[ WP ] Begin and end your story with this sentence : `` And yet , the city remained . ''

`` And yet, the city remained...'' 
 
 `` Oh my God Adam,'' my mother groaned. `` Seriously, you just had a four day weekend.'' 
 
 I stared out the window of the minivan, or as I more aptly named it, *the chariot of suffering. * It was the vehicle that brought me to the prison of my despair. Be deceived not by it's lime green exterior or it's pleather seats, or it's... 
 
 `` Are you doing that goddamn dramatic monologue in your head again?'' 
 
 `` No,'' I said. I tried to be convincing, but could not call upon my soul to fill my voice with the deceit of enthusiasm, of childish youth and love and life. My life was lost the moment the weekend ended. 
 
 `` Yes you are,'' she argued. `` You're doing that stupid thing with your hand again.'' 
 
 I watched as my fingers slowly slid down the glass window, raking at the beautiful world just beyond my reach. 
 
 `` No I'm not.'' 
 
 Clouds formed in the sky above me. Ephemeral marvels. Muses of creativity brought forth into the world by the life energy of Mother Earth herself... and yet they remain far from me. The wind that gently swept them across the sky -- I could not feel it on my face while trapped in this morbid bubble! 
 
 `` I'm not rolling down the window,'' she announced. 
 
 *How did she know? * 
 
 `` Last time I did that you jumped out.'' 
 
 `` No I did n't.'' 
 
 `` Look,'' she sighed. `` You've only got four days of school this week. And then you can go to the beach or the park or play your stupid video games all weekend. Just please,'' and here she turned to look at me over her shoulder. `` No more of this Shakespearean tragedy stuff for, like, the ten minutes that I'm driving you to school.'' 
 
 Shakespeare was a hobbling commoner, I thought to myself, as silently as I could. 
 
 `` Or whatever the hell poet you listen to now.'' 
 
 `` How do you keep reading my mind?'' I asked, furious. 
 
 `` You pick it up at some point after pre-calculus,'' she said, nonchalantly as she backed her minivan in between two Fords. `` Now get out and actually do good for once. I do n't believe in you, but I *will* whoop your ass if you make Ms. Mahoney cry again.'' 
 
 `` Farewell, mother,'' I moaned, as I slid open the heavy steel door of my transport vessel. 
 
 `` Do n't make any more enemies,'' she said. 
 
 `` Hello Adam,'' Jimmy said. He did n't actually say it. He nodded at me. But that's what it meant. He was waiting in front of the steps to our history class. 
 
 `` Quiz today,'' he actually *said* said. `` Queen did n't share cake. Peasants cut her head off. That's all I read.'' 
 
 `` To think, they make us suffer through this five days a week,'' I complained. `` They trap us like sheep, but with economy seating. They test us and bury us if we fail their *quizzes. * The French revolted because they were n't given cake. Cities were razed. Regicide committed in the name of freedom from oppression. And yet here we remain, subjects of daily abuse in the modern day. We should have burned this city to the ground by now!'' 
 
 Jimmy shrugged. 
 
 `` Our rage roared, day after day, as our oppression grew only stronger and more upsetting. The whole country should have been engulfed in the flames of our fury! And yet, even this city remained.'' 
 
 Jimmy agreed. Or nodded, at least. 
 
 But I knew what he meant. We were brothers, sworn not by blood but by mutual pain. I could listen to him speak for hours without him once uttering a word. His thoughts were open to me as such! He knew the oppression we suffer. He tastes my bitter tears as I listen to the anguish of his heart. When he nods, I can hear his desperate, defeated cry. 
 
 `` And yet, the city remained.''
