5. A Shell
Marianne Redwood sat in the chair in the morning room by the window, gazing out at the frost-touched garden. Everything seemed so plain. Marianne was young and pretty. She was twenty four, very petite with dark hair like an oak tree tumbling down her back in loose curls put their by sleeping with rags, how many women today get authentic looking curls. She had clear, green eyes and a very fair complexion. However her nice exterior was a complete contrast to her morgue-like soul. At only 15 she had been married off to Richard Redwood, a theatre director who was 30 years older than she. A year later, she had had a child- Edmund. He was now eight.
She missed the days when she would run about her house with her older brother, Jonah who was now a producer. He would sometimes tease her and torment her but was always there through thick and thin, protecting her from the harsh reality of life. Marianne understood a harsh reality now.
Marianne had so far survived. She wouldn't call it living, this wasn't living, just, not dying or surviving. She wanted to fall in love instead of her parents arranging a marriage to a much older man. Richard was kind and a gentleman but Marianne had not felt love or compassion for him once, not even fondness. However, any confidence she had once had to ask her husband for a divorce had slowly dissolved away and all she was now was an empty, hollow shell of a woman who would sit all day and every day, watching the garden.