dirty little secrets

by c.J. omololu

        Lucy, a high school junior, lives every minute of the day with a shameful secret.  She spends much of her energy just keeping her real life hidden from everyone she knows.  Her secret is something she has endured for as long as she can remember.  Her older brother and sister lived with it too, until they graduated from high school and escaped.  Now Lucy just has to hang on for another year-and-a-half, and she can escape too.  But most of the time it seems like she just can't make it that long.  For almost the first time in her life, she has a best friend, and a maybe boyfriend.  She believes she would lose them forever if they found out how she and her mother live--if they saw the mounds of junk, newspapers, and rotting garbage her mother collects and refuses to throw away inside their house.

       One day Lucy comes home to find her mother's dead body lying on the hallway floor.  She realizes her carefully hidden life will be revealed to the world if she calls 911.  Her dream of living a normal life will be over when she brings in the authorities.  Lucy is just not willing to give up the dream.  It is up to her to decide what to do and to deal with the situation all alone...

              ~reveiwed by Mrs. Sams