Jennie sat patiently at the mall waiting for her mother to finish shopping. She looked at her watch for the fifth time before standing up and walking away from the front of the Cotton Cargo. Lighting a cigarette, Jennie slowly made her way to a nearby newspaper machine and bought a paper. She had a copy of the morning paper at home, but hadn’t had the time to read it. She had woken up early his morning to catch the Saturday sale. The headline caught her eye as she returned to the bench and sat down to read the paper.

The large bold font across the front of the newspaper knocked the wind out of Jenny. Forgetting that she was inside she dropped her cigarette to the linoleum floor as she unfolded the paper. Tossing the bulk of the paper aside, she opened the front section. As she read, tears began to flow down her cheeks, blurring her vision she quickly wiped them away. They fell quickly to the newspaper, smearing the newsprint onto her fingers. Jenny kept reading the article as her tears continued to fall. She put the paper down on her lap and quickly dabbed her eyes with the back of her hand. When she managed to slow her breathing she picked up the paper again and finished reading the article.

Flipping from page to page, Jenny continued to read article after article. It seemed nearly the entire paper had been dedicated to the one headline. With each new page Jenny read, she became increasingly upset. Pictures, diagrams, schematics, blueprints filled the pages of the paper. She couldn’t believe what she was reading. Jenny was only eighteen, and still in high school…she hadn’t even been born the last time this had happened. Her breathing began to increase as she felt another wave of tears fall over her. She folded the paper up and closed her eyes, leaning back into the bench.

“Jenny?! What’s wrong?” Her mother gasped as she came out of the store. Jenny stood up slowly, wiping her tears away again,

“MOM, did you see this!?” She held up the paper for her mother to read the headline, Columbia Shuttle Explodes!