"Let's take a peek and see if she's awake already," said, Riley with a giggle.
"She's so pretty! I'm glad dad brought her home" whispered Henry, blushing.
"Oh I just saw her hand move, she'll be awake soon," said Riley, with excitement, jerking a little in shock because she was sitting very close to her.
Riley is five years old, she is quite energetic for her age. She is very cute, her blonde hair packed in a bun, wearing one of her favorite dresses; a blue gown with a ribbon on it. Her little blue eyes could see anything in the world.
Henry is 19 years old, he is tall and handsome. He is blonde with blue eyes just like Riley… He is very shy and reserved but looks the opposite. His hair is styled just fine and he keeps practicing what to say to Hilda when she wakes up.
"She has been asleep for three days, maybe it's best we woke her up," said Henry, a bit skeptical.
"Dad said to leave her alone," said Riley.
"What do you know? You little girl" said Henry to arouse her provocation.
"I'm not going to let you send me away this time. We'll both be here when she wakes up and I'll enjoy watching you sweat in your pants to say hello" said Riley, laughing and jeering at Henry. As little as she is, Henry's reserved behavior is very obvious to her.
Hilda feels the cool breeze brush through her cheeks and imagines how perfect the weather is. She hears muffled sounds indistinctly and struggles to open her eyes when she feels an overwhelming pain like a heavy load was dropped on her head, bang!
"This hurts so much," Hilda said, groaning.
"She's awake!!" said little Riley, rejoicing. "I'll go get mom and dad, you can make your moves now," she said, winking at him.
"What does she mean by that? She's impossible", Henry said to himself.
"Hi.." Henry said, smiling nervously. "Hi.." Hilda responds with a straight face and curious gaze, obviously uncomfortable.
"I'll get you some painkillers," Henry said, thoughtfully seeing how she held her head uncomfortably as though it was going to fall off.
Henry goes to the drawer next to the bed where Hilda lay and brought some for her. Mrs. Samantha Jameson, Henry's mom kept some earlier, quite aware that Hilda would wake up with a bad headache judging from how hard her head was hit. She had a deep cut on her head.
Hilda takes them, hoping they'd work.
"What day and time is it?" Hilda asks, feeling like she's been asleep for a millennium.
Henry was surprised by the question but answered still;
"It's Friday, 2nd August 2011 and it's 4:32 pm"
"Okay, I've been asleep for three days. It's not very bad." Hilda said.
Hilda realizes that the place isn't familiar, she then takes her time to look around the room and even outside the window to search for anything familiar.
It's a small room, the walls painted with lilac color and the pillar, a dull green color. The bed she's lying on is at the center of the room. A pink blanket with rose patterns and a soft pillow, it's quite comfortable. Maybe that's why she slept on for three days.
Henry stood there, mesmerized by her beauty and charms, watching her as she looked around the room as though she was looking for something she had earlier kept.
Hilda looked outside, there were houses around, a bakery at the top of a high-rise building, some people dancing to the music that she could hear very loudly, cars honking, screeching, and drivers cursing at each other. She took notice of a white cat that sat at the window, it looked like aunt Gina's. She was just getting off the bed to hold the cat when Henry stopped her.
"Don't go near the cat! It's a stray cat. It always comes there in the evenings. Dad says never to go near it, it could be dangerous."
That wasn't enough reason for Hilda to obey his command but she just did and stayed back in the bed.
"Where is this place and how did I get here?" Hilda asked after observing the whole place and realizing that it was not her home nor anywhere close."
"Uhh… My dad-" Henry said before Riley's scream cut him off.
"Mom and dad are here! Whoa! Look at those charming eyes." She said, looking at Hilda's eyes.
Mr. and Mrs. Jameson walked into the room to see Hilda. The Jameson family stood together at the foot of Hilda's bed, staring at her as though waiting for someone to break the silence.
Mr. Nathan Jameson is huge with a potbelly and slim trunk looking as though it could not carry the weight of the upper part of his body but it rested just fine. He is bald with a mustache. He looks like he's in his early 50's…
Mrs. Samantha Jameson is slim and tall, a middle-aged woman with beautiful black hair, a warm aura, and a perfect smile. She's a perfect mother figure.
Hilda looked at them and when she couldn't contain the awkward silence anymore, she spoke up;
"I'm starving," she said, holding her stomach and groaning slightly.
"Oh yeah," said Nathan
"It's right about the time you had something to eat, you've been sleeping for a long time," said Samantha
"I thought that awkward silence would go on forever," said Riley, giggling. She's quite the talker.
"Henry, go to the bakery and get our fine visitor a loaf of freshly baked bread, I'll go get the milk from the fridge." Said Samantha.
Henry soon arrives home from the bakery and Hilda is invited to the dining to eat. It was a wooden table with four chairs around it like it was made perfectly for Jameson's family. Each chair had a name on it, Dad, mom, Henry, and Riley.
"Sit on mine." Said Riley with a wide grin.
Hilda returned the smile and sat on her chair. Samantha comes over to the table and serves her bread, milk, and some apples. Her stomach was already grumbling, signaling her not to waste any more time, and Hilda, not caring about anything else as much as the food in front of her, pounced on it and ate to her heart's content.
When she had finished eating, she sat still at the table and Samantha took the plates out, signaling Nathan to play his part. Hilda just watched them like it was a movie, it seemed like one anyways.
Nathan walked to the table and sat opposite her. Hilda expected him to start bombarding her with questions.
"How do you feel?" asked Nathan, not sure of what to say.
"I'm okay, thank you," said Hilda.
She observed his countenance and guessed that she could ask him what has been bugging her since she woke up.
"Where is this place and how did I get here?" she asked.
"About that, how about you have your bath first and then we'd chat?" Nathan said as he took a thorough look at her.
Hilda couldn't agree more, she hadn't bathed in three days after all.
Hilda goes to the mirror to see just how bad she looked that made Mr. Jameson suggest that she takes her bath before chatting.
"I'm in pretty bad shape," said Hilda, sighing.
Her gray-colored hair which almost resembles silver is a real mess. It is tangled, and dirty with a whole lot of mud and particles of wood in it. Her face is dirty too as though she rubbed mud on some part of it, same as her white skin.
Her dress is dirty and torn, her shoes, worn out. She looks like someone that spent a week in the desert and on leaving the desert, landed in a rainforest.
While Hilda was having her bath, Samantha picked out some clean clothes from her wardrobe and placed them on Hilda's bed.
"She'll see them here." Said, Samantha after scouting the whole room for the most conspicuous spot.
Mrs. Jameson then went to join her husband and children in the living room while they waited for Hilda to come to join them after bathing.
Hilda sat in the bathtub, her water already mixed to the right temperature. She enjoyed the warmness of the water spread through her body and brought some kind of comfort to her and she didn't want to leave.
"I should better get dressed. Mr. Jameson must be waiting for me, I also need something for my headache." Hilda said, leaving the bathroom. Her head was still pounding, the painkillers Henry gave her earlier weren't effective at all.
She saw the dress right where Samantha kept it, she puts it on and goes downstairs to meet Nathan.
Hilda gets to the parlor, a large room, with couches, arranged orderly, a wide flat-screen television on the wall, and the wall painted with white and black patterns to complement the black color of the couch. There are flower pots around the corner and a beautiful chandelier hanging from the ceiling, the Jameson family has a thing for beauty in simplicity.
She sees the whole family chatting and laughing. It is very lively and a bit noisy from Nathan's loud chuckle, his hoarse voice spreading through the room.
For a moment, she watched them, smiling, she's a bit jealous of how happy they are. She wished she had such a happy childhood and amazing family too, growing up was quite sad, having to move from place to place at regular intervals and having a dad that doesn't care was very difficult for her to take in, but regardless, she's grown now and none of that matters anymore, at least, that's what she thought.
"Mmhm..." Hilda clears her throat to draw their attention.
"How long have you been there, darling?" asked Samantha.
"Not very long, I just got here," said Hilda, not ready to go into details.
"I didn't realize you all were waiting for me," Hilda said, apologetically.
"There's no need to feel bad. Come join us." Said Nathan, warmly.
"Here's something for your headache," said Samantha handing over some painkillers to her.
Hilda wondered how she knew that she needed them but she took them anyway.
Everyone is finally settled and it's time to chat. Nathan clears his throat and begins;
"What is your name and where is your family?"
"I'm Hilda," she said, with no intentions of answering the other part of the question.
"Okay, Hilda, what about your family? Your dad, mom, siblings…" said Samantha, warmly, hoping to get a response this time.
"I can't remember", Hilda said without batting an eyelid.
"Oh my God! I'm so sorry about that. The fall must have been a hard one, given the bruises all over your head when I found you." Said Nathan pitifully.
Nathan looks at her forehead where she sustained the injury, but finds it completely healed without even a scar. It was perfect like nothing happened there.
"Uhh.. Your cut. You had a cut here when I found you." Nathan said in shock, pointing at his forehead.
"I don't know about that," Hilda said, paying no attention to Nathan's freight.
"You probably saw it wrong, my love. Let's not put her under any form of pressure, yea." Said Samantha.
"Okay.. Ye..es uhh we should get on with the conversation." Said Nathan, distorted.
Whilst they were conversing, Henry kept staring at Hilda. He never saw anyone as charming as her. It's as though he had been earlier compelled to stare at her, he couldn't seem to take his eyes off her! With how long Henry looked at Hilda, he could make a detailed painting of her without having to look at her while at it.
Mr. and Mrs. Jameson didn't want to pressure Hilda into remembering anything. They were ready to take her in for as long as she wanted. She looked helpless and lonely
Hilda can't remember how she got to the house or how she sustained the injuries Nathan mentioned earlier. She was just getting over the loss of her aunt, Gina.
"All that matters now is that I'm finally away from them. At least, no one here sees or treats me like a threat. I like it here." Hilda said to herself, smiling and feeling safe in the confinement of the Jamesons home.