The Josh Manely Mystery Characterizations Series

Rollercoaster - by Minah Millen

Minah Millen is an important cast member in Orphans Inc., the first book in a YA Mystery series. This essay is her final assignment in English 12 before graduating high school. Even though she just turned eighteen, she hints about a young life filled with drama and trauma. This is Minah's backstory, and my way of getting to know this important supporting member of the cast.

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Final Essay Assignment - Grade 12 English – June 3, 2002

Rollercoaster – by Minah Millen

Minah Millen makes it through Grade 12. If My Life were a magazine, then those words would be on the cover in big, bold type. There was a time when I thought I would never make it this far. You will understand why as you read on, but for now, just make a note that I couldn't have made it this far on my own. My life has had it's ups and downs so that's why I used the title Rollercoaster.

My rollercoaster doesn't have a cool name like Leviathan or Hell Twister, it's just called The Big Depression Ride. Fortunately, I haven't taken a ride on it since I entered Grade 9. Since then, I made some good friends who stand by me without expecting anything in return. That's important since sometimes I have difficulty responding emotionally. I just wanted to get the depression thing out of the way so anyone who reads this essay will know why I might seem a bit distant at times.

The rollercoaster ride began when I was seven years old. That's when my parents were killed in a car accident. When you are seven, that's a hard thing to take. My dad and I had a special relationship and when he died my feelings were really crushed. For some reason, I feel like there is a connection between his death and our relationship, but I can't figure out what it might be. That was the first time I really got depressed, but who could blame me.

The saddest part of the whole incident is that my mom wasn't supposed to go on the trip that day, but she did, so my brothers and I became orphans. Fortunately, my oldest brother Dalton was nineteen years old at the time and was allowed to become our legal guardian. Some people think that was a bit young for so much responsibility, but Dalton was already helping to run the family business, and was doing a good job. The Family Court judge said that as long as everything was going smoothly for us, Dalton could be in charge. The judge appointed someone from Child and Family Services to keep tabs on things until Dalton was twenty-one. He was the one who raised my brother Cal and me from then on. He was pretty good at it too.

Life was good for us Millen's for the next few years. Dalton changed the name of the family business from Millen and Sons Forwarding and Delivery to Millen Brothers FDF, which stood for Freight, Delivery, and Forwarding. When I was twelve years old, four good things happened — Callum was about to graduate high school and work with Dalton full time, I had a part time job working in the office during summer holidays so I had some money to spend, and Dalton Brothers FDF had recovered from a slowdown in business so we had more money for fun things. The fourth and most exciting thing was how my body was changing. I was becoming a pretty good looking teenager to be, and boys were starting to notice me.

Unfortunately, one awful thing happened to me that year, and it's something I can't talk about because it is so upsetting, but Dalton took care of things and the problem went away. Even so, I went into another depression and somehow blamed myself for what happened. It took a while to get over it. I got into some bad habits for a while too, but they are under control now. After I recovered, I was more determined than ever to keep myself together for Dalton and Callum's sake. They are the best older brothers a girl could have.

One thing I learned in life for sure is how good things can rise up out of bad ones. To keep safe, I decided I needed a clear set of conditions for letting people get close to me. In History class we learned about an interesting thing called the Communist Manifesto, so I decided to make up The Minah Manifesto for myself, and used it to judge all future friendships and trust relationships. I never told anyone about my Manifesto until now, but I know this essay won't be shared with anyone and my secret is safe.

The Minah Manifesto

1. New friends had to like me for me, not what I looked like. I was pretty good looking from a distance, but I had some ugly scars on the outside and some on the inside that were not so nice either.

2. Boys who wanted to be my friend had to be very respectful and honest. They had to prove I could trust them. The most important condition of all was that Dalton had to really trust them too.

3. Girls who wanted to be my friend couldn't be nosey or catty. Drama Queens were very low on the list of people I wanted around me and were to be avoided at all cost.

4. Adults had to keep their distance, not be preachy, and not try to dig into my past.

By the time I entered Grade 9, I had recovered from the terrible experience that triggered my last and worst depressive episode. Armed with my secret manifesto, I entered homeroom class with new confidence. It turns out that everyone in that class was part of a program called Satellite, including my soon to be best friends, Josh, Zack, and Ruby. We formed a close bond when we found out that we were all orphaned in one way or another. We clicked as a group pretty quickly. Josh was the ultra-shy one, Zack seemed wired on the outside, but he was the nicest most caring and sensitive of us all. Ruby was the oldest and very in control of her life, and I was the "on the edge" emotional one. We formed a secret society and called ourselves Orphans Inc,

Orphans Inc. stuck together all through high school. We shared lots of laughs, a few tears, and some adventures. Zack and I became a couple last year and Josh and Lucy did too. Dalton really likes Zack and trusts him completely, especially because last year he rescued me from an attempted kidnapping.

The rollercoaster has been more like a silky, smooth train ride since entering high school. The Satellite Program was pretty cool too, and the teachers respected my privacy. The only thing they seemed to focus on was making sure we were all as successful in school as possible. They did a great job. That's why I'm in this Grade 12 English class and getting ready to graduate from high school. Without Satellite, my friends, particularly Zack, and my brothers, things might not have worked out so well. Maybe my rollercoaster could be called The Good Luck Coaster, from now on.

Minah Millen