Strange to say, I wasn't scared that night.
But there I was, boarding a plane with my tiny schoolbag, a stranger, and only my nine year old mind to keep me alive and secure. The snow was coating my auburn hair and creating white freckles onto my face, melting once they reached the heat of my body. I shivered and looked back at London before fully getting on the plane.
My birthplace's lights were still on, some on trees leftover from the Christmas holiday. There were people walking about and chatting uncaringly under the moonless night, and the cars in the city weren't honking or speeding like in the day. I could see the grandfather clock from where I was, one minute to midnight it read. I glanced away before I could watch it chime with the hour.
The plane inside was so awesome.
It was for sure first class. Leather seats, a snack bar, polished oak tables; a bathroom complete with a shower and bathtub and also a whole room dedicated to packages and packages of mail, the whole plane itself was worth more than my ex-orphanage! I totally loved it at first sight.
"You can sleep with me over here," Angela lead me over to the back of the plane were to a nice set of double bed bunks sat and waited for someone to sleep on top. I traced the edges of the closest bunk and felt the soft fleece blanket that would soon be all mine. The design had images of peacocks, eagles, little white doves, ravens, all sorts of birds flying through the wind. I immediately wanted for that bed to be mine.
"The 'kitchens' over here if you're hungry," Angela nodded toward the snack bar and quietly pointed out the mini refrigerator. "You should probably eat something before we head of to bed. You do know how to work a microwave right?"
I nodded. Sometimes when Mistress would punish me with no supper, I would sneak into the kitchens and warm myself a portion of soup. The microwave in the plane wasn't that different from the one in the orphanage.
Angela walked over the polished oak table and sat her messenger bag on top, sighing with relief of no more extra weight. She looked tired and exhausted, energy sucked from delivering packages all around London probably. I took a closer look to her puppy dog blue eyes and saw something I had never noticed before: grief. Grief from having no home, having to move around a lot, having no people to move around with. Maybe that was why she was desperate to have me start a new life with her, because she was lonely.
"Angela," I said slowly, "do you have any family?"
My question caught her off guard. Her eyes brightened then went back to normal aft a second or so. Her smile returned to her lips as she said, "I used to have a family. A really big family actually, but I had to leave them a long time ago."
"Why?"
She sighed loudly. "Bring us some snacks from the kitchen and I'll tell you why."
I agreed quickly and grabbed some strawberries and whip cream from the refrigerator as Angela sat down hesitantly. She brought a tiny photograph album out of her bag just as I set my backpack down.
"I lived in a camp," Angela started off, "a camp that was more like a city than any summer home. I was born there and declared to die there but…" Angela opened her white photo album and showed me the first picture. It was of a woman in her late teens holding a small white bundle in her arms. She had the same straight brown hair Angela had and soft green eyes that matched perfectly. She was smiling at the camera while the calm sea rolled behind her.
"That was my mother." Angela said somewhat quietly. "She had me at an early age and couldn't support us both since my dad wasn't there to help us. So my mom went to that camp city place and raised me there." her voice broke slightly here. "She died from cancer when I was five. I-I tried living on best I could without her."
She flipped the page of the album and showed me her at seven years old. She was swimming in a lake with a thousand of other kids her age. One of them was a girl who was red haired and freckled, she had a cute smile as she tried to dunk Angel's head under the water. I strangely found myself smiling at that.
"That girl next to me," Angela pointed at Red Headed Freckles, "that was my friend Jolene. We had the best times together along with this boy right here." Angela directed her finger over to a boy behind Jolene. He had a wicked grin with long skater boy hair that stuck to his face when wet. "We always called him Slicker." I gave a tiny giggle at the funny name. "But I can't remember his real name. Sad that I let myself forget."
Insert frown here.
Angela turned the pages again and let me skim through pictures and pictures of her and her friends. Angela and Jolene at the beach, Sticky and Angela sitting in a theater like place, Jolene and Sticky climbing a rock wall that had some lava looking stuff pouring down it, and finally all three of them sitting down at a table along with a whole bunch of other kids that couldn't possible fit in such a small space. All of them in that picture had a goblet raised high along with a birthday cake placed in front of Angela. She herself was blushing crisom and trying not to cry tears of joy.
I smiled at seeing her so happy. "How long ago was this?" I asked.
Angela whistled slowly. "Ages. Ages and ages ago. Too long from me to remember clearly."
In other words, about four years because she looked about ten in the photo.
"So what happened?" I asked carefully. "You looked so happy at that camp, why did you have to leave?"
Angela glanced down at her lap and painted a grim look on her face. She was quiet for a moment as she decided what to tell me. I waited patiently as I could without interrupting her train of thought.
"Jolene went missing." She said quickly. "Nobody knew where she had gone too, and everybody was aniuxus to find her. So I went out on my own to search for her. I left Sticky and everyone else behind in order to, and I kept on getting the feeling that she was gone forever. So I gave up, couldn't bear the thought of ever coming back to camp and seeing everyone else in so long, so soon enough, my dad offered me this job as a messenger. Simple as that."
Simple? How? if a friend of mine went missing, then I would go looking all over the world for her. I wouldn't give up at all. Why would Angela give up just because of a feeling? She didn't seem like the one to give up.
"But enough of me!" Angela alarmed me with a somewhat higher octave voice. She threw her hand into the air the way I had seen girls on the telly do and took some strawberries dipped in whipped cream. She tasted it before talking again. "What about you Selene? What's the 411 with you?"
A cocked my head a little. This time it was me acting like a dog. "411? Is that supposed to stand for something?"
She laughed and shrugged at the same time. "No idea really. It's just what people say in America to ask like what's going on and how you are."
"Oh." I felt stupid after that. I racked my brain to figure out what to tell her. "Um…. I have really bad dyslexia and ADHD. Does that count?"
"Oh my gods!" Angela threw her hair back and gulped down her strawberry. "Me too! It's the worst isn't it?"
I nodded excitedly, "yeah. The women at the orphanage that I lived at, they kept on trying and trying to erase all of that and pretend that I was someone normal, but no. I can't be someone that isn't real."
Angela nodded proudly. She held up a half eaten strawberry and motioned me to hold up one too. "You said it right there." we bumped our strawberries together and ate them gracefully. It felt good.
"So what else is up?" Angela wondered. "How's the love life?" I noticed that she wiggled her eyebrows at this.
"Dead." I said flatly. "No guy would ever love me."
"Oh and why is that?"
I shrugged and went for another strawberry. "No guy is good enough to take. They're all fools."
Angela chuckled. She grinned as she dipped another strawberry in whip cream. "You sound like my friend Artemis. She thinks that all men are wastes of human life. Would like it better if it was an all women world."
My hand stopped halfway toward my mouth. "All women world? I was already living it! All girls orphanage…" I shook my head slowly, "nothing like too many cat fights, girls crying for love, and the heads of dolls flying everywhere. Total disaster if you ask me."
Angela chuckled as she pushed her hair behind her ear. "Well yeah, depends on what kind of girls you talk about."
"There are girl kinds in the world?"
My question sent her tongue to be twisted up. "Well... no, not really but um… see, it's just that…"
I couldn't help smirking.
"Hey look at the time!" Angela held out a wristwatch that I had never noticed before. Weird how the numbers on it weren't the regular ones that I had always seen. They were numbers that didn't mix up or move around. I think that they were in a different language or something like that. "I think it's time that we went to bed. Want to wake up for the U.S.A tomorrow good and happy right?"
I sighed. "Right."
Angela hopped of her chair and headed into a bathroom by where the beds where. Few seconds later she came out wearing soft and cozy looking pajamas that were much better than the clothes I was going to sleep in (I didn't have time to pack my sleeping clothes into my bag). I was so darn jealous.
Angela caught me staring. "You want pajamas too don't you Selene?"
I nodded quietly; shy like the idiot I was.
Turns out, I was wrong. Angela had a whole other pajama that I could have and wear to sleep. That and also I had a new toothbrush and toothpaste, hair brush, fuzzy slippers that made my feet say "ahhhhhh" and a really relaxing shower. All of that right before I went to bed. It made me think of Angela as my new Elise.
"All ready to sleep?" she asked.
"All ready." I sneaked the covers over my nose and lay my head on the soft pillow. Mmmmm….
Angela turned the lights of and walked over to her own bed. She gave one last glance at me in the dark and smiled hopefully. I wondered if she knew that I could see her without a trouble. (I can see in the dark. No questions asked please. It's just one of the Olympian gifts I have.)
"Night." Angela said.
"Night." I echoed.
"Sweet dreams."
"You too."
I heard her stir and move in a comforting position as I waited for the soft rhythm of sleep to come. One sheep. Two sheep. Three sheep… ah forget it. Just sleep…
There was a teenager. He was standing over me as I slept. His hair was gold blond with some strands so bright; it was a miracle that Angela didn't wake up from the light. I twisted and turned in my sleep as the teenager held up something to his face.
It was the silvery, golden necklace that Angela had delivered to me.
The teenager unclipped the clasp and threw the chain over my neck. The pendant that had been a complete circle in the day was now a crescent moon in the night. It glowed silver in the moonlight and became gold whenever the light from the teenagers hair shined on it. He clipped the necklace around my neck and said words in a language that I now understand as Ancient Greek: "Be careful my young Helia. Just because you call yourself Selene doesn't mean that I'll forget you. As nether will your mother."
He touched my forehead and was gone. Like grains of sands he just blew away.
I bolted awake and ran my arm next to me, seeing if I could hold onto the teenager. But no, it was just a dream. I think.
"Selene?" Angela stirred in her bed. Her voice was raspy from the deep sleeping. "Are you okay? Did something happen?"
I shook my head then remembered that she couldn't see me in the dark. "No, everything's fine Angela. I'm just... uh… I'm just wondering if I'm an illegal immigrant or something like that." (Thank you ADHD for that stupid thought!)
Angela smiled in the darkness then stirred again in her bed. She laid flat with her pillow under her head as she said, "go back to sleep Sel. We'll talk in the morning okay?"
"Okay." I laid back down on my bed and wrapped the covers on my head, easing my breath with slow gasps. Soon enough in the comfort of my own cocoon, I felt around my neck for something.
It was the crescent moon necklace.
And it was around my neck.
