Memories of Summer starts out in a small town in Virginia where the family is amazed by the beautiful mountains. The mother died a long time ago, when the youngest daughter of the family, Lyric, was born. However, Lyric's older sister Summer, and their poppy are still alive and well. In 1955, at Summer's sixteenth birthday party, Poppy announces that the family will be moving to Flint, Michigan. The only problem of that move, would be that they were going to live in a house with a one room apartment upstairs. They would even have to share the bathroom with a family of six. In the warmer seasons, the girls were able to play in the river behind the house. Unfortunately for the girls, they both had to go to school. The children in Lyric's school made fun of her because of her accent. When Lyric got home from school the first day,she found Summer laying down saying nothing. After a while, she said that she never was going to go back to school. Before the move, Poppy was sure he was going to have a job. Now in Michigan, he found out that his job wouldn't hire anyone over the age of thirty-five. This would mean that they would all have less money than they all expected. It came time to go to the store to buy groceries. Poppy and Lyric met the manager, Mrs. Stiltner, when they didn't have enough money. She told them that she grew up in the same small town in Virginia. After they shared old memories of their quaint town, Mrs. Stiltner informed Poppy that she would give him store credit to buy food. Him and Lyric could buy anything they wanted. Lyric noticed people in Michigan spoke more proper than in Virginia. For instance, they pronounced the word really as re-all-y. While Lyric was progressing socially, Summer was regressing. Lyric made a friend named Yolanda in school. At the same time, Summer was beginning to get strange. She started using strange words like jibble. Poppy went on his first date since his wife died. He was dating Mrs. Stiltner from the grocery store.Even though Summer was sometimes hard to understand, she felt it was wrong for her dad to be courting Mrs. Stiltner. A few days later, Summer was given pills for acting so wierd. Lyric wanted to sing songs with Summer like they used to in the older days. Instead, since it was Christmas time, they sung Christmas carols.When Poppy came home, he was happy to see his eldest daughter Summer singing again. He placed two Christmas presents under the small Christmas tree. They were just happy to be together as a happy family. Summer started seeing a psychiatrist. Lyric was so distraught that she started having memories of when her and her sister were little. Summer was getting wierder that she had a nightmare of wolves. Lyric missed Summer. She was thinking about the good old winter Virginia days with Summer, being that it was getting colder out. The next day was a happy day for everyone. The three person family was moving out of the one room appartment into a house. It contained two bedrooms, a living room, a dining room, kitchen, and a bathroom. Even though the family was happy about the move, when any of Lyric's friends saw Summer, they made fun of her, which made Lyric embarrassed. Summer was confusing everyone. Her and Lyric would watch t.v. together and sing songs, but then Summer would say things that would make appsolutely no sense.For example, instead of saying jibble, she now said groggle. Things weren't as bad for Lyric though. She made two new friends-Nadine and Gladys. They went to the resteraunt to meet cute boys. While they were there, though, Summer decided to wander over there. Everyone thought she was Lyric's mom. That made Lyric even more embarrassed. After all the frustration, Summer ran away. She had ended up at a friend named Bill's house. When she was found, Summer informed Lyric that she was fading away. Lyric was beginning to forget about Virginia. She got used to Michigan and even tried out for a school play. When she was there, she heard a jibble. She looked around and saw a group of students surrounding a girl. She ran over there and saw it was Summer. Summer was scared so Lyric took her home. Lyric was tired of having to watch out for her sister. She told Poppy that she wanted to have time to herself. Poppy found someone else to watch Summer so Lyric could do what she wanted to. That ended up turning out the wrong way when Summer set herself on fire. The lady said she only turned away for a brief second. After that incident, Summer began playing with sharp objects. Poppy and Lyric had to hide all sharp objects and matches. That didn't end it. Poppy and Lyric agreed it was getting too difficult to take care of Summer. If Lyric told Summer to do something, she wouldn't listen. That really affected them when a tornado hit Michigan and Summer refused to go into the basement. This resulted in Summer hitting Lyric on the head with a mug. When Lyric felt her head, she felt blood. She got so frustrated that she ignored Summer and went into the basement alone. Poppy decided it was time to take Summer to the hospital. When she got there, she thought the nurse was a movie star. Poppy and Lyric left sadly, but knowing they did the right thing. They went back to visit after a few days. When they got there, she was rolled up in a ball. Everyone knew that Summer would never be the same. Without Summer, Lyric became more compassionate towards people. At a dance, some boys were even flirting with her. Lyric admitted everything was nice now.
essay written by Tabitha T. on Memories of Summer
