"The Good Life" by Jocelyn L.

According to the United Nations Children's Fund, more than 70 percent of almost 11 million child deaths every year are attributable to six causes: diarrhea, malaria, neonatal infection, pneumonia, preterm delivery, or lack of oxygen at birth. Some of the deaths occur from illnesses like measles, malaria or tetanus. Others result indirectly from marginalization, conflict and HIV/AIDS.  Malnutrition and the lack of safe water and sanitation contribute to half of all these children’s deaths. But disease isn’t inevitable, nor do children with these diseases need to die. We can be the change by donating to organizations such as the United Children’s Fund to stop these deaths from occurring.                                          

She was a pretty little girl six years of age who lived a good life.  She had an emaciated face that consisted of sunken cheeks and bulging eyes popping out of her head.  Her brittle unnourished bones showed through the folds of her skin. Her black hair was very thin from her untreated lice. She had a great tan; her skin tone two shades darker from the residue of dirt on her body. She had a beautiful smile only missing the top row of her teeth from the rotting cavities. She lived a good life.

She had wonderful pets: mosquitos and spiders. Sometimes she witnessed an appearance from a diseased rodent. She liked to play with her little girl toys: a broken beer bottle and a rusted razor blade knife.  If she was not playing with her toys, she often went and ran outside. The piercing rocks on the bottom of her feet made her run faster and afterwards only some bleeding.  She lived a good life.

Dinnertime was the best part of the day, a game. The game was called “will I eat today.” She went to the junkyard and found dried bone marrow or maggot infested apples. She usually wipes the maggots off the apple.  After all, maggots don’t really affect the taste. Many days there will be nothing to eat. Most cases she concludes she did not need anything. She then goes to the puddles of water left after the rain, and drinks bacterial water. To her, the water had a wonderful taste. She lived a good life.

She wore fashionable designer clothes. Her shirts were tattered with moth eaten holes and so were her pants, now shorts. During the wintertime she endured the harsh cold with only a dim fire to keep her warm.  Her shoes were open toed and open sole it felt as if she didn’t have any on at all. Her undergarments were the finest rags or old shirts found in the junk yard. She lived a good life.

She was fatherless and told that her father took a trip and would never return home. Her mother was pregnant for quite some time and finally bore her second daughter into the world. The baby was abnormally small and weak, but a pleasant sight to all. The little girl was elated she had a sister and was no longer alone. She had someone to play with now. She lived a good life.

 Two days later the little girl died in the afternoon of Malaria. She lived a good life. Now her sister will too. The cycle continues.