Travel

She wished to travel but someone or something always held her back.

I’ve lived in this town my whole life, and most of the time that’s fine by me. But in late fall when the sky fills with birds migrating south for the winter, traveling thousands of miles, I get homesick for places I’ve never been. Places like France, London, even just the city beside my small town. I can only imagine what the sights would look like, but yet I will never see the in person. The Eiffel Tower covered in snow, the Statue of Liberty welcoming immigrants to America, Big Ben peeking through the fog, and the Hanging Garden in the middle of an enormous desert.

These are just few of the things I wish to see, but I can never leave, not even temporarily. I just wander around this house and even this town, wishing I was like a bird so I could just escape this town, maybe for forever or only for a day or so.

Brother would never allow me to leave though. I couldn’t run away either. He always has someone watching me. He might not admit it, but I know he does since he’s not so discreet about it. The shadow, as I like to call my stalker, is terrible at following from a distance. I act like I don’t know he’s there though. It’s simply easier this way.

I’ve thought about asking Brother to travel, but he doesn’t even leave the basement, much less the house. It’s a lost cause. He wants me to be more like him, but we couldn’t be more different. I want to see the world while he is perfectly content with staring at the same four walls.

This house had plenty to do of course. I could ride the horses, watch the television, play in the court, get lost in the maze, and what I loved to do most, read. The books took me places I always wanted to go, but only in imagination. Like the birds, they tormented me with their different settings, even if they weren’t actual places. I could never see these places if I ever got the chance to actually travel. This is the hell that I live. I’m just stuck with the same old grey walls. This is a prison I am trapped in with my brother as a simple warden with guards to watch me as I serve my life sentence of wishing.