Rogers Hall School - Splinters Yearbook (Lowell, MA)

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I Wonder When l was but a little girl, I often used to wonder What made the heavens toll with wrath And tore the sky asunder. Night came stealing through the sky, Shadows sprung out from the earth The wind murmured its plaintive Cry. Stars tvvinkled in mirth. Then suddenly the rain came down. Shattering the peace. The sky filled with Wrath, The heavens rumbled, the thunder rolled. Lightning Hickered-an aftermath. 'Twas over in a secondg It did not last for long. What made the Lord so vengeful? Did I do something wrong? ALiI.'SON GOLDING '67

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The Pattern Now it will be somebody else's turn. I can hear the restlessness of the water. It looks cold and forlorn. If it is cold, probably the night makes it so, for the icicles hanging from the roof of the boathouse are growing longer with each new hour. It is forlom because of the intense darkness. There is no moon out tonight, just as there was no moon out last New Year's Eve. A year has passed, though it seems like a day. For that man down there at the end of the wharf, however, I know that these last twelve months have been a dark eternity. I know because I once knew a man who stood on the edge of the same wharf clad in dark clothes. This man, now watching the water ripple under the wharf and listening to its soft murmur as it trickles down the side of the wharf's supporting posts, is utterly alone. I-Ie is there because he needs quiet and because he longs for the freedom of the beckoning sea. I-Ie has lived one entire year in the shadow of captivity. He is thankful that he has escaped, but maybe, after tonight, he would have preferred a cell to eternal damnation. Perhaps he is thinking back on the events of exactly one year ago tonight. I-Ie was happy then. It was New Year's Eve and he was celebrating. I-Ie was celebrating because a new year had begun. A new horizon and countless opportunities lay ahead. There would be chances to better himself and to make his home more comfortable and his family happier. Little did he know that his celebrating was in vain, for he was forced to forfeit his hopes, his dreams, his new horizons, and his endless opportunities. The rain and fog had not provoked any fewer people into staying home. It was New Year's Eve and a celebration was essential. The bars were crowded and noisy. The mist hanging heavily over the city could not disguise the flashing lights, the screaming crowds, or the screeching of tires on the wet pavement. It could not drown out the aroma arising from particular places where bottles, once tightly corked, were quickly emptied. A large bright bubble made its way to the bottom of a pole and a year had been lost forever in a century of progress. A nation rejoiced amidst rain and fog. Perhaps the man on the wharf was the only one in the nation who did not rejoice. I-Ie did not care because he knew that the new year would be the same as the old one. In fact, all the years of his life would be like the old one-full oftremorse. I-le did not care. Intruding footsteps suddenly interrupted his brooding thoughts. Then the sound was drowned out by laughing voices and loud horns. The dark man turned around and saw moving toward him a loud-mouthed, watery-eyed crowd. Isle shivered a little and tried to edge farther into the shadows. A voice called to him. Want something to drink, pal? It's New Year's Evel No time to be sober! Leave him alone, Vic. The rest is for us. The dark man ignored the invitation and the sodden group, but they could not ignore him. A clammy hand on the back of his neck swung him around so he was face to face with the people. They sparkled and bubbled as they laughed and screamed. One of the women broke the heel of her shoe when it got stuck between the boards of the wharf. She threw it carelessly into the Water and, eyeing the stranger mischievously, tossed the other in also. She paraded around the wharf barefooted while the others laughed raucously. The stranger did not laugh. I-Ie did not even smile. The man with the clammy hand put his arm around the dark stranger's shoulders and shoved an open bottle of whiskey into his face. 'I v 4 I A I .J