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To be fair, I didn’t have any information to give them that would be useful.
They were normally a very peaceful people. Albeit stuck in the dark ages and very backwards, but peaceful. Unless they were dealing me. But, in their defense (and I knew that absolutely did not make it right), I was different and I think that frightened the majority of them. People didn’t always act like themselves when they were scared, it could make them completely different people.
He opened the door and it was like I all of a sudden had verbal diarrhea and just couldn’t keep my mouth shut now. “I know what you’re thinking and you’re wrong,” I burst out and he paused but didn’t turn around to face me. “They aren’t bad people. They just don’t know any better. We don’t all know who our parents are, none of the children do, and we’ve never been told why that is. But we’re all raised together because that’s the way the Elders say it’s supposed to be. I know what you all think though, each of you. But they aren’t bad people. They’re just confused and don’t know any better. Still, please be careful.”
He looked back at me over his shoulder and I shrank back from the look of pity on his face that was directed solely at me.
“You’re a good and loyal person, Autumn. That much is very obvious. But you’re also a victim and I hope with time you come to understand that it is never okay for anyone to ever treat you in such a way again. You deserve better.”
And with that he was gone and the door clicked shut softly behind him.
I was left baffled but with a warm feeling in my chest at his words.
Really, he had no idea who I was.
10
Autumn
I knew I couldn’t hide out in my room for forever. It was taking the cowards way, and normally I’d be good with that, but right now I was so very curious.
And curiosity was always my downfall. It sucked me in, chewed me up, and spit my mangled ass back out every single time.
I never did learn from it either.
I had spent an hour going through all of the clothes in the closet and trying different things on. I had never worn brand new, never worn by someone else before me, clothes before. And these all still had the tags on them. Something I wished I hadn’t seen because the cost of everything altogether was quite astronomical and not something I would ever be able to pay them back for. Not that anyone had asked me to pay for anything but still… I did not want it to seem like I was taking advantage of their kindness and generosity.
I picked out a pair of light gray cloth pants that were light, airy, and I thought would feel divine against my skin. A long sleeved black t-shirt that was so light it felt like it weighed next to nothing. A pair of white ankle socks and a matching pair of white cotton panties.
I skipped the bras. Wearing one was so confining and I didn’t think women ever needed to wear a bra, no matter how low your goods were hanging. Being a woman was a beautiful thing and there was no shame in my body. Back at camp, women wrapped theirs in bands and I had never gone for that either.
If people didn’t like it they didn’t have to look at me.
It was the first time in my life I had even worn pants and I very much enjoyed them.
Being here was going to spoil me if I got much more of this treatment. And that was kind of a scary thought that I pushed right out of my mind like a scardy cat.
I took a shower in the bathroom. It was my very first shower ever under running water. It took me a good fifteen minutes to even figure out how to turn the thing on and get the water temperature just right. And that’s to say scorching hot. I probably stood underneath the spray of hot water for another fifteen minutes just standing there enjoying it. I had never had a hot shower before. I had never bathed with warm water before. I had only ever bathed out of a bucket or in the stream with frigid water.
The water was a luxury I never thought I’d experience before.
The soaps and shampoos were divine and smelled lovely. They left me smelling like heaven.
The dark purple towel I wrapped around my body when I stepped out of the shower was the softest, fluffiest thing that had ever touched my skin before.
Was this how normal people lived? Had I been missing out on these things my whole life or was I better off for having lived a simple life without such luxuries?
I wasn’t sure and it was all very confusing because I didn’t know what to think about anything going on in my life anymore.
And that kind of scared me.
I dried off with the fantastically fluffy towel and put brand new clothes on for the very first time in my life.
I would be incredibly stupid to allow myself to get used to it. I needed to remember that things like this didn’t happen for people like me and these men owed me absolutely nothing. They’d get tired of playing heroes to the strange charity case eventually.
And then I’d have to go with the nothing that I’d come here with.
Would they toss me out of their house completely naked, like how I’d arrived here?
