Chapter 1

"Hethery... Hethery!" whispered Jasmin.

"Hmm?" I open my eyes to see Jasmin leaning over me.

"Hey, beautiful wake up, the ship is docking; we got to get out before they catch us down here." I couldn't see light coming from the top of the trap door that leads to the deck.

"Do you have any idea on what time it is?" I asked.

"No idea, midnight? Somewhere around there."

It was 1863 in late November and my sister, Jasmin and I where on a ship to the United States of America. We were on the boat for a few weeks surviving only on potatoes and beats and couple of fish because that all they had on this ship. Jasmin says that it was a clipper ship and that we'd be in America in no time. I never saw a difference in the ship as in other ships at the dock in whales, maybe a bit thinner but that's it. So she didn't worry about bringing much on to the ship with us since the ship was shipping vegetable goods. Just a couple of bags of fresh water and a few fish on ice, I hate fish.

"That's good so they won't see us jumping." Once the anchor was dropped, Jasmin pushed the little window open that lead to the cold water, she threw her sheep skin bag out the window and climbed up and slid out the window. I quickly threw my sheep skin bag out the window and hopped up and push my hips through the window with a little difficulty getting them through.

Splash! The cold water made goose bumps all over my body. I surfaced and started swimming to the dock with Jasmin and hid under it until it was clear to climb up. Once we heard no more foot steps or talking we climbed up and start to look for a dry place to stay. We wrung out our hair and started walking down the cobble road to find a little saloon that has a little inn at the top. Perfect. We walked into the semi-empty saloon and walk up to the bartender.

"Who do we talk to about renting a room?" ask Jasmin,

"That would be me, would you like a room for the night?" asked the bartender.

"Please?" Jasmin pleaded. The bartender walked out from behind the bar with a set of keys, he looked at Jasmin and me with a sceptical look.

"How old are you two?" he asked.

"I'm 20 and my sister is 19." she lied, but we could get away with it because we didn't look 18 and 17. He still didn't look completely convinced. He started walking toward the staircase that leaded to the rooms and motioned us to follow along with his hand.

He stopped at a door that number 7 on it.

"What kind of accent is that of yours? Where you from?" the bartender asked as he shoved one of the keys into the key hole.

"Romanian, we're from Romania." replied Jasmin.

"Romania eh? Huh, where did you learn English so well?" I could see Jasmin's eyes narrowing meaning that she was getting annoyed.

"We lived in whales for a year."

"Whales eh? Well my grandparents were from whales!" Jasmin smiled half halfheartedly.

Once Jasmin gave him $5 of America money for the night, which she got from an American man that was visiting whales so they traded money. She closed the door on the bartender and let out a long sigh. I looked around the little room and saw two little beds, end tables on each side with oil lamps and a dresser with a large mirror hanging on the wall.

I sat on the bed and opened up my bag to see if any of my belonging got wet, as always, everything was dry, no water ever got through my trusty sheep skin bag. I got up and placed my bag on the dresser and took out my hair brush to brush all the knots out of my hair. I looked into the mirror and saw a girl who had bags under big, green eyes. Her skin was pale and her cheeks bones were more promante than usual. Her hair was a dull blond color that it shouldn't be and... Just hanging there. "Goodness, I need sleep and a bath... and some real food would be nice too." I said as I realized the girl staring at me was me. My stomach growled.

I look at Jasmin in the mirror to see her on the bed, passed out. I smile to myself and walk up to her and take off her boots and put the blanket over her, but she was still in wet clothes, she can't sleep in damp clothes or she'll get a cold, so I took the blanket back off of her and pulled her upwards,

"Hmm, leave me alone..." she groaned at me.

"Jazz, you need to get out of your wet clothes! You're going to get a cold!" she just groaned in protest. I slipped off her jacket and unbuttoned her shirt, she collapsed on the pillow again and I unbutton her trousers and slide them off with her stockings.

I put the blanket back on her and felt more exhausted now even more than I did before, but I wanted to take a bath first before I passed out on the bed like Jasmin did. I opened the bath room door right besides Jasmin's bed a walk in to see a toilet, a sink and a large bathtub. I turn on the bath water to a nice hot temperature and strip down. Waiting for the tub to fill I look at the toilet and then realized how bad I need to use it. Once I finish with the toilet I hop into the hot bath water and go into a complete relaxing mode.

"Aaaaahhhhhh..." I sighed.

I laid there until the water was luke warm and my fingers were pruning. I got out and dried myself off with the towels that they provided. I stepped out into the room and crawled under the covers. I look through the window to see a whole bunch of lights from other houses or saloons and to see a whole bunch of stars out in the night sky. I turn around to face the wall and close my eyes.

end of chapter one