Sarah's Secret

Sarah walked down the hallway staring at the floor, watching her feet grace the lightly stained hardwood, step by step singing all the way. With every step the floor made more, and more noise, and the hallway got darker, and darker, yet she still sang and walked as if she was clueless of what lies ahead.  The hardwood floor has come right up to bright orange carpeting. She stopped suddenly. Breathing heavily, she looks up slowly, not sure what she'll find. Hand on her chest, she feels her heart beat rapidly. Trying to calm herself, she looks back down at the ground to avoid seeing anything in the room. Again, she looks up slowly only to find a large leather chair in the middle of the room. The walls were lined with bookshelves. It was empty. No one in sight. She walks slowly and carefully, looking around making sure nobody's watching, and finally approaches the chair. She looks one more time over her shoulders, then climbs up the chair, and sits. Her feet barely off the edge, and her little head only a third of the way to the top of the chair; she decides to get comfortable. As she starts to close her eyes and fall asleep she feels a cool breeze graze her head, and blow through her light blond pigtails. It felt as if a fan had just turned on directly above her. She opens her eyes and the lights were bright as the sun shining in her eyes. Blinking, adapting to the light, she squints her blue eyes, only to find her furious father standing there staring at her in shame. She wasn’t sure what she did. Nothing happened. She just sat down in that huge leather chair, that’s it. Frightened, she jumps out of the chair and walks slowly towards her dad. Tears starting to stream down her face, not actually crying, just tears. She doesn’t whimper, not a peep. She walks past him out the door and he follows her out the door back into the hall. The bottom of her pigtails, wet from her tears that she refused to wipe away, head down; she never looks up at her father, she wasn’t allowed. A backhand always follows their eyes meeting. Ever since she's never been able to look anyone in the eye. Her mother is the only person who's ever seen her ice blue eyes, says that you could stare into all day long, but Sarah never lets anyone that close anymore. Nobody.