Shirley expected to wake up to barking. She turned her back groggily and stared into the blinding light that shone from her room bulb. Why was it so bright today? As she stretched her hand to turn it off, she felt a rough, hard surface. She recoiled instantly and turned to see what it was.
Source
She rubbed her eyes just in case she wasn't seeing clearly but the grains of sand that fell into them from her palm made her know she had been right. She rose, dusting herself up and taking in her surroundings at the same time.
There was a tree just beside her, the one she must have touched while looking for the switch. The ground was heavily padded with leaves, dirt, and sand. There was nothing else except the trees scattered about, sand, and fallen leaves.
Worried, she took a stroll around going through more trees and fallen leaves. Occasionally, she saw a fallen log and that was it. No people, no cars, no houses, nothing.
She didn't know which feeling to give in to; the feeling that made her heart pound and her blood go cold beneath her skin, or the one that made her throat stuck and dry so that she couldn't call out for help, or the one that made her knees wobbly, wanting her to fall, probably against one of those trees so the amnesia she was experiencing could be knocked out.
She had walked for several minutes before she heard the soft gurgling of water. She hurried towards its direction and then saw it. A narrow flow of water surrounded by vegetation, sliding over small rocks through the trees.
She tried to remember what her mom used to say to her, "Where there's a creek, there's a river, and where there's a river, there's a town".
So there had to be a town nearby!
Hurriedly washing her face and hands in the creek, Shirley took her shoes off and placed her feet gingerly in the creek, careful to lift her pair of pants so they wouldn't get wet.
She hoped she would see a sign of life soon, or even get the location she was at that moment. She had rummaged through her purse which was just on the floor beside her where she slept and found that her phone had died but she had some money on her that she was certain could get her back home safely.
True to her suspicions, after walking for almost an hour, she found herself in a large, dusty clearing with five barely-clad kids chasing each other.
"Uhhh…excuse me?" She increased the tone of her voice so it could be heard above their playful shrieks but they didn't even seem to notice her. She walked right up to them and grabbed one by the arm.
"Hey! Don't you have to go to school?" The child turned confused eyes to stare at her.
Her brown hair was stuck to her forehead with sweat and she reeked of dirt and filth.
"Leave my sister!" Before Shirley could turn around to see who her challenger was, she felt a pelt as slimy liquid plastered against her cheek and dropped down to her Ralph Lauren shirt. She raised her hand to it just as the girl wriggled out of her grip and ran towards the gangly boy who had obviously launched the attack.
At some unknown signal, all the kids began laughing loudly, pointing their fingers at her, and eventually ran away when she bent to pick a pebble to launch at them.
With the way things were turning out, Shirley suspected she could be in one of the interior villages in New York so she wasn't far from home. She was exhausted and famished. Back at home, her cook would have presented her with a bowl of cereal which she would gulp down in minutes then rush into the shower and begin her one-hour makeover to work.
She almost jumped in excitement when she saw an old man holding a crate of apples just in front of her. She hastened her steps to meet him.
"Excuse me. How much to get an apple?"
He looked up at her and exposed teeth yellowing with age.
"No English." Then he continued his slow walk down a narrow trail.
Shirley went with him wondering how he could carry something so heavy so easily.
The man led her to a village. Immediately they arrived, a child rushed to grab the crate from him, it seemed she had entered a Busy town. Everyone was doing something.
She dragged her gaze from one person to the other as they washed, heaved boxes, and arranged wares to be sold. The kids were not left out. In fact, they were the ones doing most of the lifting.
She knew she had to talk to someone so she walked up to one of the young women who was arranging cheap jewelry for sale.
"Hi, can I talk to you for a minute?"
The woman raised soft eyes to hers and then gave an apologetic smile.
"No English." Then she hollered for someone and the same boy who pelted her with an egg earlier ran over. The woman pointed to him. "English".
Now she understood. The woman didn't speak English but the boy did.
"Hey um…you speak English?"
The boy regarded her with contempt before pushing his chest out and saying "yes" proudly.
She mouthed a "Thank God" and then turned back to him.
"Can you show me where I can get something to eat? I have some money here"
She saw the confusion when she brought out the dollar note to show him. He shook his head,"No money here. You work, you eat".
She squeezed her face and furrowed her brows in shock.
"I have to work to eat?" The boy nodded.
She looked around her and understood why everyone was so busy. They didn't use money here, it was a trade-by-barter system.
"You need food, come" he ran through some stalls, leading her to a large woman kneading flour. "She gives good food. Work here, eat". He lifted his thumbs to wish her luck then ran off as quickly as he had arrived.
She was tired of finding out who spoke English and who didn't so she walked up to the woman and tried to demonstrate what she wanted.
"You bake?" She was thrown aback momentarily but she nodded. The woman regarded her from head to toe then threw a ball of dough at her. "Mix".
Shirley wasn't sure why she said she could bake because she couldn't. She had never attempted baking or frying anything, not when she had people who were paid to do everything for her since she was conceived.
She watched the woman and other kids roll their cut of dough effortlessly, she copied what she thought they were doing, proud that she could make something she had never made before, but when she handed it over, the woman tossed it back in her face.
"Bad! You waste dough. You don't get pay!"
She remembered how she had made her employees at her dad's company back at home work for every penny they earned, yelling and throwing papers back in their faces when a job was not well done. She was sure it was shame she felt but tears were stinging the back of her eyes and she wanted the ground to open up and save her from the embarrassment.
"I can show you" The small eyes that twinkled before hers held the first light of kindness she had seen all day.
As she kneaded, she spoke softly
"Here we work and eat. No money because mother says money is just a medium of exchange, nothing more. And wealth is simply assets accumulated over time. See…turn your palm over and apply pressure."
Shirley had worked in total for 12 hours, something she had never done before.
Surviving on only a portion of cake and tea but learning to bake several snacks in the process. If this was what her employees felt each day, she made a mental note to become a better boss.
"Where you from?" The young kind girl whose name was Elia asked. They were done with their job for the day and had escaped from the crude remarks of Elia's mother to sit in an apple orchard.
"New York".
"Ah ..the big city. Not far from here" Shirley jumped at that statement.
"Really? How can I get there?"
"You meet the teacher. Teachers go to learn in New York and come to teach us English here."
"Take me to her".
Shirley arrived home at midnight, exhausted, famished, and half dead but a new person. It seemed a makeover had been done on her person because even when Dorcas, her housekeeper opened the door to receive her in tears, she fell into her arms weeping.
"I'm sorry Dorcas, I'm sorry".
"We're so glad to have you back Madam Shirley, the entire city was in an uproar".
She didn't care about all of that so far as she was in her home, where she belonged.
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