End of the Line

by Ottilie Weber

  Once upon a time in a far-away land called Germany lived a baroness named Emma. She was a very beautiful maiden and was loved by all in the kingdom. People would come from all around to see her and would do anything to see that glowing smile of hers. She had long, dark brown hair that reached her waist with naturally loose curls, which she adored. She wasn’t very tall, not being much taller than five feet, and wasn’t even at the age of nineteen years. She was a very fiery spirit, a fighter and a lover, which made her the independent individual that she was known for. All which were qualities that parents would love in their children.

  Then there was a man named Lord Wilhelm Henry Francis von Rosenberg whom everyone in the land knew and usually thought pretty well of him. Lord Wilhelm was a charming debonair man that made all the women swoon as he walked by. He was five years older than Emma and did just about everything in his power to try and win the fair maiden Emma’s hand in marriage. Her parents and all of the people in the land awed at the thought of the two of them being together. Wilhelm and Emma would be the fairy tale couple, with a happy ending that would make all jealous. She, however, didn’t feel the same about him, knowing his love was for her title and not for who she was. She was a firm believer in love and what she thought was right. She was not about to give in based on what others thought.

  One evening her father told her the following month she and Lord Wilhelm would be wed. It was to be a big celebration, one that everyone would be dying to go to. She felt ill at the thought of being with Lord Wilhelm and spent a lot of her time locked in her room away from everyone. She had felt trapped all her life and the feeling had been growing as she got older. Now she was to marry a man who would throw her in a prison with invisible bars and throw away the key. He would keep her all to himself and hand her a mask, hiding her true feelings from the public, allowing the world to see the happy ending they all thought would happen.

  Two nights before her wedding, she packed a small bag of clothes she received from the help, and with barely any money, she climbed down the balcony of her room. From there she ran to the dock saying good-bye to a life she never planned on returning to. At the dock, she used almost all her money to travel to America. In a small city near the port she came to, she became a singer at a club to earn a living. At the club she met my great-grandfather Scott, the true love of her life. They got married and had three kids, and together they did live happily ever after ‘til the end.