A day in life

The next day, I went to the factory where I worked. The wealth was above of us. We, the lower class, where the ones who worked for them. Actually, it was only me. The rest of the family didn't work in a factory. It was like the only reason I worked so hard, was for money for those ridiculous vacation trips to England, for example. In fact, we weren't even that poor. It was just me who was poor. They could get a nice fancy dress, I had to do it in an ugly chemise.

Life behind the machines wasn't easy. It was quite common that someone died because of accidents, or people losing a finger. At the end of these long working days, I was covered in dirt and sweat. After all, I really shouldn't complain though, I was mostly done at 6 o clock, which wasn't that long, comparing it to some others who had to work more than 12 hours a day.

After my work that day, I went outside, looking if I could find something to get inspiration from. The drawings could not be something I made up. At least, that is what she said.

That was the positive thing about living nearby the nature. If you wanted to, you could go to the moorland, but you also could go to the town. There was a perfect transition from the grassland to the woods, where the trees where huddling together, like they where afraid of the darkness they created themselves.

The darkness. That was something I always was drawn to. Like nyctophilia. Whenever I felt alone, I went to the darkest corner in the house, and read a book. It was like darkness was a friend of mine. I had always thought, if reincarnation was real, I was some sort of sorcerer, that created magic spells, and poisoned drinks in a former life. Surrounded by darkness. That sounded very tempting.

I just decided to get back home, when I saw a butterfly on the ground. I always found the beautiful creatures. Everyone loved the colorful ones, but just like I said before, I was attracted to dark and plain, brown wings. It was obvious that the creature did not die a long time ago, there weren't even other animals to eat its corpse yet. It was also strange that a butterfly was around in this time of the year. It was already November, and the temperatures where extreme that year.

Maybe that was why it did not survive.

I decided to take it with me, to study at home. I am able to draw it, maybe mother would accept my creativity a bit more. I carefully picked it up by its wings and folded it in a piece of fabric. When I came back home, I knew that the rest of the family weren't there.

I ran to my chamber, unfolding the butterfly. I had a board, made of wood, to set things on to draw or study it. I pinned the animal down on the board with two needles, spreading the wings. The form of the wings weren't sculptured round and soft, but rather spiky. The colours varied from brown to green, almost iridescent.

I grabbed my pencils and paper, ready to draw it. It was silent in the house. I heard my pencil going over the paper, leaving a thin line. I was concentrating a lot on the details of the corpse of the butterfly and the edges of the wings. Before I could check the time, the sun had already gone down.

My parents and sister would be home by that time, but because I did not notice, I was surprised by a sudden sound when someone opened the door. I startled; I did not expect them to be home so early.

Luckily, it wasn't one of the other family members, but Martha, the governess. 'Oh, you scared me to death!' I said. Heavily breathing because I was afraid, I was getting caught. 'I am sorry, miss Ravenswood. I thought you might want some tea.'

'Thank you for offering, but I am doing something rather exiting right now.' 'can I see it ma'am?' I motioned to the desk where I was working on. 'It is a butterfly. I found it on the road today.' I handed her my magnifying glass, so she could be able to study it. 'It is quite magnificent. Just like the drawing.' 'I appreciate you compliment.' I said, taking the glass back.

'I will warn you when they come back.' She said, leaving the room again.