Saturday, April 21, 2012

Chapter Two

Starting Over


Have you ever gone to sleep but knew you were dreaming, and you just kept telling yourself to wake up but your brain wouldn’t cooperate? Or have you ever looked at what you did and what you should have done, and kick yourself in the ass because now you were in a fix you couldn’t get out of? What about knowing you had somehow managed to obliviously break every scientific law known to man and now you were lost in a place you knew nothing about? I believe I’ve thought and compared every excuse I know within five seconds and still came up blank.

     The only thing this house and Grandma’s house shared was the same annoying hardwood floor. Besides that, nothing was recognizable. I passed by a little desk with a flower/candle decoration and some pictures and decided to see whose home I had somehow entered. A man with dark hair and glasses had his arm around a shorter woman (his wife?) who had dusty blonde hair and blue eyes that reminded me of Jared. In her arms was a little girl with pig-tails smiling brilliantly at the camera wearing a cute yellow sundress. The picture and the family in it was so perfect it would definitely sell picture frames or help out a photographer at the mall. I put the picture back on the desk and kept looking around for the front door.
     As I stepped through the hallway, I noticed light coming through a small window on what had to be the entrance to the house. I was so excited that it was the only thing I paid any attention to. My foot ran into a chair and skidded it across the floor, making the loudest possible noise of my life. I instantly stopped moving and listened for any kind of movement from upstairs, and after a few moments of nothing I slowly started towards the door again.
     My hand grasped the ice-cold handle and I brought the rest of my body to it. It must’ve taken me five minutes to unlock, open, walk through, and close the door, but I felt so relieved that I hadn’t been caught! I looked around to make sure no one had seen me come out of the house, and after taking a few steps, almost dropped dead to the floor.
     This wasn’t Grandma’s neighborhood, either. Was this even the same universe?! The cars looked like something out of a timepiece movie and so did the streetlamps and the houses and everything else that made this godforsaken place! What the hell did I do to get here?! How do I go back? And going back into that family’s basement certainly wasn’t an option. What am I going to do?! I don’t know anyone here and I’m sure they don’t speak English… I’m stranded like Alice was, and what happened to her when she tried to find a way home? She almost got her head chopped off and was confused to the brink of insanity. Not to mention bullied by flowers, yelled at by a smoking caterpillar, and put up with The Mad Hatter and Rabbit.
     “Shit…” I hung my head and sat down on the curb in front of the strange house. The wind blew and I closed my eyes, trying to imagine myself back at home laying down with Bobbi and talking about who she was going to hookup with next.
     Another cold wind blew, and brought me back from my paradise. The stone driveway seemed to be the most interesting thing in the world to me at the moment. Little pebbles filled in the cracks between the bigger stones, some were light green while the others varied from gray or gray-blue. A black kitten sat across the street and began studying me like I was studying the driveway. Its pastel blue eyes reminded me of an Easter egg, and I was suddenly compelled to hold it. Surprisingly, it was very easy to call the kitten over to me, whether it was do to the unusual freezing wind or maybe it was lost just like me. I picked the kitten up and inspected it for a moment or so, learning that I had a little boy on my lap.
     He was shaking, so I held him close to my chest in order to keep him warm and feeling safe. After a while the poor thing fell asleep. He was very thin, so I was afraid of holding him too firmly, but I didn’t want him to freeze. For the first time in a while I was glad to be where I was. I know I don’t have anything to give him, but at least he won’t be cold.
     “Excuse me, Miss. But may I ask why you’re sitting in front of my house?”
The voice obviously belonged to a man, and my mind flashed an image of who I saw in the picture. When I looked up and met his golden eyes I instantly felt like a fool. What was I supposed to say: “Sorry, I sort of ended up in your basement and now I’m sitting outside of your home because I’m lost and stupid and somehow managed to break scientific laws”? He seems nice enough, but how could I be so certain? With this little kitten I bet I look even stranger than normal.
     “I’m honestly not sure how to explain myself,” I finally said. “I don’t know where I am or how I got here.” Hey, at least it was true.
     “Well, I certainly can’t let you or your little companion stay out here in this weather. It’s normally not so cold in the middle of July.”
     His generosity reminded me a lot of Charles Levine, so it was hard for me to try and reason my way out of his offer. So instead, I thanked him and followed him inside. When he commented on “his wife leaving the door unlocked” I almost had a heart attack but managed to keep myself composed. Things were going too well for me to screw it up by making him think I was a nut job or a stalker.
     After setting up a place for me to sleep and waking up his wife, the three of us sat down in the living room I had stumbled through to talk. Their names were Maes and Gracia Hughes and had a two-year-old daughter who had a birthday coming up in October. I told them my name and said the kitten’s name hadn’t been decided yet since I haven’t had him for long. When they asked how I got here without knowing, I couldn’t answer. I didn’t want them to get the impression I was on drugs or I had been kidnapped but some questions just don’t have a sane-sounding response. Eventually, my interrogation came to a close. Gracia decided that I would stay here until I could remember anything and Maes didn’t seem to have a problem with it.
     I guess they had come up with an excuse: amnesia.
     Since I didn’t know the year or city I was in and how I got here without knowing, it was a very reasonable explanation. However calm and understanding I looked on the outside, I was having a major panic attack on the inside. How was I going to get back? Was I ever going to get back?
I’ve calmed down a lot since my first night here a week ago. Elisia is positively adorable, Gracia is one of the nicest women I’ve ever met, and Maes is a total explosion of enthusiasm. It would be nearly impossible to hate this family in the slightest bit. Gracia had taken me shopping, so now I had clothes to wear instead of that horrid nightgown which now gathered dust in the hallway closet. Elisia insisted that we share a room, so now I even had a place to sleep!
     My darling kitten, who turned out to be more of a charcoal color than black, was able to stay as well and I had finally decided to name him Castor. He was just the cutest little thing I had ever seen! I’ve wanted a kitten for as long as I can remember but I wasn’t ever able to have one because my mother is allergic to cats. Well there’s no way in hell Castor is going to be taken from me--I’ll fight if I have to. And to think that if I never managed to get here, I wouldn’t have found him. He’d be outside right now, hungry and cold and homeless. The thought of it was enough to make me tear up a little.
     What will I do, now that I seem to be stuck here? Just a week ago I was aching to go back but now I’m pretty sure I want to stay. It’s not like I’d be going home or anything. But… I can honestly admit that I miss Bobbi and Jared… especially Jared. As horrible as it sounds that I miss my best friend’s brother more than my best friend, I can’t help it. I wonder if he’s keeping up his part of the deal? He wouldn’t drop me so fast, would he? I mean, we were each other’s first almost everything. That should be enough, right? I sighed.
     Back to my original question--should I get a job, go to school? After all, I‘m in the city of Central in the country of Amestris in the year 1915; would I even be able to go to school? Maybe I should ask Gracia. I can’t just hang around and mooch for the rest of my life. Seriously, how sad would that be?
     I walked to the Mr. and Mrs. Bedroom and knocked on the door. “Gracia? May I come in?”
     “Of course, sweetheart,” Gracia answered happily.
     I opened the door and walked into her room. Gracia was sitting in a rocking chair folding up some clothes. The perfect-looking mother.
     “Um, I was wondering… is there a school I could enroll in? Or maybe a job I could apply for? I don’t want to just be laying around all day without doing something.”
     “Well, I don’t know any schools around here that teach girls your age,” she chuckled. “But perhaps my kooky husband would be able to help you find work, if that’s what you’d like to do. You could always just help around the house sometimes, you know.”
     “Yeah, I know, but… it just wouldn’t feel right. I don’t want to seem like I’m freeloading.”
     At this Gracia burst out laughing. “Oh, my goodness, you’re a live one. We would never think that of you, Riley dear. We didn’t take you in so that we could work you death.”
     I giggled a little and said, “Well, I still think I should at least work part-time somewhere. When Maes gets home maybe I could ask him about what you mentioned.”
     “I think that would be a wonderful idea,” Gracia replied, smiling.

Maes returned home earlier than usual, so I couldn’t help but see this as some sort of sign (as stupid as it sounds). When I asked about any kind of job opportunity, he just went on and on about how much paperwork he’s had to do lately. After ten minutes of the same thing, I was wishing that I had never even asked about it in the first place. Thankfully, he started talking serious after twenty minutes and asked if I’d like to help him with all of his “monstrous paperwork.”
     What I wasn’t expecting was the uniform. The skirt hung about seven inches above my knee and started right under my breasts. I didn’t really mind it because it was like a blue pencil skirt, but the jacket! I nearly died of fright when I saw that thing! And you know how something can look ugly on a hanger but manage to look cute when you put it on? Well, this wasn’t one of those pieces. I felt like a head popping out of a box on top of a Barbie from the waist down. At least I was able to choose my shoes, which of course are black pumps.
     My first day of paperwork starts tomorrow, and I’m pretty excited (minus the uniform) for it. Maes said he’s in the Investigation Department, so hopefully I can learn about all kinds of little military scandals or something of the like. I wonder how early in the morning I have to get up? How long do I have to work? The first time I saw Maes it had to have been around two in the morning, and I haven’t seen him once this entire week in the mornings… I cringed.
     “Damn!” I whined.
     Elisia gasped. “Wiley said a bad word!” she exclaimed and pointed her finger at me.
     Shiiit…, I thought, plunging deeper into my dark abyss of hopelessness.

So here’s what I’ve done so far today:
     Wake up at four in the morning… check.
     Get ready (shower, hair, makeup, etc) by five… check.
     Be trained in how to fill out forms… check.
     Finish the first 100 papers unfinished by my superior… check.
     Start the next 150 papers given to me… check.
     Eat breakfast at eight-thirty… check.
     Turn in the half-finished forms to my superior… check.
     Start on another set of 80 forms… check.
     Go to Roy Mustang’s office in Maes’ place to ask for unnecessary stamps in hopes of getting a rise out of the Colonel… double check.
     Turn in stamps and complaint letter to my superior… check.
     Return to the Colonel’s office with a reply from complaint letter… check.
     Return to my superior’s office with another complaint letter on my insisting to be in another office to create severe irritation… check.
     Once again go to the Colonel’s office with my superior and be properly introduced… check.
     Get hit on my some red-headed guy… check.
     Attempt to discourage red-headed man by revealing my age but make no apparent difference in his efforts to discontinue hitting on me… check.
     Eat lunch at twelve o’ five… check.
     Continue being hit on my red-headed man along with his blonde, cancer-smoking companion almost ruthlessly… check.
     Return to my office and doodle on a piece of paper… check.
     Use up the last bit of battery in my iPod… check.
     Direct my poor imagination into creating a pitiful comic strip with stick people… check.
     Wish I had more paperwork… check.
     Pretend the four main fingers of my hands were people and make them dance… check.
     Realize how pathetic I must look to the outside world and just sit quietly instead… check.
     Wish for math and history homework… check.
     Daydream of picking up trash on the side of a freeway… check.
     Ask if there would be more paperwork… check.
     Get thoughts of cleaning my bathroom interrupted by some blonde boy in red… check.
     “Edward!” Maes bellowed excitedly from his desk.
     “Hey, Major,” Edward said, a little overwhelmed from Maes’ greeting.
     “How many times am I gonna have to remind you?! I’m a Lieutenant Colonel now!” Maes whined.
     “You’ve only told me once, Hughes, calm down. Anyway, I just wanted to stop by before I have to go see Mustang,” Edward answered, a hint of bitterness on the Colonel’s name.
     “But you just got here! I haven’t had a chance to show you more recent pictures of Elisia! And I still have to introduce you to my new assistant!” Maes continued whining.
     At the subject of my presence, Edward’s eyes flickered over to me for a second then back to Maes. “Fine… but I’m sure I’ve already seen those ‘recent’ pictures.”
     “Well you’re just the life of the party, aren’t you?” Maes pouted. “Anyway! This here is Riley Emma Aldridge, age fifteen, and no memory except of her name when I found her sitting outside my house at one-fifty in the morning last week. Interesting and mysterious, huh?”
     “Sure, if it were true. Why should I believe anything you said after her age, Hughes? You’re always coming up with stories.” Edward turned his attention towards me, leaving Maes in theatrical despair. “I’m Edward Elric, age fifteen, youngest State Alchemist in history.”
     “What the hell is a ‘State Alchemist’?” I asked, genuinely dumbfounded.
     Now, before we get farther into this, I know I should’ve put my lack of knowledge second and let the introduction continue normally, but sometimes things just slip. Anyway, Edward’s face was almost hard to read. He was so shocked that I had no clue what a State Alchemist was and I guess my nonchalance to the significance of his status threw him off, too. He must have an ego like no other.
     “I-I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be rude, it’s just… well, Maes wasn’t just telling a story. I don’t remember anything but my name from before I found myself outside of Maes’ house,” I explained, trying to make Edward feel better (for politeness’ sake--not Edward’s).
     He didn’t seem to buy it. “So if she doesn’t remember anything, why don’t you send her to a head-doctor or something? For all you know, she’s insane.”
     “Excuse me?!” I shouted. “Who the hell are you to make any kind of judgment like that?! I may not remember anything, but that doesn’t make me a head case!!!” I was standing up now, looking him dead in the eye with my added height from the shoes.
     “Uh-oh, looks like I touched a nerve. That’s a definite sign that she’s hiding something, Hughes,” Edward continued.
     “Shut up, you pitiful excuse for a successful con artist!!”
     “Uh, kids--”
     “Con artist?! How’d you come up with that one, Princess?” Edward yelled, overpowering Maes.
     “Alchemists are the con artists of science, Your Highness. This entire country must be being robbed blind if they have stuck up jerks like you parading around!”
     “What the hell is all this noise?!” Mustang’s voice boomed. As he stomped into the room towards Edward and me, I swear I could see the flames coming off of him. “I’ve been getting complaints for the past five minutes straight about an argument between children and I am not putting up with it! Haven’t I dealt enough with you today?!” Mustang roared, jabbing his finger at me. “And you were supposed to be in my office ten minutes ago! Let’s go!”
     “Head Case Princess,” Edward muttered to me before leaving.
     “Jerk-off Con Artist,” I spit back.

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