with them to school I see the beautiful sunny fall morning. The leaves are yellow, red and orange and are falling one by one. As I get closer to school I can see more of my friends. As I walk down each street it feels like brisk cool air with a touch of warmth from the sun touching my face. When I am one block from the school I can see the chocolate colored old bricks start to chip off. I can hear children talking among themselves.

My role in being apart of my family is really important to my family because my mother always wanted a girl of her own to keep her company and to take care of while father worked all day being a lawyer. Another reason that I am important to my family is because recently my mother had another child named Eliza who was a big whiner. Mother would stay up really late trying to put her to sleep so finally when I was 12 years old I asked, “Mother, could I take care of Eliza after I get back from school? And then she said, “That would be really helpful sweetie, because I have been in a lot of stress lately.” Since then I have been taking care of baby Eliza, mother has been less stressed out and has been more relaxed.