Chapter 5 Learning to Trust Others

"Hey!"

A man's voice suddenly caused Anya and Katya's dream to end, and their outfits had changed back to rags as they snapped back to reality.

The two girls then looked up to see Dimitri and Vladimir looking down at them from the balcony of the palace.

Dimitri pointed to them both. "What are you two doing here?!" He shouted.

They had been caught! Instead of answering the man, a startled Anya sprung to her feet, and made a run for it back to the stairs to the landing of the ballroom.

"Wait!" Katya called to her friend while trying to catch up to her.

"Hey!" Dimitri chased down after her.

Vladimir also followed him.

Anya raced up the stairs onto the landing, right towards the frieze of the Romanov family.

"Hey!" Dimitri shouted again. "Stop! Stop, stop, stop, stop! Hold on a minute! Hold on!"

Anya eventually stopped in front of the grand painting as Katya and the young man finally caught up to them both.

They slowly turned around to face him, and as Anya turned her face slowly, her face shone with the sunlight.

"Now, how did you get in he…" Dimitri started to say. But then, he froze in astonishment once he took a good look at Anya. "Here?" he finished.

Neither Anya or Katya knew how to respond, so they just sighed with a shrug.

Dimitri's eyes darted back and forth from the little girl in the painting behind the very woman standing right in front of him. He was surprised to see Anya looked exactly like the little girl in the painting - the grand duchess Anastasia.

Seeing a striking resemblance between the two, a slow sly smile appeared on his face.

Meanwhile, Vladimir had finally caught up to Dimitri while trying to catch his breath.

"Excuse me, children," he panted to the girls as he reached his friend.

At that moment, Dimitri smiled,and nudged his elbow at his friend.

"Vlad?" The young man whispered to his partner while pointing at Anya. "Do you see what I see?"

Vladimir narrowed his eyes, and shook his head. "No."

Dimitri then took Vlad's glasses out, and placed them on his face. Looking up at Anaya again, Vladimir gasped once he realized what Dimitri was talking about, and nodded.

"Oh. Yes, now I see!" The overweight man whispered.

Pooka then approached Dimitri, and circled around his legs.

"Hmmm, a dog," The young man mumbled.

Upon seeing the two, Anya had always been suspicious around strangers she didn't know. Still, she asked, "A-are you Dimitri?"

However, the young man didn't listen to her, and instead observed Pooka. "Cute," He commented to the dog.

"Uh, excuse me," Katya said while clearing her throat. "But my friend just asked you a question!"

Dimitri then looked up at the girls, and handed Pooka to Vladimir. As his friend cradled the dog, Dimitri walked up the stairs towards Anya.

"Well," he responded. "That all depends on who's looking for him."

"Umm, my name is Anya," The redhead said in a hushed tone. "And this is my friend, Katya. We need travel papers," Anya began to explain to Dimitri why she had come, and she leaned over as she said in a whisper, "They say you're the one to see, even though I can't tell you who said that, and…"

But then, she noticed Dimitri wasn't really paying attention to her. He circled around her, checking out her body and physique to see that she was very much identical to the "real" Anastasia.

"Hmmm…" he wondered.

"What are you doing?" Katya asked with confusion.

"What…hey! Why are you circling me?" Anya asked, now annoyed. "What…what were you? A vulture in another life?"

"What a durak," Katya grumbled to herself.

Dimitri then forced himself out of his thoughts. "I-I'm sorry, Enya." he simply said, and beckoned Vladimir to come up.

"It's Anya," The redhead corrected him. "Anya."

"Anya," Dimitri corrected himself. "It's just…it's just that you look an awful lot like…" He then pointed to the Romanov family portrait, where he looked at the young girl in the painting.

Anya turned to see it for herself while Dimitri examined her again. He quickly stopped once she looked back at him.

"Uh…never mind. Now, you said something about travel papers?" he went back to what she was saying.

"Uh, yes," Anya said. "My friend and I would like to go to Paris."

Dimitri's eyes widened. "You two would like to go to Paris?" He then gave Vladimir a knowing look.

"Mmmm-hmmm," Anya replied with a nod. She was still contemplating on whether or not she should go with this fellow.

Dimitri then looked back over to Vladimir, who was playing with Pooka. "Now, who is this here?" The stout man asked. He soon chuckled as Pooka began licking him. "Oh, oh, look!" he grinned. "Oh, look, he likes me!"

"Nice dog," Dimitri said to the puppy.

"Oh, it's marvelous!" Vlad said as he kept playing with Pooka. "Oh, I love, I love, I love you!"

Dmtri then turned his attention to Katya Sokolova. "And how about you, er…what's your name again?" He asked, causing Katya to give him an uneasy look.

"Is this an interrogation?" she asked.

"All I want for you is to repeat your name," Dimitri stated plainly.

"Katya," The chestnut-haired girl replied. "Katya Viktorovna Sokolova. I want to go to Paris so I can find a job, and then I'll be able to buy a passage to America. I haven't seen my siblings in years."

Dimitri then went back over to Anya. "Now, let me ask you something, Miss…Anya, is it?" Katya rolled her eyes as Dimitri continued, "Is there a last name that goes with that?"

"Well, actually," Anya explained. "This is gonna sound crazy, but…I don't know my last name. I was found wandering around when I was eight years old."

Dimitri nodded. "And, uh, before that?" he asked. "Before you were eight?"

"Look, I know it sounds strange, but I don't remember. I have very few memories of my past." Anya then began to fidget with her necklace.

Dimitri's eyes lit up, because he knew that Anya would be perfect to play the part of the lost princess. Dimitri then leaned over to Vladimir, and whispered quietly, "Hmm, that's…that's perfect."

He knew now from the looks of Anya and her loss of memories, that this was the girl they needed to take to Paris. He finally found what he was looking for – a young woman to play the part of the missing grand duchess – and his plan was working out so far!

"Well, I do have one clue, however," Anya continued as she pulled out her necklace from under her shirt. "And that is Paris."

"Paris…" Dimitri said while gazing over at the redhead girl.

"Right," Anya said, relieved.

"Anya, are you sure about this?" Katya whispered to her friend. "I mean, that man seems a little edgy when he's around you."

"Katya, stop worrying," Anya whispered back to her. "Everything's gonna be fine."

Katya just sighed.

"So can you two help us, or not?" Anya asked as she and Katya turned back to face the two men.

"Hmm," Dimitri turned back to his partner and whispered, "Vlad! Vlad, tickets,"

The fat man began searching his coat pockets as Dimitri faced the girls and said, "We sure would like to…in fact, oddly enough, we're going to Paris ourselves."

"Oh, really?" Katya asked with a sly grin.

Vladimir then pulled out four tickets, all Moscow tickets, and handed them over to Dimitri. Taking the tickets, Dimitri showed them to Anya.

"Yes, we are," he casually responded to Katya. "And I've got three…um, well, this one is…but I've got three here…"

Anya saw the tickets in the young man's hands and said softly, "Oh! I…" She tried reaching for the tickets, but Dimitri pulled them away from her.

Katya gave an uneasy look. Maybe Dimitri wasn't a good person to trust after all?

"Unfortunately, the third one is for her," he then gestured to Anastasia's portrait in the frieze. "Anastasia."

The redhead looked a little closer at the young girl in the painting to see it for herself. "Oh," Anya said as she held Pooka in her arms.

The two men then took the two ladies to another part of the ballroom, and led them up the stairs.

"We are going to reunite the Grand Duchess Anastasia with her grandmother," Vladimir explained to the two ladies.

Dimitri then decided to take the opportunity to set Anya up. "You do kind of resemble her," he told her while getting a closer look at her.

Vladimir then joined in. "The same blue eyes." he also took a closer look at Anya.

"The Romanov eyes," Dimitri added.

"Nicholas's smile." Vlad added as he looked at the redhead's mouth.

Dimitri then touched Anya's chin to make her look at him. "Alexandra's chin." he added.

"What are they doing?" Katya asked with annoyance.

"Oh, look," Vladimir looked down, and took Anya by the hands. "She even has her grandmother's hands."

Anya found herself uncomfortable by the two men's close look on her. She pulled her hand away from Vladimir. Dimitri, and Vladimir then led Anya up to show her another large frieze, this one was of Anastasia with Marie.

"She's the same age, the same physical type." Dimitri stated.

"Are you trying to tell me thatI am Anastasia?" Anya asked, skeptically.

"All I'm trying to tell you is that I've seen hundreds of girls all over the country, and not one of them looks as much like the Grand Duchess as you," Dimitri told her as he pointed to the portrait. "I mean, look at the portrait."

Anya and Katya both stared at Dimitri, wide-eyed, then studied the portrait carefully.

"He has a point," Katya whispered to her friend. "You do look just like Anastasia."

Having had enough of this, Anya poked the man in the chest. "I knew you were crazy from the beginning, but now I think you are both mad." she declared.

Anya crossed her arms, and started to walk away as Katya followed her with a shrug in her shoulders.

"Why?" Dimitri asked while trying to stop the girls. "You don't remember what happened to you."

"No one knows what happened to her," Vladimir added from behind his friend.

"You're looking for family in Paris," Dimitri continued.

"And her only family is in Paris." Vladimir added.

Dimitri gently brought Anya back to look at the portrait. "You ever thought about the possibility?"

"That I could be royalty?" Anya asked.

Dimitri and Vladimir both nodded. "Mmm-hmm."

Anya looked at the frieze again. "Well," she shrugged. "I don't know. It's kinda hard to think of yourself as a duchess when you're sleeping on a damp floor, but sure," Anya eventually agreed, now caught up in the fantasy next to the two men. "Yeah. I guess every lonely girl would hope she's a princess."

"True," Katya agreed softly. "Sometimes I wish I could be like Cinderella."

Anya was now pacing closer towards the two men just as Dimitri turned and walked away.

"And somewhere…" Vladimir told the redhead with a smile. "One little girl is. After all, the name Anastasia means 'she will rise again'."

Dimitri turned away for a brief moment. Exasperated that Vladimir was still talking to Anya, he went back over to retrieve him.

"Really wish we could help," he claimed. "But, the third ticket is for the Grand Duchess Anastasia."

Anya sighed, disappointedly.

"Good luck!" Dimitri called back to her, as he and Vladimir walked away.

As the two men walked away, Anya and Katya were left alone with the frieze of Anastasia with her grandmother as Katya took Anya by the hand.

"Anya, I have an uneasy feeling about that young man." she whispered.

"What are you talking about?" Anya asked softly.

"I mean, I just think there's more to him than what he's showing us, you know how strangers are."

"Katya, I want to do whatever it takes to find my family and who I am," Anya softly told her friend. "And if this guy knows what he's doing, then he can help me find my family, and get you a job in Paris."

"Are you sure?" Katya asked.

Anya stood still for a moment, and then decided to look back at the painting of Empress Marie and Anastasia.

As they walked down the stairs, Vladimir turned to Dimitri, confused as to why he didn't mention their plan to her. "Why didn't you tell them about our brilliant plan?"

But Dimitri didn't seem at all concerned about this.

"All those two want to do is go to Paris," he said, casually. "Why give away a third of the reward money?"

"I'm telling you we're walking away too soon!" Vladimir complained.

"Not to worry, I've got it all…under control." Dimitri assured him.

He gently grabbed his partner to slow him down. "Alright, walk a little slowly." The two men started to slow down their walking.

While they were doing this, Anya took another good long look at the portrait of the young girl with her grandmother. The redhead fiddled around with her necklace while the chestnut-haired girl looked up at the old woman in the picture. She wasn't too sure if she wanted to present herself in front of a monarch whose people once persecuted Jews and Gypsies, which was the leading cause of the destruction of her village, and the death of her parents.

"Katya," Anya said to her friend. "Remember our original plan?"

Katya became dumbfounded. She wanted to go someplace where some people weren't hated as much as they were in Russia, but she also didn't want to meet anyone – let alone a royal – who was from Russia living in Paris.

"Y-yes, I do," she responded, "Do you think…?"

"I think so," Anya whispered.

She gently took Katya's hand, and then the two walked down the stairs. Anya got the feeling that Dimitri could be somewhat right about this. Maybe this really could answer her questions about her past life.

Still walking down the stairs, Dimitri silently whispered to Vladimir while putting each finger down, "Three... two... one..."

"Dimitri!" Anya suddenly called from the other room.

Smiling, Dimitri gestured back to show Vladimir what he was planning to do with Anya.

"Ha!" Vladimir smiled. "Right in the palm of our hands!"

Anya came running back to the landing. "Dimitri, wait!"

"Di…did you call?" Dimitri turned around, pretending to look innocent.

"If I don't remember who I am, then who's to say I'm not a princess or a duchess or whatever she is?" Anya asked as she walked down the stairs. "Right?"

"Mm-hmm," Dimitri nodded as Katya gave him a funny look. "Go on."

"And if i'm not Anastaia," Anya continued. "The Empress will certainly know right away…and it's all just an honest mistake."

"Sounds plausible," Dimitri agreed.

Vladimir then walked up to Anya. "But if you are the princess, then you'll finally know who you are, and have your family back." He then looked at Katya. "And maybe we could also assist you in finding a decent job to help you earn money for your passage?"

"I think I'm seeing something in the older fellow," Katya said to herself. She appeared to be gaining trust in Vladimir as she gave him a small smile.

"You know…" Dimitri chuckled a bit. "You know, he's right! Either way, it gets you two to Paris."

Anya gave the two men a smile, and figured that maybe they were right – maybe they could help her find her family in Paris, after all?

Katya nervously smiled at her best friend, and then decided to go with her and the two men. She leaned towards Anya and whispered in her ear, "Let's be careful, okay? I'm your friend, and I want what's best for you."

Anya looked at Katya and gave her an approving nod. She then extended her hand out to Dimitri, and gave him a soild handshake.

"Ow!" He felt his bones crack from the tight squeeze Anya have him, and grabbed his hand back in pain.

Please Review!