The Girl had given up long ago. You could see it in her eyes.

She had decided – as young girls often do when life turns on them, viper fast and twice as deadly – that self-protection was her only option.

She pulled up her drawbridge. She armed her battlements. She opted for ‘No’ when she desired ‘Yes’.

Oh, The Girl’s life was safer, alright. How could it be anything more when she had turned her back on the world? How could she take risks with her arms folded tightly across her chest and her hands clenched into tiny fists?

She looked, but she did not see. She observed and noticed nothing.

She turned inwards. She defended herself from anyone and everything.

And so, she disappeared.

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Here’s my latest entry into Magpie Tales. I don’t know why this picture of cosy winter socks took me down this road. Sometimes, the muse is slant-eyed…

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