Life Cycle

My Window

Hi, I am a glass atom and I live in a window, which to most glass pieces it is not something that is exciting, but this window was different. I was one of the few clear piece all the rest were bright reds and vibrant greens, or sunny yellows. No, we were not just any window, we were a stain glass window. I was never quite sure what the picture was but it was SO much fun to be apart of! We were all close but we still had thin lines in between us. I know you might be thinking that it is not common for a house to have a stain glass window, but the house owner was a glass blower and very much loved stain glass windows. We had the best view of all the windows in the whole house, top floor, middle room, facing the street so everyone who drove by could see us. Across the street was a smaller house, only one floor, it was an off white you could tell that it had not been cleaned for a while. In their side lawn was a yappy dog that never seemed to stop barking, I was pretty far away but I think it was a pit-bull. The neighborhood was not the best, but I called it home. My favorite time was sunset because I had the perfect view, all the vibrant colors slowly fading into the night. When the Sun finally sunk under the horizon, I settled down for bed. Suddenly, there was a CRASH!!  I had been hit in the face by something hard. I heard tires screeching in the back ground. Owww, I did not see what it was that hit me, but I was lying on the floor now. When I looked up I could see, a whole in the window where I had been. WHEE WHOO WHEE WHOO, I heard sirens in the distance but they were getting louder, I knew they were coming to help me. The family ran up the steps to see what had happened. "My hummingbird window" he cried. Then I could hear the siren get really loud then stop and I knew the police were here. The police man had come up to the room. "A brick was thrown thought the window" I heard him say. Of course, a brick that must have been what hit me. Then there were several bright flashes of light, they must have been taking pictures of the crime scene. When were they going to help me I thought to myself, Couldn't they see I was hurt? The officer asked a bunch of questions to the people then he started leaving. I started panicking I was so scared, what was going to happen to me? I got so freighted I blacked out

Getting Recycled

I woke up in the truck on the way to the recycling plant. I was surrounded by salad dressing bottles, broken glass, Snapple bottles, and glass of all colors. I'm not exactly a spring chicken I have been recycled many times but I am still just as durable and strong as ANY of the younger pieces. Any way, I had an idea of where we were going, so I just enjoyed the ride. Even though there was a heavy odor lingering, from all those glass milk containers that still had the last few drops of milk in them, from a week ago. When we finally arrived, I felt the bed of the tuck lifting up and I was dumped and mixed in with other piles of glass. I just sat there for what felt like hours, until suddenly the floor we were sitting on started moving. The first thing they did was give us a bath. The cool water poured all over me, it felt so nice to be clean.  Then I was pushed onto a convierbelt that was at an upward angle. As we went up we passed under a giant magnet, which pulled up stray pieces of metal from all around me, and the remaining glass pieces were all separated by color, I fell through the air a few feet until I hit the pile of clear glass. Next I was pulled closer and closer into the mouth of a giant machine. Inside were these two spinning, metal bars that have, smaller metal bars attached to them, so that when it spins it looks like a fan. I was sucked in and SMASH!! SMASH!! SMASH!! It whacked me in the face and shattered me to pieces. It was finally over, I was now a very small glass cullet, about the size of a piece of gravel. We continued to travel down on the belt and were separated from all the bottle caps, corks and other non glass things that were not crushed. Finally we were spewed out into giant piles of cullet, waiting for the truck to come and take me to the next factory depending on what I was going to be in my next life as something new.

My New Life

When I woke up I was being added into the furnace of a hot molten lava type substance that used to be quartz sand. It was so hot about 600 degrees Celsius and I was burning in there for two days. When I finally came out I was mushed into a liquidly blob. I was now the  perfect consistency to be blown back into glass. As I slowly dripped from the machine I was in, I was caught by a glass blowing machine (by hand would take way to long). It spun me around and injected compressed air into me. When I came out on the conveirbelt I was glass again!! Then another machine grabbed my waist, and attached a bottom piece onto me. It hurt SO bad, I just sat there as these giant flames from all sides bonded us together. Next I was carried to a giant refrigerator to cool, I went from 500 to 50 degrees in only 90 minutes!! After that I thought I was done but then they made a scratch around my rim and spun me around a tiny flame until it fell off. Now I was done.    

 I had been inspected and then stuffed with hard, white paper that was placed in between me and six wine glasses, in two rows of three. Seeing the wine glasses I realized that was what I was too. I was placed so that I had the stuffy paper shoved next to me on both sides because I was in the middle of two others. We were in a big cardboard box with other boxes all around, probably filled with others. I could tell I was toward the back of the truck because after a few minutes the CO2 from the exhaust had seeped into my box and made me cough. About 10 minutes the man was finally done packing all the other boxes and I heard the trucks back door slide closed and we were off. I am not sure exactly were we started or were we had passed through (I was squished in a dark box) but when we were finally unloaded it was very sunny and then I looked to my left and saw the sign for some pageant. All of us were unpacked and we were laid out on a table one next to each other. I looked around and noticed a whole bunch of pretty girls and then I realized I was at the Miss America pageant. I was not quite sure why I was there but I was excited.

Then an older man, in his mid 60's, with grey hair that only covered the sides of his head, so that if he were to wear a hat you would not be able to tell he was bald on top. He was all dressed up in a formal suit and you could tell by his wrinkles that he was distinguished and an important part of this pageant. He walked over to us picked us up one by one with a very clean white glove. When he picked us up he inspected us individually, he held us up in the light, looking for imperfections or cracks, one by one down the line. When he finally got to me he delicately picked me up he held me in his first three fingers and I really wanted to impress him so I made sure I shined in the light. I could smell his cologne, it was subtle and light and it smelt like a forest of pine trees, but not in a way that made him smell like a Christmas tree, I think it had cinnamon too. I am not really sure all I know is that it smelt good, way better than that truck driver. As he put me down he mumbled "good." Did I have a chance to be selected as one of the few wine glasses for some mysterious honorary tasks for one of the contestants? I thought to myself. How many would he choose...was just one of us to get the honor or were their more thirsty people? Were we going to be at the judges table or were we going to be used to toast the winner? It did not matter I just wanted to be chosen. Then when he was done looking at everyone, he pointed to twelve of us and I was the third one chosen!!

A young man came and carried the selected few of us two by two to a wide table that had an elegant red table cloth that reached just above the floor, as so not to get caught in the wheels. Then he put us in rows two wide and six long and filled us with water of all different amounts. Then they rolled our table over and combined it with five others so that there were would be a table three glasses wide and twelve long. Then we were pushed out onto a stage with all these lights, and a crowd of thousands of people... they were all cheering. Then the announcer said a contestan’s name and “She will be playing The Nutcraker’s Sugar Plum Fairy on the glass harp.” Then the contestant came out she was not wearing her sash so I couldn't tell which state she represented. She had long dark hair that was parted on the side and warm dark eyes that were very inviting. Then she wet her finger in another glass and spun it around the rim, creating a beautiful sound. I was so nervous I had never sung before and now I was expected to sing in front of all these people. Then she passed her wet finger over my rim, very slow and it tickled so much. I was overcome with joy I could barley contain myself, I opened my mouth and the most beautiful sound spilled out.     A similar performance (This link is what the whole thing sounded like, not the actual performance, it’s really amazing!!) It was just a second but for that one second I was an important part of someone's dream. I would enjoy this new life as a wine glass.