Chapter Three

After I had left the town, I walked till the one I lived in, Teneni(Ten-en-e). I remember when I was first trying to get here, everyone was, ”Can I help you home sweety?” What I would do for that hospitality right now. When I arrived I was met by stares. I had forgotten that I was so filthy and bedraggled. I probably look like a homeless person. Sighing, I walked down the street to the bus station. I had figured out the last time I was here that the bus station had maps of this town and the surrounding towns. It was my backup plan to get to the Gogenschmere town. If no one told me where it was I was going to find it myself. Now this had transformed into my plan of getting home after a horrid week of traveling and defeat. 

***

I trudged through the brush outside my house. As I pushed aside the last of the weeds, I was rewarded with rain pelting down on my face. I looked up the hill to my home. One light was on. I recognized it as my bedroom. Pushing open the door, I wondered who was in my room. I crept up the stairs. Peeking through the crack I saw my mother sitting on the bed gazing out the window. Tears dripping down her face she whispered, ”Where are you my dear Danielle?” I pushed open the door. 

Chapter Four

“MAMA!” I cried as I threw myself into her arms. Her smell of apples, cinnamon and cardamom never smelt better. I gazed at her shining blue eyes, I had never been so glad to see them. We cuddled on the bed until it was long past my bedtime but I wasn’t told to go to bed. I closed my eyes. 

The sun lit up my room and woke me up. I looked around me, and saw Mama lying on the bed with her arms around me. The sun shone and lit up her blond hair golden. She looked so peaceful. I gently lifted her arms off from around me and crept downstairs. I could imagine that father was on another trip selling goods to the people of Rowano. I looked around the kitchen lit up bright with sunlight, that sense of familiarity was warm and gooey. I set to work making breakfast as quietly as possible, not wanting to wake Mama. 

The smell of fresh pancakes greeted Mama as she came down the stairs. Her eyes twinkled as she smiled, ”You never forgot your way around this kitchen did you, not that I’m surprised.”

I was stunned. She knew I was smart when I was a baby? I never left a note saying I went to the college, how did she know I was so smart? She laughed, filling the room with the sound of her delicate laughter, ”You didn’t think I didn’t notice you sneaking off to read books? I always knew what you were doing in my house.” She tossed me up in the air and caught me. She seemed to become much more relaxed while I was gone. Her face became melancholy. “When you left, I thought you would never come back, after all, you must have found out that…”

“That what?” I poked.

“That you’re going to have a sister.”

 I ogled at her. 

“You didn’t know?”

“Of course I didn’t! Why would I run away after finding that out, I can’t wait to have a sister!” I wiggled out of her arms and started to dance around. 

She laughed, ”Well let’s let bygones be bygones, and have this delicious looking breakfast of yours.”

I proudly showed Mama that everything was perfect. While we ate breakfast, lots of questions popped up all around the subject of my sister, ”When is my sister coming” and, ”Will I have to share my room?” 

Mama laughed and responded with,”We’ll figure that out when it comes around.”

But when I asked, ”Does daddy know yet?” My question was responded with a scowl.

“If he doesn’t think it’s important enough to come home when his only daughter was missing, he doesn’t deserve to know about this.”

That night I snuggled up with Mama in her big bed and fell asleep with her next to me. 

The same thing happened for a long time. That was until Mama was consumed by mother-to-be business. She had women coming to the house on a daily basis and went into her room and locked it. A lot of packages arrived along with handymen to put them together. New additions start finding their way into my room, a baby cot, baby toys, and baby bottles. Every night I climbed up into my bed, there was something new. It was like this until the night that the ladies stayed all night, and the night that I heard the agonized wails echo through the house.