http://www.sweetwateramerican.com A serialized blog novel Wed, 06 Aug 2008 15:57:03 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Professor Smith wrote the words, The Seventh Seal, (1957) directed by Ingmar Bergman, on the blackboard. Then he rubbed his hands on his pants, staining them with chalk dust. “I hope you all researched the Black Plague because if you chose not to, you’ll miss very important details in this ... http://www.sweetwateramerican.com/2008/08/05/chapter-six/ It was 9:00 p.m. when I arrived at the Woodley Park-Zoo/Adams Morgan Metro stop. I squeezed my stomach muscles in an attempt to calm the hunger pangs. Had I not decided to walk back to the Silver Spring Metro Station from Elena’s house, I would have endured the thirty-minute walk ... http://www.sweetwateramerican.com/2008/06/24/chapter-five/ 1998 Silver Spring Metro Station. I flung my backpack over one shoulder and hung my duffel bag from the other. “Doors open on the right,” the conductor said. I stepped onto the station’s platform and followed the crowd towards the escalator. “Five dollars.  Are you interested?” asked a man dressed in a newspaper coat.  ... http://www.sweetwateramerican.com/2008/05/26/chapter-four/ Sandy 1998 Foggy Bottom Metro Station Washington D.C. The lights on the Metro’s platform flashed, announcing an approaching train. I accelerated my pace. My duffel bag fell forward, almost causing me to fall into the person ahead of me on the staircase. I jumped over the last two steps and darted towards the Metro’s ... http://www.sweetwateramerican.com/2008/05/11/chapter-three/ Mami said she and Dihda were checking out apartments in the suburbs of Maryland the day I was born. January 2, 1976 at 7:30 p.m. in Washington Hospital Center—feet first and jaundiced is how I made my entrance. “My daughter, the bravest child in the world,” Mami said when I’d ask ... http://www.sweetwateramerican.com/2008/05/11/chapter-two/ Sandy Washington D.C. I grew up in a building called El Barco. We called it El Barco because it was shaped like a ship and took up a whole block of sidewalk. Not everyone in the Adams Morgan section of Northwest Washington, D.C. called it El Barco. It was only called that ... http://www.sweetwateramerican.com/2008/05/09/chapter-one/