Victoria's Escape

The soft cool grass glistened in the evening summer sun.  My toes longed for the carefree world where they once lived, trailing in the emerald softness ready to retrace the old bramble paths of my childhood home.  But no, I was a proper lady now.  I must maintain my stately countenance.  Still yet, echoes from the past, childish laughter on the wind beckons me into the woods beyond the stiff white washed porch and creaky old swings.  The buzzing of stuffy suits and crisp linen dresses around me seems, for one moment, stiffled.  What's a lady to do?  Setting among the summer lillies and drab faded countenances of one's contemporaries seems but a world away from the dancing wind, where a youthful spirit could take hold and flit away amongst the first fireflies of the setting sun.  No more could I stand it...up I sprang, leaping into the wood, through the trees, my white skirts floating and glistening in the moonlight.  I followed the musical laughter, catching fireflies in my hair while the buzzing stagnant gathering on the porch stood agape and still.  The wind took me--past the gathering deer, up I climbed, passed the tranquil birds, until at last I was free.  Yet the proper lady I was remained, stately, on her bed of summer lillies.