Free Sugar Valley (Hollywood's Darkest Secret) by Stephen Andrew Salamon

face, and the aggravation from the heat caused Jose to
shout, “Come on, wake up.”
    Damen woke up, to this loud, obnoxious tone,
and had an angry face to his image. But suddenly, he stared out the
doorway of the train and saw a sign that read, Welcome to The Windy
City, Chicago. He was excited, delighted.
    Darell awoke, feeling terrible from the heat,
but then a grin also was received for this sign, as soon as his
eyes came to its silhouette. He stared, scanning over all the
letters, like he was examining this billboard with an x-ray
machine.
    They were intrigued. Even though the sign was
rusted, had spray paint practically engraved to its texture, it
still caused a smile to appear, only because they saw it. This sign
was in reality now, to their minds and their sight. The excitement
began to build as the boys stuck their heads out of the train and
looked up at the tall monuments, which were skyscrapers, large,
massive structures that they’d only seen on magazines and
televisions. Behind the sign, their eyes caught cars on top of
cars, driving down an expressway, and their ears heard hundreds of
car horns, beeping on and off, in a perfect beat. They couldn’t
believe their sight, not believing that they’d made it this far;
their souls were proud of this moment. Making it here, even though
this sight was new and scary to them, allowed a sense of pride to
be captured, caught, and felt in their hearts. This was a moment to
remember.
    “Wow, we made it, we actually made it,”
Darell said, as a yawn followed. Waking up to cows, and to large
pastures was what his eyes were used to, but this image, city,
these awesome surroundings were new to him, and caused his yawn to
be different. His yawn, like all yawns, was slow, boring, soothing,
and finally relaxing; but this new yawn was fast, exciting,
soothing, and over all, beyond relaxation, due to this moment.
Their characters, the small parts of course, were already changing
to this new surrounding, being molded and reborn once more; it was
evolving due to this new, pleasant, and exciting scenery.
    “Well, we still have a long way to go,” said
Damen. He jumped off the train and placed his feet on the white
stones of the railroad pavement first; he felt like he was the
first man to step on the moon. “Come on, we still have a plane to
catch.” He lit a cigarette, still looking at the “Chicago” sign,
and gluing his eyes on the skyscrapers, he took a very large drag
of it, in order to create this memory. He coughed, knowing now that
this memory was going to be locked away in his mind forever, due to
the heavy and loud cough. Damen smiled again; he realized this
memory was staying for good.
    Damen looked about, seeing that they weren’t
too far away from a railroad station, which was in the stomach of
the city, and stared up toward the sun. That was the only thing
that was the same to him, was the sun’s rays, and how it was still
in perfect circular form, just like back home in Ridge Crest. Jose
and Darell stared at Damen, and followed his sight to the sun’s
glowing, radiant aura. They thought it was strange for him to be
looking at its brightness, only because it could damage his sight,
place yellow spots in them for good, or even blind him. But Damen
kept on staring, realizing that his family, and even Maria, could
be staring at that same sun, right at this moment. Suddenly, he was
knocked out of his trance by the train showing movement. It began
to move, and Damen caught in his sight that it was heading closer
toward the city. So he jumped back on it, looking out the doorway
again, and feeling a small breeze rush against his face; he felt
alive.
    Darell and Jose also looked out of the
doorway and saw how they were entering into a building, a station,
and the sight of skyscrapers went away from their view. The train
came to a halt once more, and Damen jumped off of it again, placing
his feet on the cemented ground of the station, and stretching his
legs; a smile