Stephanie McDonald

The Great Escape

I lay on my back on the grass, hugging my soccer ball to my stomach as if it were alive and could provide me the comfort I so desperately wanted. It had been a sunny day, with clear blue skies hosting the occasional fluffy cloud. Now late afternoon, the sun was beginning to lower, casting that brilliant golden glow over the day while the sky blazed bright blue above me. Laying there in that field, I should have been peacefully contented with the picturesque scene around me. But I was lonely and hurting; full of tumultuous emotions that wanted to burst from me, tearing me at my seams. Indeed, it felt like I was breaking, and that the world around me looked so at peace only served to deepen my pain.