The Bloom by Mark Lauck (reading in the dark .TXT) 📖

Darrick is an intelligent, third-year student in high school. He lives in a family home with his sister, Ann. Ann is in her last year of junior high school. She has a mental illness. This mental illness makes Ann process information slower than the average human. She will soon take an exam to see if she is eligible to enter a private high school. Darrick feels that it is his duty to help her out. One Saturday morning, Ann walked into Darrick's room.
"Darrick, wake up," Ann said nudging on her sleeping brother's shoulder.
"What is it?" Darrick said in a tired tone.
"You said that you would help me study," Ann responds.
"Darrick sat up and glanced at the clock. It read "5:00 A.M."
"You want to study this early?" Darrick responds.
Ann nodded her head.
"Alright, alright," Darrick replies not willing to argue with his sister.
Darrick pulled out some of Ann's notes. He would ask her a question, and she would answer. Ann would miss three out of every four questions and made little progress when Darrick asked the same question a second and third time. Darrick began to feel that she was hopeless but decides to finish the rest of the study session. Three hours pass by, and their study session ended.

The day after, Darrick took Ann out to a local zoo. He believed that this would be a good experience for Ann as he went around classifying animals. He would ask trivial questions that Ann couldn't understand. Eventually, Ann stopped Darrick by an exhibit.
"Darrick, I want an animal just like that," Ann says pointing at an elephant.
"Impossible!" Darrick informed, "there is no possible way for that to fit in a house like ours."
Darrick continued towards other animals as Ann began to feel a little depressed.

Over the course of the next two weeks, Ann continued to study hard. Either alone or with Darrick, she showed progress. She showed growth. Ann was getting smarter, and she liked how it felt.

The day of the exam finally arrived. Ann was placed into a room filled with other students who are taking the same exam. She spent the most time on the exam than any other student, and she concentrated extremely hard. She was prepared.

Ann had received the results a month later, and she was quite surprised. She ha scored the highest out of any student who has ever taken the exam before! Talk about her intellect had began to spread around. Darrick has even heard students talk about her of at his school. Darrick began to envy Ann. NObody has ever praised Darrick for his intelligence. Why should Ann?
A surprise party was being set up at their house as their parents told Darrick to take Ann to an amusement park without telling her what was going on. They waited in line for the merry-go-round. Darrick could hear people talking about Ann. Because of his jealousy, Darrick finds himself pushing Ann onto the carousel platform. The operator intended on stopping the ride, but his sleeve catches a lever that speeds up the ride. The ride began to spin at a speed fast enough for a pole to decapitate Ann's head. Darrick heard a loud scream that cam with an abrupt silence. Shocked, Darrick ran home. Because of his guilty conscience, he explains what happened to his little sister, and, later, Darrick commits suicide.

Publication Date: 10-24-2012

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