I stumbled as we make our way up the country lane. The wind blowing the skirts of my orange dress, wrapping it around my ankles and calves showing the curve of my leg in a way some might think indecent. My two younger sisters trail after me, more cautious then I myself am being. Ariadna, Aria for short, had worn the yellow dress with the long white sleeves, that flows out behind her making it seem like she floats on clouds she is the middle child of our three person family with corn starch blond hair that falls down past her waist. She is a mostly silent girl, only speaking when the situation deems she has to, her blue eyes dart around constantly always aware of the goings-on around her. The youngest by two years is Gaia, her dark mahogany hair is always tied back in a bow, and her mind is usually somewhere else in a mysterious world that only she knows of. Gaia is the loudest of my sisters, her wind chime voice is high and sweet like a swallows in spring, on Sundays though she is quiet, saddened by the events that brought us here all alone. She is the only one out of us who has deep brown eyes that sparkle when she gets excited, her white and orange flowered dress hangs on her like drapes, it’s too big, it’s a hand-me-down, her red umbrella hangs closed at her side.

I realize that Aria has stopped to look at a purple flower, her delicately pale fingers reach out to stroke the petals. A butterfly lands on her hand as I call back to her to keep up, she turns her head slightly in my direction, but that is the only acknowledgement I get that she heard me. She picks herself up and walks towards Gaia and I.

“Jezebel,” Gaia whispers to me, not wanting to break the silence of the afternoon, “how long until we get to the meadow?”

“Just a little while longer,” I quietly say back. She just nods and we carry on in silence until we get to a little winding path that leads up a gently sloping hill. I keep the lead as we file onto the single lane path. The bees buzz around us and the small white butterflies going from flower to flower collecting nectar from the sweet smelling orange flowers that start to pop up around us. I pluck a flower as I walk by and stick it in the ribbon that wraps it’s self around my head like a coiling snake.

The sun is past the highest point in the sky and the breeze has died down. A piece of my fiery orange hair falls into my eyes and I sweep it back behind my shoulders again. My eyes wander to the edge of the path to find that we have almost passed our favorite spot to sit, I walk off the path in to the grass dotted with the orange flowers Gaia sits first and and opens her umbrella with a quiet whoosh and folds her legs under her. Aria kicks off her shoes before sitting gently down followed by me sitting first then laying back on the soft grass. Our minds all wander to different places, from the breakfast we ate to the chores still left to do, but they all eventually end up in the same place: Why isn’t Perdita in heaven with us too?





Name meanings:

Names and meanings:
Ariadna- holy one (represents heaven)
Gaia- earth
Jezebel- devil (represents how you can repent and make it to heaven even through sins)
Perdita- lost (represents that she hasn’t made it to heaven yet and her soul got lost on the way)