# Style: Victorian Child's Perspective

The grown-ups were making very loud noises. That is how I remember the beginning. They were shouting words like "breach" and "surge," and their faces looked like they were made of grey clay.

My papa held my hand very, very tight. His hand was shaking, but he didn't let go. He told me we were going on an adventure, that we were going to see the river from the very top of the world. He carried me up the stairs of the big house, and I remember thinking that the stairs felt like they were breathing.

When we got to the roof, the world had turned into a mirror. I could see the clouds in the water, and the water in the clouds. It was very beautiful, like a giant painting that wouldn't stop growing.

"Stay here, Lucy," Papa said. He kissed my forehead. His lips felt cold. "I have to help the neighbors. I will be right back. Do not move from this spot."

I stayed. I watched the other houses disappear. It looked like they were sinking into a big, brown soup. I saw a dog swimming by, and I tried to call it, but the wind blew my voice away.

Then, I saw the things.

First, it was a shoe. A little black shoe with a silver buckle, just like the ones the ladies wore to church. Then came a chair, then a broken mirror that caught the sun and flashed like a diamond. Then I saw a doll. It was a porcelain doll with a blue dress, but its head was gone, and its stuffing was floating around it like a cloud of white wool.

I wasn't scared because I thought Papa was coming back. I sat on the chimney and sang the song Mama used to sing to me. I sang it for the shoe, and the mirror, and the doll.

But the sun went down, and the moon came up, and the water kept coming. The roof became a very small island. I remember feeling very cold, and my tummy felt like it was empty and echoing.

One morning, a man in a big orange boat found me. He had a loud voice and a scratchy beard. He picked me up and wrapped me in a heavy wool blanket that smelled of oil and old smoke.

"You're a lucky one, little bird," he said.

I looked back at the water. My house was gone. Papa's hand was gone. All that was left was the big, brown mirror, reflecting a sky that didn't care about any of us. I reached into my pocket and found a small, red ribbon. I tied it to the railing of the boat, so that if Papa ever found a boat of his own, he would know exactly where I had gone.

--- **Tensor Encoding:** OTMES_v2: [M1:9, M4:7, N2:1.0, K1:1.0, I:1.0, R:0.2, theta:160] Code: L-VICT-06-S03