First Pages: Esmeralda and the Breeze

Esmeralda and the Breeze is the third short story to be found in An Anthology of Those Who Walk Among Us. It is also available as a stand-alone short story.

Esmeralda and the Breeze: is a short story in the magic realism genre centered around a young woman finding her place in a world that largely rejects her. 

Esmeralda and the Breeze is available as part of An Anthology of Those Who Walk Among Us, and also as a stand alone title at Smashwords, Kobo, Kindle, iTunes, and Nook.

First Page: Esmeralda and the Breeze

Esmeralda sat upon the front step of her veranda. She sat and looked over her front garden, across the white-washed palings of her fence and past the pond on the village green. She sat and stared at the forest beyond.

Her mother and father were worried about the way their young daughter sat and stared, for Esmeralda would stare at the forest for at least two hours each morning. She would sit and stare as the other children passed by the house on their way to school.

Nothing her parents could do would induce Esmeralda to attend school beyond her first day. Nothing they could say would convince her to return to the classroom, which seemed to hold a special terror for her.

When they asked why she wouldn't attend, Esmeralda wouldn't answer. She would just turn her head in the direction of the trees and stare.

It didn't matter that she couldn't see the trees as individuals; she would just turn her head away from her parents and gaze in the direction of the woods. Nothing they did or said would stop her.

As she grew older, Esmeralda spent longer gazing at the forest and less time doing the few other activities she indulged in.

Her garden, with its variety of woodland flowers grew unruly and full of weeds. Her sketch book and its attendant pencils lay, untouched, on the bay window seat in her bedroom and the kitchen was no longer redolent with the smell of the small, spice cakes, she liked to bake.

The daffodils struggled to break past the matted overgrowth of weeds in the first few weeks after winter. They pushed their spiky leaves through the weedy mat above them and stood, tossing their heads in the spring breeze as though they resented Esmeralda's neglect.

 

END EXTRACT

If you would like to read more,  Esmeralda and the Breeze is available as part of An Anthology of Those Who Walk Among Us, and also as a stand alone title at Smashwords, Kobo, Kindle, iTunes, and Nook.