comfortable silence

introduction

When she has a paintbrush in her right hand, a pallet in her left, and a canvas before her eyes, Ophelia feels inspired to use art as her release. Her life was a mess, a big gorgeous mess, and she never knew if she liked it or not. She had a constant thirst for adventure and a need for excitement. She wanted to be a "Main Character" or be in the spotlight of her own life. She wanted to dance in the rain and lay on the grass when there's sun. She wanted to make out with a stranger at a party just because she liked the idea of flirting with the unexpected, and she dreamt of one day seeing her name in the corner of a famous painting, or on the book cover of a bestselling book. She had passion and emotion and an intense need for enthusiasm in her life. Yet, she also had fears and anxieties that over weigh any feelings of passion and excitement she could ever build up.

To her classmates, she was smart. To her father, she was skilled. Her teachers knew her as a prodigy, but to her friends she was just fun. However, Ophelia wanted to be beyond those one-word answers, beyond being described by common adjectives and her skills. She wanted her name to be stripped from whatever people thought she was, and she wanted it to mean something else. Something new. And moving would do just that.

Her father, Julien Hawthorne, was possibly the most wealthy and famous lawyer in Massachusetts and had worked with some of the biggest names in America. He made a name for himself as a lawyer and Ophelia was truly proud of him. And after three years of dating an English woman named Charlotte, Ophelia knew that he would soon propose and move to Berkshire, a county in England. Charlotte lived in a town called Windsor, and she too was a wealthy lawyer. However, unlike Julien, Charlotte didn't have the flexibility of moving because her fourteen-year-old son, William, was in shared custody between her and her ex husband who still lived in Winsor, Berkshire. And since Ophelia was in custody of her father, she needed to move with him and Charlotte, which she didn't mind. She loved Charlotte, and adored William. She already felt protective over him and knew that they'd get along just fine.

So, there she was, with all her belongings in boxes and suitcases. She stood in the middle of their empty house in Massachusetts thinking she needed to feel sad. She needed to say goodbye to the house like they do in movies and get emotional as she walked out the door. She never did though. She tried so hard to cry or tear up but all she left was relief. She was leaving. Not only that house but the state and country, and she couldn't be happier.