2.2 : du' Lanche

Children were not children as we know them to be today. There were no such thing as playmates and fairytales. Little girls didn't play dress up or believe in the poetry of fairy princess tea parties, and little boys didn't know of the adventures of seeking monstrous creatures of the haunted forest or of the swashbuckling pirates on the open sea. They knew how to make use of their hours and minutes outside of their mandatory education and there was no such thing as an idle moment.

***

Lizelle grew weary of these endless days, for she felt as though the second her life began, her daily moments melted together and that her life since then has never paused long enough for her to truly understand its value. She counted the grey stones that defined the path from the street to her home. Twenty-three stones total - all perfectly shaped with evenly square edges and sharp corners. SHe counted the steps to her tiny room in the attic space above the spare room. Thirteen. Each one a wooden reminder of her desperate ascent to a place of undiscovered solitude. Thirty one leatherbound books on the bookshelf beside her bedside lamp. Each of her days were equally as dull as the one before, and quite unadventurous.