Chapter 2: Calm before the rising storm
In one of the peaceful villages named Hawkshead, on one of the early afternoons, two young girls sat on the back stairs of their humble home. They were sisters who were thicker than blood. The elder sister Marianne was thirteen years old, sitting on the upper stair, brushing her younger sister Anastasia's hair, who was three years younger than her.
The younger one sang, "Two feet hopping front and back, twirling and running, ah ah ahhh..." She took a deep breath, while the elder one ran the comb and braided her sister's wavy brown hair, which was similar to hers. "Little buds waiting to bl-ummm," she hummed softly.
"Bloom, Anna," Marianne corrected her sister, which had Anastasia furrow her eyebrows.
"That is what I said," Anastasia replied as if not knowing the difference because it sounded the same to her.
Tying the ends of her sister's hair with a blue ribbon, Marianne placed her hands on Anastasia's shoulders and said, "Your hair is all done."
Anastasia turned excited. Raising her hand, she touched her braided hair and said excitedly, "It's all pretty!"
Marianne smiled, shaking her head because her sister hadn't even looked at the braid in the mirror or in the glass window to know if her hair was made well. She said,
"Turn around so that I can place the flowers," picking the tiny purple flower they had plucked from the forest together, Marianne pushed one of them on the side of Anastasia's hair. The younger girl picked the rest of the flowers and placed them into her elder sister's hair. "I already have the flowers, Anna."
"Not enough! You should have more, Mary! You will look like a fairy, you will see," Anastasia used her small hands to place the flowers with utmost concentration so they wouldn't come off when they would later play in the fields.