Take Me Away.......Not Here!

Waking up in an unfamiliar place is disconcerting to say the least, but waking up in the middle of nowhere is worse. Looking around, all I can see is grasslands, not even a furry creature. That is until I hear a noise coming from my left. Turning my head suddenly my hair obscures my vision for a moment. As it falls back down, I see several large dogs running right at me, barking. I crawl backwards away from them.

I am not fast enough, they surround me easily. They are still barking although it doesn’t seem like they are threatening me or warning me. I watch each one in turn as I hear a voice.

“Hol’ on now,” a man's voice calls out. The dogs stop barking and take a seat right where they stand staring at me. A tall man walks up to stand between two of the dogs. “Young lady,” before he continued to speak he looks around as if searching for something. “Where did you come from?” he asks with a hint of worry in his voice.

I get a good look at him now that the dogs weren’t an immediate threat to me. He wore a loose fitting off-white shirt tucked into tan pants. His pants were tucked into black leather boots. His hair looks brown or maybe a reddish-brown. I can't really tell with the setting sun behind him. Everything about him says he is a farmer but from where I have no idea.

“Can you talk?” He brings my attention back to his words instead of his appearance.

“Yeah I can talk,” I snap at him, annoyed at his question. I do not dare to stand up still keeping an eye on the dogs that now surround the both of us. I didn’t even notice that he had gotten closer to me. I move back an inch or two. Not daring to get any closer to him or his dogs.

“Good, what are you doing here?” He lets the shotgun he is holding hang by his side. I notice now that its muzzle is pointing towards the ground. I can’t help but to stare at it as he speaks. “Why are you out here alone? Where are your parents? Where did you come from?”

“So many questions for someone you just met.” I interrupt him with a snarky comment before he asks another question I am unwilling to answer.

“You’re a young girl alone on my land. The way you talk..” he pauses, seeming to think of the right words. “You are from a rich family. You don’t talk like us.” He moves the gun to hold it behind his back. I had not taken my eyes off it, making sure I was the second to know if he was going to shoot me.

“Fair point,” I relax, moving to sit cross legged to answer his questions. “I don’t really know how or why I am here. The last thing I remember is falling asleep in my bed in my home. Then suddenly I feel the sun on my face and wake up right here.” I stop, having answered two of his questions. He stares at me for an uncomfortable amount of time. I roll my eyes, clearly he wants to know the answer to the rest of his questions.

“I don’t know why I am alone. How far away do you live from here? Which way is the nearest city?” I pepper him with my own questions as I answer his. “I assume my parents are at home. I came from..” I think better of what I am going to say to that question and stop myself just in time. “I don't really remember where I came from.” A clear lie I think he knows. He looks at me confused for a moment. He too seems to change his mind on something.

“Come,” he says simply before turning around and walking back the way he came. The dogs turn and follow him, the ones behind me walking past me without a second glance at me. I look around, I still see nothing but the man and his dogs. With no choice but to follow him, I do, one of the dogs comes back to walk beside me.

“Good boy,” I whisper, giving him a quick scratch on the top of his head. The walk takes longer than I thought it would. I guess that is just my city girl sensibilities talking. The home is your typical farmhouse. A wrap around porch, a couple of rocking chairs to one side of the front door. The dogs run off as we approach the front steps.

“You just brought home a little girl?” A ladies' voice carries through the walls back to me sitting at their dining table. When we made it to his home he introduced me to his wife, her name is Athena. A beautiful black woman with long curly light brown hair. Standing next to him she seems around average height. He still hasn't told me his name. She is wearing a plain blue dress with some sort of tiny flora print on it. She wears a linen apron tied tight around her slim waist. Like him she wears boots made of leather.

Their home is relatively small but fairly clean. The inside is like a cabin. There is one large room, the one I am in, it holds all the normal things. A kitchen area, a dining area, and a living room area. A rather large fireplace sits in one of the corners. There are two doors on either side of it. They went into the one on the right.

"Little girl?” I say out loud to myself. They think I am a little girl. No matter how youthful my face looks I know I look at least in my early twenties. I think they heard me because they stopped. talking for a moment.

“We should talk about this later.” I heard the man say, Athena agreed after a moment of silence. They come back out and Athena has a big smile on her face.

“Are you hungry?” She asks me, going over to the stove she pokes at the fire then moves to stir whatever is in the pot on top of it.

"Yes thank you,” I had not noticed that I was so hungry. I turn as the man sits opposite me. I think he washed up a bit, I could have sworn his hair was brown but now I can see that it is actually a deep red. We sat in silence as she made us plates of food and sat them down in front of us. It took me too long to notice that there are only two chairs which means one of us will have to stand and eat. “Oh,” I say once I realize and stand up moving my plate to the side so that she can have a seat.

“Oh no you sit down,” she tells me in what I can only describe as a mom voice. I obey of course, you have to when a woman uses her mom voice. “John will go eat in his armchair” she looks at the man as she says this. I guess his name is John, at least I know that. He nods and moves, going over to the living room area and sitting down in the most uncomfortable looking chair I have ever seen. Athena takes his place at the table with me. “I will have John make another chair for the table tomorrow” she informs me then begins to eat.

“Where am I?” I ask, trying to keep the growing concern out of my voice. I didn’t want her to think I was ungrateful or something like that.

“What do you mean? You are in our home?” Somehow I had offended her with my question.

“That’s not…” I start before being cut off by John.

“You are in the Kansas territory.”

“What? Really?” I am surprised, it seems I am not too far from my home. Athena nods as she continues to eat, taking care to watch me.

“You’re not from here. Where are you from?” She asks me pushing food around her plate for a moment.

“Not too far from here I think.” I finish eating, get up to take my plate to the counter. I will help her do the dishes later. “Do you have a map? I know how to read them. I am sure I can figure out how to get home from here.” I added turning back to Athena then looking at John. She looks at him as he answers my question.

“Maps are for the rich or the enlisted. We don’t have such a thing. I don’t even know anyone who has one. Not around here.” He too finishes eating and gets up to bring his plate to the counter. Before I could ask my next question Athena spoke up.

“We could tell you what's near here and how to get home if you just tell us where you are from.”

“I am from a place called Kansas City. If I am in Kansas that means I just need a ride across the border into Missouri.” The look on their faces makes me go silent. It is a mix of fear and pity I think.

“I think you should stay with us.” Athena’s voice is shaky and a bit uncertain. She glances at John, he is rubbing his forehead as if he is getting a headache.

“Yeah stay with us, we are leaving for the West in a couple of days and you can come with us. Meet up with your folks then.” Just as I am about to retort that I do not wish to do that, a knock at the door grabs the attention of everyone in the room. John goes to the door and opens it slightly. While Athena cooked and we talked the sun had set and it was pitch black outside. This alarmed me and I sped walked to the nearest window, the one in a door the back door I realize as I peer out of it. There was nothing, no lights as far as I could see.

Could I possibly be so far from a city or town that there are no street lights. That is the best explanation as to why there are no lights. Although I always thought that even farms had blood lights to keep an eye on their crops or cattle. I turn to take a better look around the room, there are no lights as before. I thought they were using lanterns before to save energy or something but there doesn’t seem to be any electricity at all inside or outside.

“I think it is time to be down for the night,” John’s voice brings my attention to him and Athena standing near the front door. The visitor clearly said what they needed to say and left.

“Ok,” I whisper in response as they watch me. The after dinner cleaning totally forgotten now.

“You can sleep in the farm hands room. We don’t have any right now so you will be all alone.” She walks over to the other door beside the fireplace, the one they didn’t go into before. I followed my head spinning on the possibilities of where I am and how I got here.

Walking into the room there are single beds lined up directly in front of me causing us to turn left to go further into the room. The opposite wall is also lined with single beds, a total of six in the room. She goes to the fireplace at the back of the room and lights a fire.

“Pick any bed,” she turns and gestures around the room. I choose the bed closest to the fireplace and furthest from the door. She smiles and nods satisfied with my compliance. With a soft mother goodnight she leaves the room shutting the door behind her. I lay on the bed thinking about all that I have seen and heard today. Their faces when I was explaining where I am from. Why were they scared? Why did they pity me? I hear their voices from the other room along with sounds of cleaning.

“She must be an orphan, John. We can’t just leave her to fend for herself.”

“She’s no orphan Athena. You hear the way she talks. And you see her clothes. That’s the nicest fabric I have ever seen.”

“Something is wrong. She thinks she is from a state called Missouri. Isn’t that the name of the indians that used to live not too far from here?” Athena’s voice gets lower as if she knew I could hear them.

“If something is wrong with her we can’t take her with us.” John doesn’t seem too convinced by his own argument.

Their conversation goes on like that for some time. They are trying to decide to keep me. I turn in the uncomfortable bed putting my back towards the door. I never could sleep facing doors or doorways. The fireplace lights up the room pretty well and I spot a mirror hanging on the wall next to it. Beneath the mirror a small table with a large basin on it. I suppose that was used by the farm hands to shave and get ready for the day. I get out of bed, the floor boards creaking softly beneath me. Looking into it I almost did not recognize myself.

I still have the same round face, plump lips and caramel complexion but now I am sporting long curly red hair and emerald green eyes. I almost look like their kid. I can see why they continued to call me ‘little girl’ and the concern they showed me for being alone on their land. I look like I am around fifteen years old. The longer I look at myself and think about everything I learned today the more I feel like…

“I don’t belong here” I say to myself out loud to the now silent house.