"He used to walk home after a day like that, and Samira would be there. ... She has gone to school all of her life and has even left her home and gone to college. ... When Dee comes home she is with a man who her mother seems to think is her husband. ... Maggie was happy living at home where things were planned. ... Just like in Everyday Use when Maggie used that butter churn every day; is just like monkey see monkey do (Monkey Business) the way the man in the meat shop was trying to get Zizi to cut meat like him....

• Word Count: 1355
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

Theirs was a place that always felt like home. Lila didn't know a stranger, anyone was welcome in their home and would be treated as family. ... Nick worked at the butcher shop and did side jobs of shoeing horses. ... A trip to the barber shop to get your hair cut and then lunch at the diner that served hamburgers way bigger then my head. ...

• Word Count: 1602
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

Now that she thinks back about it she really wouldn't call it a home anymore. ... As she walked around the mall staring into shops, she sometimes ventured into a few. ... She hadn't had these since she was back home. ... She was alone, a fifteen year old without a home, sitting on a bench, in the middle of nowhere. ... She thought that running away was the only solution to get away from all the torment her parents had been putting her through at home. ...

• Word Count: 1577
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

I will be executed tomorrow. There is nothing - no excuses, no plea for forgiveness, no last minute stay of execution - that will help me escape this sentence of death. What I did was done with such malice, such cold-blooded intent, that even I find it hard to believe that I am capable of such bruta...

• Word Count: 1651
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

To express the warmth that flutters within you when beside a fire in a small home in Shilovka, with snow piling upon the windows, closing you in for the night, you feel for the first time the touch of your lover's hand. ... As we walked up from Columbus Circle we stopped at small coffee shop. ...

• Word Count: 1483
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School