I swept the broom across the wooden floors of Myra's tiny kitchen floor, reliving how I'd come to be here.

I'd already been planning on leaving, but Gabby finalized my decision. We had always stood up for each other. No matter what. That had changed, apparently. We were at a mall. A bunch of jerks started jeering at me and my boniness, making fun of an old-fashioned sentance I'd uttered. I don't even remember what it was anymore. Anyway, I'd said something back, and Gabby hadn't backed me up. They were better at comebacks then me. Then, to top it off, Gabby laughed at something one of them said. She laughed. At me. Then she called me a freak.

I'd been too stunned and disbelieving to say anything. So I'd left. Just walked out. I couldn't let her see my distress; I'd thought her the one person I'd had left. Now I was mad.

Anyway, I'd went to a library. I'd googled Myra without hope of success. I'd been surprised. Apparently, she placed online adds for her work on there. So I'd known her address.

I went there.

She answered the door.

I'd run into her arms and started bawling.

She hadn't known who I was. She'd gently held me away from her. That had only made me cry harder.

I'd had to cry out, "It's me! It's Sasha! Don't you know me?" before her eyes had widened, her face had paled, and she'd pulled me close.

I think she'd started to cry too.

She didn't ask anything, at first. She'd let me into her house, and had sat me down on a poofy couch. She let me cry until I was cried out. Then she let me into her kitchen and sat me on a stool at her kitchen counter.

I glanced at that very counter, and remembered.

She'd sat on the other stool.

Waiting.

Waiting for me to say something. To explain. And I'd wanted to explain. Desperately. I'd wanted to tell somebody everything, so they could understand. But nobody would have believed me. They would have locked me up in an insane assylum.

Then, suddenly, I'd stopped caring.

I'd told her about my insane assylum theory, and she'd almost smiled.

"Try me," she'd said.

So I had.

I'd told her everything, and she hadn't interrrupted once.

I'd told her how I'd gotten off the bus like any other day, how I'd caughten caught up in texting and ended up getting lost. I'd told her about being robbed, I'd told her about slipping into the little ally. I'd told her about my mysterious trip and ending up where I did. I'd told her about thinking I'd lost my mind. About meeting Mandy. Meeting Ella. Hattie. Olive. Dame Olga. Going to finishing school. Finding out that Ella always had to obey. Meeting Nathaniel in the garden. Sneaking out every night. Ella's leaving. My going with her. Going to the wedding. Finding someone who might've been able to help me get home. Running away in disappointment. Finding Nathaniel as he was about to get devoured by wild animals. (Close enough.) Saving him somehow, and him kissing me. Getting a job in Yond. I told her absolutely everything. Well, I hadn't told her about the knomes and fairies and ogres - that much would have been way to weird for her. I'd made them sound like something else. I'd told her about going home, and Gabby. I'd cried a lot, which was a surprise. I hadn't been aware that I'd had any more tears left in me.

"So I can't let anyone find out I'm back," I'd told her, "They would lock me up in an insane assylum."

It was true too. But Myra had laughed, "D'you know that people who are insane don' know they're insane? That would mean, since you considered that possibility, you're not."

I'd been relieved.

Myra hadn't pretended to understand what had happened to me, but she'd been very sympathetic. More so then I could have imagined. She told me that she knew how I felt about losing Nathaniel. She'd lost her husband four years ago. I'd felt terrible. All the time I'd known her, I hadn't known that.

But she wouldn't take my guilt. She told me that my leaving Nathaniel had been very stupid. I'd been shocked.

"Honey, aint nobody that's perfect. We all make mistakes. I've made plenty. You'll make plenny more. Ev'rbody does. And don't you go thinkin' you aint worth nothin'. You're like another daughter to me, you know."

"A terrible, rude, selfish-"

"Nope. And don't you talk like that!" She'd seemed frustrated, "What happened to all that self-confidence you used to have? That Nathaniel would be lucky to have you. Heck, he don' deserve you."

"What?!? How - in this entire universe - did you even come by that rediculous notion?"

She'd laughed, "You do sound sorta old-fashioned, honey. But seriously. This bum Nathaniel comes along and causes you all this stress-"

But I hadn't let her finish. We'd argued for a while, and then her youngest daugher, Nia, (The only one still living at home - she was seventeen) had come in. She'd just finished her softball practice. It had been 7:30. Myra had made me dinner (I'd helped) and, of course, she hadn't let me just go find somewhere to stay. She hadn't let me leave. I'd stayed in Nia's room.

I've been sleeping there for several months now.

Author's Note: Okay, I know this is sort of a short chapter, and I know that it's not really moving very fast, but she goes back to Kyrria in the next chapter, and so I had to quit here. Please review!!!