Anne of Survivor

Chapitre Un: Sisters

She stood on the deck, shivering; trying to forget as a cool breeze off the water whipped across her face. The memories, however, persisted... demanding to be recognized despite her pain and tiredness. Anne looked at her hands. No longer the smooth porcelain hands of a prim and proper lady, within a day, they already bore the evidence of her new life- dry, cracked, bleeding. Tears pricked the inner corners of her eyes, but she dared not let them drop. Instead, steeling her resolve, she slowly and ever so gently moved her right hand beyond her left shoulder and onto her back. There it was. There is where she held her reason for running, and she would never forget.

Daddy's dear girl, Philana-Narie; Anne to those who knew her best, was both the pride and misery of her family and friends. A pretty little darling, with thick chocolate curls and devilishly beautiful gray eyes, she knew at a very early age the power she held over people. Oh, those luminescent gray eyes hid many secrets and were able to tickle many fancies. She always did as she pleased, often embarrassing friends and family alike. Then, as usual, when her time of reckoning came, her parents dared not punish her for her small crimes. After all, she was merely a child with an overabundance of energy and life. Besides, as she grew, her wildness seemed to leave her as her charm increased.

Ethana, on the other hand, had always been a rather mousy-looking child with her blonde- brown hair and her pale almost sickly-looking skin. Unlike her radiant elder sister, she kept to herself and never strayed far from the house, so it was difficult for anyone to notice her at all. However, as Ethana came on her sixteenth birthday, she began to venture out a bit more. Allowing the sun to kiss her hair a golden blonde and her skin to drink in the rays becoming both grand and healthy-looking. Ethana, bore no childhood scars to mar her appearance, nor any sun damage from overexposure. She was simply lovely like her mother and was catching up to Anne in both beauty and allure.

As children, they were an interesting site all together. Loving sisters as they were, Anne always looked after and protected Ethana. When a crowd drew anywhere near, Ethana would shy away from them, and Anne would eat them up. She, Anne, was always the entertainer and always a crowd favorite, so much so that Ethana began to envy her and over time resent her. She wished she could be so loved by everyone and loathed the fact that even their parents seemed to be under her elder sister's charms. At times Ethana felt neglected and even... forgotten.

One glorious spring day in the market, Reyna, their mother, announced to the town florist that she and her husband would soon be looking to have Anne married. Anne, who was standing to her mother's left and holding a lovely bunch of bright blue delphiniums, cast a sorrowful eye upon the flowers. She wanted to make her parents happy, but she also felt that love should burn as hot as a phoenix's flame. She wanted excitement and an adventure so intense she might not endure. Oh, how she wished and dreamed to find a love that would set her ablaze, but... she knew better. Her parents were sure to choose someone with a rather steady character.

Ethana on the other hand, to her mother's right, could not wait to be married, and knew her parents would choose someone marvelous. She would trade places with Anne any day of the week. "Mother," she began as she moved her hands over a wicker basket of marigolds, "when will I be able to marry?"

"As soon as you have reached your eighteenth summer, just as Anne," Reyna finished with Ethana before turning back to the florist. "I only need some wisteria today, Haru, but you are right. The tulips are lovely this year."

It was a wonderfully bright day. The sky was a brilliant blue and the sun was hanging high above the cotton clouds, white and fluffy with hints of pale blue and gray. On the way home, despite the promise of such a happy day, Anne felt alone and somewhat beguiled. Of course, she knew this day would come; her parents had never hidden the subject from her. She just couldn't believe that next year was her eighteenth summer. Where had all the time gone?