She woke up to find herself laying next to an old man. The dead body was pale white as he vacantly stared at the brightening sky. The young girl looked around her and found trees and bushes on all sides of the area -a forest. A dream came back to her as she stood up and looked at the old man. Who were those people in her dream and why were they running away? But the girl had an even more important question to be answered, who am I?
The girl rummaged through the corpse's belongings until she found what she was looking for, some paper items similar to something she had once knew a long time ago. She took the green paper out of the male's purse and walked towards the center of town. Everything seemed so strange, yet she wasn't very surprised. There were loud boxes similar to the carriages that she had dreamed about the night before. They were gliding on a black thing that was very firm. Nothing like the dirt road that she used to know. Dirt road? When did she see a dirt road. The young girl kept having strange flashbacks as she crossed this black area that the boxes road on. She walked into a small store and started to look for something decent to wear. Many of the people outside had on clothes and the women wore pants just like men did. Katerina giggled when she thought of how it would feel like to wear those strange pants that they had on.
"May I help you?" The woman was carefully watching her because she was a stranger to town.
The young girl found that the woman was staring at her clothes with a look of distaste and she glanced in a nearby mirror to see what was wrong with it. Her clothing currently consisted of a long rag that resembled a dress of some sort and her hair was all tangled, but at the same time, she was very beautiful and her eyes were in a class of their own.
The girl nodded gratefully and pointed to a pair of the same kind of pants that she had seen outside. After a moments hesitation and a slight jerk of the head, the clerk understood what the young girl was saying.
"I bet you're a size seven, I'll go get you a pair of jeans to try on." The clerk smiled to herself while the girl was surprised that she could understand everything that she had said. The clerk came back in a second with a pair of blue jeans and loose T-shirt, pushing her towards a small closet and urging her to try them on. It was only a second later that the girl came out with them on. She walked over to a full length mirror once again and stared at the reflection looking back.
"Do you like them, I think that the blouse goes great with your eyes." The girl nodded and looked back at the glass, mesmerized. In the mirror, a girl with long blond hair and ice blue eyes was there - smiling whenever she smiled. The girl knew that it had to be her. It all seemed so familiar.
"What's your name?" The clerk asked her.
She thought about the dream that she had a while ago. The person running, that must have been her, right? And the tall guy, Gabin, he called her Anna. . . no it was something else. Blond hair . . . running. Wanting to stay with her love. Run NOW Katerina, I'll find you later. She gasped out loud and took a step back.
"Are you okay?" The clerk said, running to her aid. The woman placed her two hands on the girl's shoulders. The girl backed away politely, smiling.
"My name is Katerina."
"Do you want to buy the clothes?"
Katerina walked back into the closet, grabbed the green paper and showed it to the clerk. On her way to the store, Katerina remembered seeing a child give the green paper to a heavyset woman in exchange for food and she decided to mimic the act.
The clerk took some of it from her and handed the rest back. There was still a large amount of it left. Katerina took this as a sign that she could leave. She smiled at the idea of this new world, she remembered someplace before having other people from one of her dreams giving each other cows and horses in exchange for clothes. This paper stuff seemed like a cinch.
As she was walking out the door and smiling to herself in satisfaction, something slammed into on the side and she fell on he floor from the power of it. Looking up, Katerina was amazed to see a young man with baby blue eyes and darkish blonde hair pulling her back to her feet with a look of concern in his eyes.
"Are you okay?" The young man said apologetically, "I'm sorry that I had bumped into you . . . I was kind of in a hurry and you just came out . . ." Katerina wasn't really listening to his words that much. Her mind was trying to recall something else that seemed familiar - his clothes. They looked exactly like the ones in her dreams. He had on black fashioned boots, black pants, and a white button up shirt.
"Are you from England too?" She asked in wonder. She had no idea why she asked that but it seemed right. The guy, looking at what she was staring at and realizing that it was his clothes, smiled at her as if she had made a cute joke and nodded in an apologetic manner.
"Tonight is Renaissance night for my job waitering at Samuel's and we all have to dress. Kind of silly, huh."
"What does Renaissance mean?" Katerina asked casually. Somehow she remembered always being very smart, but this guy was making her feel dumb just because he knew something that she didn't.
"It was the time in between the 1400's through the 1700's when creative stuff were really popular. Haven't you learned this in you school yet?" He asked her. Katerina shook her head and hoped that it wasn't something that was really important around here.
"My tutors never taught me about that kind of stuff," she looked down at her fingernails and tried to hide the dirt from them.
"Tutors? Where are you from anyway?"
"England . . . of course. Where are you from?"
"Alameda, like I have for my whole life." He put out his hand towards her and Katerina placed out hers, not quite knowing what to do. He grabbed it and shook it before placing it back into his pocket casually. "What your name?"
"Katerina Vanderkelt."
"Well Katerina, may I escort you somewhere? My name is Chad." He bowed down in a gentlemanly fashion and Katerina smiled despite her nervousness.
"I don't really know what I'm looking for, I just came into town." Katerina answered with some honesty and then shrugged.
"Well . . . where are you staying?" Chad asked in curiosity. "Will you be staying here long?"
"I have no idea."
"Okay. I've got the perfect place for you to stay, at one of my grandmother's apartments - and if you don't have any money we can find you a job here. Come with me." Chad was fairly excited as he linked arms with Katerina and escorted her towards some house he was talking about. She was still very confused about this strange world and the loud monsters running across the road frightened her, but she tried her best to smile and look calm. Hopefully, this boy would help her understand all of these things.
"Mrs. Walker? Mrs. Walker!" Chad called out as he enter the white apartment complex. "I've got a beautiful woman here who would like to rent one of your rooms."
As they walked into the living room, a small old woman was sitting on the sofa reading a book. When she heard Chad's voice, she looked up and smiled.
"Hello Chad, what brings you here today?" She seemed to be a pretty nice woman - more of a grandmother rather than an owner of an apartment complex.
"Actually - I was wondering if you had a room available for Katerina to stay in. She's from England and is having a major culture shock here in America."
The older woman turned towards Katerina and smiled, her kind face seemed to remind Katerina of a women that used to take care of her. As she got up to walk the two teenagers to an extra room, a story of some sort was unfolding in Katerina's mind but she pushed it away.
The apartment was quite beautiful; although it didn't have much in it, there was a large canopy bed and a bay window with a gorgeous view of the ocean. There was also a small kitchen and a tiny dining room with just enough room for the small table and chairs sitting there. All in all it was very nice.
"This will be your room for your stay here," Mrs. Walker said with a smile upon her face. "It isn't much but it is one of my favorites and I hope that you like it to."
"It's very pretty, thank you," Katerina whispered as she walked over to the window and looked out at the beach. It was so beautiful and there was another thought nagging Katerina but she pushed it away once again.
"I don't think Katerina may have enough money at the moment grandma -"
"Oh nonsense, money doesn't matter to an older woman like me nowadays. Katerina and I can work out something later on. Besides, it's not everyday that I meet another girl from my country."
Katerina spun around from the window and stared at the older woman in surprise.
"Yes my dear. I was born in England and I left there when I was a little girl. Perhaps you and I can have some good conversations between the two of us."
"Yes - that'll be nice." Katerina said with some effort. "Well," Mrs. Walker said with a large sigh. "I'll leave you alone to get situated with your new room. I'll be back a little later with some clean sheets to cover your bed. Chad, you'd better hurry or you're going to be late for work."
"Oh yeah, I am late. Bye Katerina . . . I'll see you tomorrow." With that, Chad ran out of the door and Mrs. Walker smiled as she followed him.
"I'll leave you to get acquainted with your new setting."
The door made a quiet clicking noise as it close behind her and Katerina was alone in the room. She walked around the perimeter of the building, inspecting all the strange things as well as all of the things that she had remembered for somewhere she couldn't quite remember. Then she saw a pile of books with some writing on them that Katerina actually could read. It said 'encyclopedia'.
"What is an encyclopedia?" She whispered to herself. Katerina opened up one of the heavy books and started to read it. "Fascinating . . . a book that explains each object in it. This is just what I need!"
Katerina took the book into her lap, sat down on the fluffy bed, and started to read about the big strange objects that seemed to be all foreign to her. She rubbed her hand against her knee to relieve a throbbing that started because of the fabric. Everything was so foreign to her, even these clothes - why is it that women are allowed to dress like men do now?

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