Alice ~ pg.2
In order to know thyself, you must first find thyself.
The woman with the red hair and heterochromia leaned against a brick wall in an alleyway. She was shivering cold and her breath was fogging up the night sky. Red and Yellow clouds off in the distance from where she came from as well as flashing blue and extra red. She vigorously rubbed her arms to try to warm up and then blew her hot air onto her fingers.
I have got to warm up, but where? Where am I even, what is even going on!
Her thoughts raced a million miles a second as she tried to figure it out. Again rubbing her arms, the one thing she needed to address right away was the cold. She would not survive out here for long. She hunkered down a little bit and gripped her medical gown around her lithe five foot two frame. She walked through the snow down the cold nearly silent street, a few scattered parked cars embracing the road.
She kept walking occasionally trying one of the doors of a closed business or building. They were all locked. An electric hum emitted from above her, as she was washed in neon yellow light. She took a couple of steps backwards and looked up to read the sign.
Terry’s Popular Pancakes now open.
Pancakes, okay I could use something to eat, let’s try here. We could also warm up in there.
Her toned legs and feet crushed the snow beneath them as she continued to shiver and fog up the night. Her shaking hand reached out to the door and opened it quickly walking in. When she got inside the pancake cafe she saw a rather tall gruff looking man standing behind the counter. He had the white hair of wisdom and the unshaven stubble of a man who simply didn’t have time to shave always. As she approached the counter shivering he looked at her with deep concern.
“Please, can you help me, I don’t have any money to offer you, but I could use some food. I — I could work for it, maybe do — do your dishes or something?” Came the girl’s melodic tone of voice. The man looked at her with confusion and looked out around the street to figure out if there was anyone else with her. Thinking that he did not understand her she repeated the words in French,
“S’il vous plaît , pouvez-vous me aider , je n’ai pas d’argent à vous offrir, mais je pourrais utiliser un peu de nourriture . Je pourrais travailler pour elle , peut-être faire vos plats ou quelque chose ?”
“Oh no, I am sorry, I understood you the first time. Are you hurt Miss? Is there something wrong?” he asked her with genuine concern. He noticed that her clothing and skin was blackened with smoke. “Did you have something to do with that fire over there at the research building?”
“What? No… I don’t think I am hurt no, just cold. Would you be able to let me work for pancakes please?” She asked again, choosing to hold off on the response about the fire herself. She simply did not know the answer to that question. All she knew was that she woke up with the room she was in on fire and got out of there quickly. She even managed to rescue a man who was laying down in the hall way as she did so.
“Sure, you can clean up the kitchen.” He responded, and started to set up the pancakes on the grill. He continued with “Do you have somewhere you could go? You look troubled, are you sure you are okay?”
“No, I mean, I don’t know. I think I am okay.” she looked over her legs and arms to be sure even looking up at the reflective silver of the plume. “Yeah I think so. Hum whe-where are we?”
Terry turned his head back over his shoulder to look at her with a quizzical expression. “You do not know where you are? You are in Shaver Lake, California. It’s in the mountains, not many folk here during the winter, but the tourists come in the spring and summer.” He flipped the pancakes and continued cooking them. “You know, I didn’t catch your name?”
My name… what, what is it. Come on think, what is it.
“I erm, don’t know. I am trying to think about it, but it is not coming to me?” She felt rather embarrassed for not knowing such a simple detail. How could she have forgotten her own name.
What even happened before the fire? Shaver Lake, when did I even get to California? Where was I before that?
Terry finished the cakes up and served them to the woman on a nice white plate. He then set the utensils down, but before he could return with the syrup bottle he saw her having already scarfed down one of them, and was three fourths the way done with the second. He hesitated a little bit watching her eat so fast before setting it down and sliding it closer. “They huh, usually taste better with a little syrup if you like?”
She looked over to the bottle of syrup as she finished the last of the pancakes. She then looked up at him and slowly swallowed the massive last bite. Terry then gave her a glass of water. “Well, I can’t just call you Miss all the time, do you know any family or something? Maybe a last name?”
The woman shook her head no a small amount, and looked up at him as she polished off the glass just as quickly and took in a deep breath when she was done. She wiped her mouth off on her arm and then spoke again. “I don’t know, I can’t remember anything outside of the fire.” she admitted. Terry thought for a few moments and then said,
“Okay, well sit right there, I have some clothes in the back that should fit you, though they might be a little bit big, we can work around that. That little dress of yours is not fit for the mountains.” His tone had a low grumble to it, not that he was upset or anything, it was just his voice was like that.
Terry cleaned her dishes off noting that she had not even bothered with the utensils. He told her he would be right back and moved into the back room to get the clothes. While he was there he rang up the Sheriff’s office and said, “Yeah hello, this is Terry, I got this woman in my shop. She looks pretty scared and is covered head to toe in soot. I think she might have something to do with that fire.” there was a pause as he listened to the response. “Yes, okay, I will keep her here till you get here thank you Sheriff.”
He then picked up the clothes he had talked about and handed them over to the woman. He also gave her some small ropes, “You know, in case they don’t really fit you Miss.”
“Thank you very much.” She replied dragging the clothing off of the counter as she spun off of the stool. She looked around for a place to change while keeping her dignity. Before Terry saw it and told her there was a bathroom just around the other side. Her smile was radiant as she made her way into the room.
Her visage in the mirror looked like she had been painted with soot. She set the clothing down on the toilet seat, and then picked up the bar of soap at the sink. She turned on the water with both hot and cold to keep it warm and then started to wash her face and arms off. When she was done, she used paper towels to dry off and tossed them.
Her small hand picked up the sweat pants and slid them on underneath her hospital gown. It was indeed too big for her. She used the rope Terry had given her to hold them up though and then pulled the gown up and off of her now half naked body. She pulled the hoodie back over her body, and it was also too big for her, but it would do the job. An engine noise was heard outside of the pancake house and shortly later the door chimed as it hit the bells hanging over it. Her small hand reached to the door and opened it a crack to see a female officer walking into the place.
“Hey Terry, so where’s the girl?” said the officer. For some reason, the woman suddenly got really scared and she started to look for a way out of the bathroom with out being seen. Her flight or fight response was telling her, no screaming at her to run.
End of page 2.
I love you beautiful creatures.
~Naomi
P.S. If you feel the desire to help me continue this project, please consider becoming a patron in the link below next to my avatar. I am also sorry that this page was late, my life got a bit too busy to complete it on time.
