Sincerely, Easter

Easter 1895

Easter-Marie Sunderland had always been a quiet girl to her mothers eye, but far from it to the stable boys and the blacksmiths. Easter had always felt smothered by her family's wealth and would often escape through the gap in the fence, never really caring how muddy her frocks became, she just loved the feeling of selfishness ; she longed for the feeling of leaving people behind. Easter longed for loneliness and isolation, and that's what made her so fearsome to the others. Easter longed for what should be feared by all, and she lapped it up like a dog on a hot summers day taking to a water bowl. She craved broken hearts, and the gap in her picket fence was the gateway to her battlefield.
Easters portrayal of innocence stemmed only as far as her appearance as her personality was as stone cold as a slate.
Jack could only watch Easter from afar and wonder what kind of person she was, how she'd come to lead that lifestyle and most of all : If she was lonely.
Jack had always felt crushing loneliness being the blacksmiths son, he had nothing to his name but a pair of worn out shoes and a mucky old outfit the Duchess had given to him to work in and a red bandana around his neck that Easter had given him one Christmas, that he never took off.
Easter didn't deliver it in person of course, and Jack knew it was a present bought for Easter that she didn't want, but even so to wake up on December 25th exactly 2 years ago and see the bandanna lying there in the mud in all its glory, Jack was elated.
There was an old oak wooden fence with a swing gate dividing the little shack where Jack and his father lived and the mansion where Easter lived and yet the children on either side felt no happiness.
Some would call Easter 'ungrateful' for her hatred of a life with money, but Easter longed for the things money couldn't buy. Jack and his father never left each others sides through thick and thin, his father retold old tales from mouth and they would sing folks songs together and in Easters eyes the relationship between Jack and his Father was more than any amount of gold could buy.
Easter on the other hand, had a mother obsessed with perfection. Every morning began the same ; up, dressed in a corset and a pretty frock, straight down to the drawing room for a quick piano lesson, an hour of playtime, 2 hours of English and Maths in the school room, more playtime until 6pm sharp and then a good hours bathing in the tub before bed at 7:30.
Life for Easter was controlled beyond grasp, and so she longed for playtime where she was free to scramble through the hold in the fence and out into the open playing field out front, to play to her hearts content with no boundaries and no commands. Loneliness was freedom to Easter. Loneliness was painful isolation to Jack. They longed for what they each couldn't have, and that's why there was more than an oak picket fence keeping them separated.