hadley winchester | district ten | fin [CB]

Hadley Winchester
Sixteen
Female

A solitude with creatures that have no voice but communication with them is no boundary. Soft muzzles of horses to comfort me in this time of mourning and the freedom they give me while on their backs is enough for all the worries to retreat from my mind. High up in the barn, the perfect base for my control tower. I can view all the goings on at the ranch, every movement mapped by me and every collision diverted. All these little pieces of control, I add them all to my resume, proof of my reliability when the time comes for papa to hand over to keys.

I have drawn out the alternative routes, there are two in line before me for the inheritance and it is so likely that it will go to them. Then the decision comes, do I stay, or do I go? A set up of my own with every piece of control in my own hands but then I am away from the family that has done me well all of my life. I am sixteen years old and my future is already a worry.

There has been a heavy weight to carry since Caine’s death, the stress on papa is so visible and I have thrown every strength I have at him to help ease it. Now I am becoming his shadow, a personal assistant that picks up every piece that he drops behind him. It is my method of mourning, a busy mind to forget about the uncontrollable loss of an older brother.

All I can do is to carry on painting smiles on their faces and hiding the spillages and breakages, the collapse of little things that could so easily stretch the tension of stress that I feel around the family.