Happy Monday Everyone. It is the last day of August. Reaching the end of August always feels like we have just finished climbing a massive hill. At least to me. Unfortunately for us the start of July comes with another blast of heat.so this will be a sweaty one for us and all of my fall sweaters will remain in the back of the closet. Also certain that if I tried to wear the autumn corduroy trousers I love so much something would combust. Probably me. Because it doesn’t really matter what the calendar says, the thermometer tells me it isn’t fall yet. We do however have the last prompt of the month locked and loaded so lets see what it brings. Timers set for fifteen minutes and off we go.
Okay I like this one. I also have a weakness for St. Olga. Didn’t expect her to show up here but I have to say I am kind of glad she did because it gives me a lovely thought for a story. I may have to work on this over lunch.
Monday, August 31st: Her eyes went wide.
Her eyes went wide. This was not supposed to happen. She was not supposed to be the one sent away. She realized she stopped breathing and drew in a deep if shaky breath. She blinked a few times in rapid succession. They held out the papers to her. She took them automatically.
“We’ll leave you to start getting things together. Your ride will be her at 7am sharp.” They turned away and walked out of the door. No one looked back, even when they had to reach for the door knob to pull the door shut behind them.
Dana felt her lower lip wanting to tremble. She felt tears gather in her eyes. She wanted to scream that it wasn’t fair. She did nothing wrong. That she shouldn’t be the one punished. She shuffled to her bed sat down. It was less of a sitting and more of letting the mattress take her weight as her knees crumbled.
She closed her eyes. It hurt but she also knew deep down that nothing she said would matter. Nothing she could do would change things. She started to clench her fists and heard the crinkle of papers. She opened her eyes and looked at the pages.
She was being sent to Saint Olga’s Academy. She sniffed back the tears that wanted to fall and glanced over the papers. The Academy was an all girl’s school and surprisingly the school’s seal had a bird trailing a burning bundle of twigs.
“Weird,” she thought. She looked at the general information in the top paragraph and learned that the school was dedicated to helping young ladies learn and grow through the principles and lessons that guided St. Olga’s life and pursuits.
Dana wasn’t certain what that meant as she knew nothing of saints, but she did see that the letter was not part of a general information packet. It was part of an acceptance and welcome packet. She looked at the date and saw it was dated three days ago.
Three days ago she had been accepted as a student at St. Olga’s. ‘They would have had to send an application for me in before then,’ Dana thought. The thought hit hard. It meant this wasn’t a punishment for today. It was something planned well before today’s events.
‘They were already planning this.’
She didn’t know how long the application process would take but she guessed it wasn’t an overnight thing. Curious about the principles of St. Olga, Dana picked up her phone and looked up the saint in question. She frowned as she read the first entry her search pulled up.
St. Olga was married to the Prince of the Rus and when his enemies killed him they thought she as a mere woman would crumble. She didn’t. She slaughtered all those she thought involved and led soldiers to their cities. When the walled cities were barricaded, she told the frightened people that if they sent one bird from every household to her as tribute she would take her men and go home. They sent the birds. Olga then had her men tie burning twigs to each bird and sent them loose. The terrified birds flew home and burned the city down. She was later made a saint because she was the first royal of the Rus to convert to Christianity.
Dana frowned. She wondered if she had the right St. Olga. It didn’t seem like any girl’s school patron she ever heard of. She tried looking for St. Olga’s Academy but came up with nothing. Realizing she had little time to pack, she set aside her search and began to gather her things.
Ten til Midnight 