Jos stood at the tree and felt nothing.
The sun dipped over the horizon with an explosion of oranges and fiery reds. The great Joshua stood, regal, strong and eternal in its shadow. The birds fluttered, branch to branch, riding the currents of wind breezing through the leaves.
To be free, she thought, and yet, here I stand, an apparition lost – bound in purgatory unable to find my way.
She’d lived a full life. From the limelight to the 3 dozen men who wished to bed her, she’d had it all, and still had felt trapped.
Longing to be free had become her obsession.
Longing solitude had become her mantra.
Now, all that she had was her solitude.
None saw her.
None heard her.
She was dead; a wisp of her former self – alone by a tree.
All of her life she’d longed for peace.
And yet, in peace she has found her prison.
“I want to be loved again,” she shouted at the tree.
The wind blew and the branches swayed with Earth’s rhythms.
She cried, feeling empty in spirit-hood.
Here stood Josaleyne Montgomery: Alone at last!