Anna In The Garden

11

11

Anna had locked the door again, flush with excitement, and scurried back to her rooms. She could not have entered the room, not at that moment. Not even to take a little peek into her Father's study for the first time since he and Mother had left. It was not the right time and, with the snow storm thickening the blanket of flakes and drifts outside, she could not utilise the exit to the garden, anyway.

For several days, she watched the snow and hoped and prayed that it would all magically disappear. Staring out of the windows, in the few moments she had to herself, her need for the snow to reduce became an insidious obsession.

One day, after the morning torture and tasteless breakfast, Nursey surprised Anna. Outside, she found a pony attached to a sleigh and a thick blanket to drape over her knees as Nursey forced the poor creature to forge a path through the deep banks of snow that had gathered during the storm. Anna felt like a princess as Nursey circumnavigated the entirety of the grounds, following the wall all around.

As luck would have it, the sleigh became caught in a dip almost parallel to the great iron gates of the garden and Nursey allowed Anna to jump down, into the snow, in order to lighten the sleigh's load and extricate it from its unfortunate position.

Anna took the opportunity to force her way to the gates and placed her mitten covered hands upon bars, resting her fur hatted head between them, to gaze with longing down the avenue that led towards the village. She couldn't see it, of course, as the trees that lined the avenue dipped beyond the horizon, but she hoped to see at least the curls of smoke, rising from chimney pots, that would tell her that she and Nursey were not the only ones in the world.

It almost felt like a dream, the times she had visited the village. Hand in hand with Mother and Father as they paraded around stalls and entertainments at one of the village's regular festivals and holidays. She remembered the people, or, at least, she remembered a memory of them, in their simple clothes and happy smiles. She felt a burst of nostalgia at the mere thought.

Looking around, she saw Nursey fighting with the sleigh, which simply refused to move from its inclined position, the pony becoming more fretful at each grunted urging from the large nursemaid. With little else to do, Anna returned her gaze to outside the garden and the forlorn hope of seeing signs of some civilisation.

The girl stood before her, seeming to feel as surprised as Anna herself. Their eyes caught and Anna had to fight to look away to check upon Nursey once more. Satisfied that Nursey was suitably occupied, she returned her gaze to the girl, stood in the snow, but making no impression upon its surface.

"Are you a ghost?" Whispering, Anna took the time to make a detailed examination of the girl. "You look solid enough, but I fear I have never encountered a ghost before and I do not know if such creatures appear as solid or as wisps that are there but not."

"How can you even see me?" The girl stepped forward, her large, unlaced boots leaving no prints in the snow. "This is impossible! No dreamer should be able to see me, not like this. I become part of their dreams, like furniture, there but ignored. But you, you actually see me."

"Of course I see you, little ghost!" Anna had to stifle a giggle. "Father used to say 'Possible and impossible are states separated only by knowledge'. Am I to imply that you believe I am dreaming? I assure you, by the terrible pinching of the cold against my toes, I am very much awake."

"No, this is a dream, your dream. I'm just passing through." The girl reached towards the gates, not a single sign of the cold bothering her at all. Her hands looked warm and full-blooded and not a shiver or shake to attest to the low temperature affecting her.