Linda stared at the TV, blasting her favorite show, I Love Lucy, engrossed in the new episode where Lucy and Ethel get a job at a chocolate factory to prove to their husbands that they can work. As they shoved chocolates into their mouths, Linda’s brother, (James) came into the room.

“Why do you watch this Linda? It’s so stupid!” James muttered while grabbing the remote and switching to the Yankees game.

“Hey! I was watching that! Give me the remote now!” Linda screeched, jumping for the remote but missing.

Linda and James’ father traipsed in and hissed at the two of them when he saw them jumping all over each other. “You better knock this off right now! Linda- let the Yankees be and go help your mother with dinner!”

Linda got up off the couch and stomped away solemnly to the kitchen. Why do I have to help cook dinner? James and Dad are watching TV while Mom and I have to cook dinner! She took her Mothers “famous” chicken pot pie out of the oven and set it on the table.

“Linda, get the lemonade out of the fridge and put it on the table and go get David out of his crib, please” Her mother, Mary pleaded. Linda’s mother was one of those people that made you just want to savor every memory with because she could brighten up your day with just a smile. She looked the same everyday, a floral dress, pearls, and usually an apron.

Linda set the lemonade down on the table and walked up the stairs to retrieve her little brother out of his crib. She found him chewing on his trinket, all she could hear is “choo choo”. She grabbed him out of the wooden crib and brought him downstairs to place him in his high-chair.

“ My school play is tomorrow- is everyone going?” Linda murmured knowing that no one would hear her.

“The bank is staying open late tomorrow night so I can’t go.” barked Linda’s father. Her father was indecipherable, you never knew what he would say next and most of the time, the words that came out of his mouth were caustic.

“I can’t go- baseball; you know?” James spoke

“David and I wouldn’t miss it for the world!” Her mother laughed while feeding David his mashed up baby food.

Linda cracked a smile between bites because someone could make her play and see her preform.

Linda finished her meal and went upstairs to her room to finish her homework. Her room was in the attic as there were only three bedrooms but four children. As a result, her father built her a room up in the attic(but didn’t do a very good job). The floorboards creaked, it looked like a treehouse from the inside, and was so eerie that her mother wouldn’t step foot in her room because she thought she was going to fall through the floor and into the kitchen below. Linda was happy for it though; it was her own- a place she could escape from her family. She knew it was haltingly and that it was pretty disgusting to look at, but she had made it her own. She had put up posters of James Stewart and Lucille Ball (both her favorite movie stars) that she bought at the corner store with her small pittance.

“Linda! Time for bed! Goodnight!” Linda’s mother yelled from the bottom of the stairs

“Goodnight mother!” Linda called back down

As Linda curled up in her bed in her bed, she thought of her play tomorrow and realized that she had never told her parents that she was the lead the play. The play was Romeo and Juliet and Linda had been casted as Juliet. I will definitely tell them tomorrow morning before school. Mom will listen. Linda promised herself as she drifted off to sleep.



The next morning Linda went down to the breakfast table and sat down with her pancakes, already made by her mom.

“Mom, did I ever tell-” Linda started to ask but was interrupted by David boisterously bawling out of nowhere.

“Hold on sweetie!” Mary, her mother, shouted over the perennial.

Knowing that her mom would not be able to calm David down before she had to go to school she rolled her eyes and walked to the bus stop.

School dragged through the day, each period Linda’s nerves escalated so by the end of the day, she wanted to through up. After school they ran through the play twice and Linda did not mess up once. As she was gearing up in Shakespeare attire, Linda’s English teacher and the director, Ms. Kelly, pulled her aside.

“Linda, your mother just called me to tell you that she will not be able to make it, your brother came down with a fever and can’t leave the house. She says she is very sorry. Is anyone else coming to watch you?” Ms. Kelly questioned.

“Of course someone else is coming, I am the lead, right?” Linda lied “I better finish my make-up”

Linda ran to the bathroom and locked the door behind her, stared at herself in the mirror, and bawled. No one? Really? I cannot believe this, no one to hug me or extol me after my performance?

“Everyone front and center!” Linda could hear Ms. Kelly yell.

Linda attempted to fix the make-up that had disintegrated from her tears and joined the human circle that surrounded Ms. Kelly.

“Okay, people! It’s showtime. I have been informed that a scout from an acting agency is out in the audience looking for a high school teen for a new TV show! Do let this worry you! You are all amazing- break a leg! Places people!”

Linda stood in her spot, front and center, and acted like it was nobody’s business. Throughout the play, Linda noticed a man in a gray suit casting weird looks at her. After the play, Linda changed into her favorite floral dress- it was black with pink and red flowers, a little decrepit at the end, but it made her happy. As she was walking the hallway to the front of her high school, a man stopped her. Linda knew this was the same man that was looking at her in the audience. His gray suit was pristine, (unlike her fathers which was permanently stained by some of David’s spit-up on the shoulder), his black-as-pitch shoes sparkled, and his black hair was swept back from his face.

“Hello miss, Linda, right? I am Robert McClain, and I want you to be in the upcoming show- Happy Memories.” Robert spoke so fast Linda had a hard time keeping up.

“You really want me? In Hollywood? On a TV show?” Linda asked, flabbergasted by the thought of being on TV.

“I know there are not a lot of women on TV, let alone teen ones, but you were amazing! You invigorated new life on that stage! Here is my card. My company will pay for everything- housing, flights, wardrobe. Think about it, I will be here until Sunday, give me a call before then.” Robert answered eloquently.

“Ok, I will, I will talk to my parents, thank you. I really need to go, my mother will start to worry, thank you again have a nice day.”

“Remember this is your chance to shine like the star you are!” Robert yelled as Linda began her walk home. Someone wants me, someone noticed me. I have to go, I could be as famous as Marilyn Monroe! Whatever Mom and Dad say, I am going!

When Linda walked into the house her mother and James were on the couch discussing something but stopped when Linda walked in.

“Hi mom, how’s David?”

“His fever finally broke, he is up in his crib napping, he has had a long day.”

“Is something wrong? You and James look worried, Mom looks like she’s been crying- it’s beginning to scare me.”

“Honey, you learned about the Korean War thats going on now right, well your brother...” Linda’s mother stared to bawl “He is... drafted into the army.”

“James!” Linda screeched “You can’t! No!”
Linda ran over and hugged her now standing brother.”?
“Linda, Mom, it will be okay, I can do it! I promise I will be okay, I am not ethereal, I can take some torment, I’m a touch guy- not a mickey mouse!”

“Promise me- James I swear to God- promise me that you will do everything in your power to stay alive and safe!” Pleaded Mary reluctantly.

“I promise mom, this is my volition, I will be safe, I promise.” James responded, tears in his eyes, as he hugged his mom and went upstairs to pack a small army bag that they supplied him when he was drafted.

“Mom, after the play, this man named-” Linda began to tell the unbelievable news about the TV show to her mother.

“Linda, I can’t right now, please go to your room.”

“But...”

“Linda, I really need to be alone right now!”?
Linda went upstairs to her room and sat there looking at the black and white business card with Roberts number and slogan on it- “Success is worth the sacrifice”- and realized that she would not be able to do this- her dream- because of her brother. Linda couldn’t leave her mother and father after James did, that wouldn’t be right. On the other hand she thought Why do I have to put my dreams on hold because of a stupid decision made by my idiotic brother. Just because he thinks that he is the most macho man in the world, doesn’t mean that he can survive in a war. I have to do this, it might be my only chance. Linda heard the front door open and close knowing it was her father. She heard her mother tell him the news and waited for yelling and screaming but was not expecting to hear him laugh and say “He will bring our family honor and pride Mary, he is a strong boy, he will make it.”

“I need to tell them about Robert and this acting thing now, this mood is tenuous for dad, and if he is on board, Mom will be, too.” Linda whispered to herself as she walked down the stairs.

“Mom and Dad- I am becoming an actress.”

“Not now, honey” Linda’s mom argued

“Yes now! After the play today, an acting agency man came up to me and wants me to be in the new show, Happy Memories. He said I was really good and he wants me to be on the show. Heres his card- look!” Both Linda’s mom and dad looked at each other and started giggling. “What!?!?!”

“Linda, you would never be able to do this and we all know you can’t do this, none of us has ever seen you act. Come on, be realistic here please.” Linda’s dad laughed.

“Maybe if you actually supported me or showed up to a play or two, you would see that I love acting, and nothing will stop me from doing this.” Linda grabbed the business card and ran upstairs to her room and locked the door behind her. She picked up the phone and called Roberts number.

“Hello..?” Robert answered tiredly.

“I am in, pick me up at 1:00 pm tomorrow and take me to Hollywood.” Linda barked and hung up the phone.

Linda grabbed the suitcase under her bed and stuffed all of her clothes into it. She knew that her father works until 2 pm on Saturdays and at 12:30 her mother goes shopping, she would leave at 1, not telling anyone where she was going.

At 12:30 the next day Linda’s mother called up to her room and yelled “Watch David!” and walked out the door. Linda knew that what she was about to do would not be venial, but she didn’t care. She grabbed her suitcase and rolled it downstairs and stopped at James’ door, walked in, gave him an immense hug.

“Watch David for me please.” Linda ordered.

“Where are you going?” James asked

“Hollywood.” Linda laughed as she closed his bedroom door.

She saw Roberts car pull up, looked up at her house and left, not looking behind her.


When Linda’s flight landed in Hollywood 2 hours later, she immediately was checked in to the hotel next to the filming studio. She got scripts and a wardrobe- even a personal assistant. She also never received a phone call from home. The next couple of days was a blur, an episode or two aired and the show was a huge hit. No one on the show were her age so she didn’t have many friends, one or two cronies, and she was home sick. She wanted her mom’s chicken pot pie more than anything in the world, she wanted to hear David’s crying, and she wanted to make sure James is okay. She was getting homeschooled by a hired teacher and everything was going well.

*2 and 1/2 months later*


Linda was sitting in her hotel room doing her homeschool work. She wanted to go home so bad. She knew she couldn’t go back because her parents would tell her that they knew that she couldn’t do it. The show was doing amazing, there was even talk of doing a movie of it. She had all the money that she wanted and could buy anything. Linda was sitting there working on algebra when the phone rang. Knowing it was probably Robert telling her of a red carpet coming up, she took her time and dawdled to the phone.

“Hello?” Linda answered wanting to get back to her homework

“Linda?” Linda’s heart stopped. On the other side of this phone she could her her fathers caustic voice that she hadn’t heard in over 2 months.

“Dad?” She questioned “Dad!”

“I hope your career is going well, I doubt you want to talk to me but I have to inform you of news.”

Linda could hear crying on the other end- her mother’s.

“Dad, is everything ok? Why is mom crying?”

“Lin, it’s James...he...was”

“Dad! What about James?!”

“He died. Linda James died in Korea.”

Linda dropped the phone. Her world was spinning. Her brother was dead and she was far away from her family. She grabbed her suitcase that she came here with, stuffed it with clothes, and ran out the door to her limousine.

“Where are you going?” Robert asked, appearing out of nowhere.

“Robert, I need to go, James has died. Please let me go!”?
Robert began to commiserate Linda but she was already in the limo driving off to the airport. On the way she began to berate herself for being so selfish for leaving her family.


After the two hour flight, Linda approached her front steps, the same ones she had left 2 months earlier. She burst through the front door to find so many restitutions such as cards and food from neighbors line the house. She found both of her parents in the living room cooped up on the couch lamenting.

“Linda!” Her mother cried as she stood up from the couch and hugged her.

“Thank god you are here!” Her father admitted as he hugged her, too.

“Wheres David?”

“In his crib.” Her mother answered

Linda trudged up the stairs to the familiar wooden crib and picked David up. He had gotten so much bigger. She went back down to the couches to sit with her parents.

“Linda” Her mother whispered.

“Yes mom?”

“He died by...” Her mother started to cry but was still gouging words. “It was a surprise attack... they were girding up.. and they attacked them and killed them all.”

Linda started to cry and her mother came over and put an arm around her.

“I should of been here, I am so sorry.”

“Linda, you are an amazing actress, your father and I have never missed an episode, we are so proud of you.”

Over the next week or two, the family of now 4 started to get better. They all stuck together through thick and thin. Linda quit her show and moved back. Everything was starting to get better and Linda was happy she moved back home. Her family was more important to her than Hollywood or anything else. She needed to be there for them and they needed to be there for her.