Book Two: Finding Others

I hurry on my way North, almost running the entire way, so I arrive at the orphanage just before the third bell. If they have breakfast around the same time as Marrianne and the AR program, they should be finished and starting with whatever they do during the day around the third bell.

As I head inside, I see a whole lot of kids going out, a big group of them all gathered up in a plaza a little way down the road. With the big baskets they're carrying on their backs, they must be going into the forest. Once inside, I squeeze through the dark, packed halls and make my way to the stairs. It's really hard to climb up with so many people coming down, especially while carrying things in my arms. By the time I've made it to the top of the stairs, I hear the third bell beginning to ring, and there are far fewer children, the ones left moving downstairs even faster than before.

I try to keep going toward the next staircase, but a voice suddenly calls out. "You." Everyone stops. A path clears between the last remaining children for Mister Fredricson as he moves through the hall. I turn around, finding everyone else has parted, standing against the walls, like they're holding their breath. Why do they look so scared? Glancing up, he is pointing directly at me.

"Yes, sir?" I ask, trying to keep my voice level. He isn't going to start yelling at me again like last night, is he? Or maybe he's just going to tell me about what I'm supposed to do during the day now that I live here. For some reason, he glances at the ten or so nearby children, then down the stairs where the others are flooding out the front door.

"Come," I nod and follow him back down the hall. Everyone else begins to move at the same time, rushing down the stairs, leaving the hall empty before we even reach his office door. We walk into his room, and he tells me to close the door. I swing it shut. It makes a very distinct click sound when it closes all the way. I turn back and stand in front of his desk again.

"Where were you last night?" he asks. I would say he looks angry, but it seems like he's always angry, so he's actually a little hard to understand.

I tilt my head. "I was at the place I was staying." Why would I be anywhere else? Though I don't really want to bring up Marrianne by name. I'm not sure why, I guess it's just that he's always mad and I don't want him to bother her... or something. I'm not living with her anymore, I don't want to trouble her after I've already left.

"What? The place you were staying?" It seems like he is too confused to keep being quite as angry.

Maybe he doesn't understand, or forgot or something? So I explain, "I told you that last night was the last time I could stay there, so I would need a place to live from now on. I've settled everything there, so I came here." He opens his mouth, seems to think for a few moments, then closes his mouth again. He clears his throat, and straightens up. I guess he did forget?

"I see. Well then, it looks like you have returned with some goods, let's see them."

"Goods? These are my things." Goods is a word for... things people sell in the market, I remember after a moment.

In response, he smiles. It's weird. He's usually so angry, so when he starts smiling, his smile looks weirdly unsettling. "Those are things you received from someone. As you know, you must share half of your income with the orphanage. Give them here."

I frown a little. These are my first belongings. I'm not too familiar with the feeling, but it definitely feels unfair that I need to give them up. But if that's what it takes to live here, I'll do it.

I hand over the basket, with the clothing and flask inside, while keeping my robe. If he's talking about the stuff I got from Marrianne... "The clothing I'm wearing was also given to me." I think for a moment, and explain my thoughts. "If I'm giving you half, then can you take those clothes and the water flask?"

He raises an eyebrow. "Why the flask and not the basket?" He asks. Somehow, I can't understand his expression at all.

"You said I need to be able to gather things in the forest. I'll need a basket to carry anything I gather. I won't be able to do what you need me to do without it." Obviously I have to hold onto the thing I'll need to do what he already told me I need to do. As I discovered yesterday, it will be really hard going without water for a long time, but if it's between the flask and the basket, I need the basket more.

Mister Fredricson narrows his eyes for a few moments, frowning. "Fine. But what about that?" He points at my robe.

"This is my robe," I say simply.

"I said you need to give half of what you receive, give it here."

"I didn't receive this, it's mine." We did get a change of robes when we outgrew the ones we wore as babies, but that's so long ago I can't actually remember it much. Apart from that, this robe has been the thing I wear. All day, every day, for my entire life. It's just... a part of me. Like my divine gear is. I can't give it away.

His smile suddenly turns to a sneer without warning. "Yours? If you want to live here, you need to give up your things. If you won't give me that, I'll take everything else." Then it's not even a question. Still, I frown a little. This definitely isn't fair. He said the rule was half of my things, but now he's taking everything. I sigh. Just when I got some things of my own too. I apologize to Marrianne silently. You gave me these things, and I couldn't even use them. But I swallow my sadness. I guess having my things taken is just something I have to endure. It's nothing compared to being beaten unconscious every day at least.

I pull off Marrianne's bedclothes that I'm still wearing, and Mister Fredricson's jaw drops. I hand them over to the shocked man, then slip into my robe. He continues to stand with his mouth hanging open for a few moments before shaking his head.

"So you care about that more than all of your other belongings? It looks weird, but what's so special about it?"

I shrug. "As far as I know there isn't anything special about it."

He presses his hands to his temples. "Then why do you cling to it like that, is it not valuable? Wait, it's not sentimental is it?" Though I don't know what 'sentimental' means.

I shake my head, "It's important to me."

"Ugh, sentimental trash," he rolls his eyes. "Get out, be glad that I'm only taking your stuff."

"Ok, but first..." he snaps to glare at me. The words catch in my throat as he stares me down.

"I said leave."

I bow my head as I speak to avoid his terrifying gaze. "I'm really sorry, I just want to know what you want me to do!" When he doesn't respond after a moment, I peek up and see him with a confused look. So I try to explain myself. "It's my first day here, so I don't know what you want me to do during the day. Is there somewhere I should go, or something I should do?"

After a few moments, he starts to grin again. "Clean the house. Top to bottom." His expression makes me nervous, so I try to reply energetically.

"Yes, sir." I cover my feelings with a big smile and leave the room.

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"I said that, but..." Standing in the hall, I mutter to myself. "How do I clean the house?" I think back. Marrianne cleaned those stables by pulling out the straw and waste, and replacing it with fresh... No, that was a room for horses to stay in. I should think about when Marrianne cleaned the house after we washed up. She swept all the old dirty straw out and replaced it with new straw. But there is no straw on the floors here. The AR building had stone floors and no straw. Marrianne's house had wood floors with straw. The orphanage has wood floors, but no straw. I can't find any pattern to this...

In any case, there is no straw to replace. I rub my hand on the floor briefly. It comes up completely black with dirt, probably brought in by all of the children going in and out. So even if there's no straw to replace, I should still be able to sweep all the dirt out. I just need a broom...

Since Mister Fredricson took all the things I was going to put under my bed, I don't need to go to my room before I get to work. I carefully descend the stairs to the first floor. The house has mostly emptied out during my talk with Mister Fredricson. I guess everyone else went to do whatever they're doing during the day.

Now that I know the layout, it's much easier to find my way back to the storage room. I recall that I was told not to go in without a reason. I need a broom now, so I walk inside and look around. There are no windows here, so it's really dark and hard to see, even in the middle of the day. I have to move carefully to avoid tripping or bumping into things. Eventually my eyes get used to the darkness enough that I find a broom over by one wall.

I walk back out, broom in hand, and squint at the sudden light coming in the windows. "Hmm, do I start on the first floor or the third floor..." I consider it for a bit. I'll be sweeping everything out the front door, so if I start on the first floor, I'll be able to get the entire floor clean before moving to the next. That sounds pretty good, so I start sweeping.

"Wait, where should I start?" I look around. I could start by the front door, but there isn't that much dirt right there. It would probably be better to start further back and sweep it into a pile to get it all out the door.

So I go to the common area near the front door and start sweeping. It's difficult to control the large broom at first, so I try to think of it like a polearm. I spread my hands for better control, moving them together in nice smooth movements. That's better. I try mimicking the way Marrianne swept, pivoting the broom so it moves with wide, steady motions across the floor. That's easy enough.

The more difficult part is keeping the dirt from spreading everywhere. If I don't sweep it right, it just blows up into the air around me and I end up coughing as it floats around and spreads everywhere. Eventually I settle on long, smooth sweeps across the floor, because it kicks up a lot less dirt, and I'm able to move the dirt much farther across the floor with each sweep.

But that leads to another issue. By walking so much while sweeping, I keep stepping into other piles of dirt. And now that I'm paying attention to it, I've been dragging the bottom hem of my robe across the dirty floor the whole time. Marrianne tied up her dress whenever she did dirty work like this. I don't have any ties though, Mister Fredricson took all of the ones with Marrianne's clothing. Since I apparently didn't get everything I needed to do this job, I head back to the storeroom.

Eventually I fumble around enough to find some scraps of cloth. I take a couple, awkwardly trying to tie up my robe the same way I remember Marrianne doing hers. It takes a number of tries to get it right from just the memory though. With my robe finally tied up around my knees, I'm ready to go. Or so I thought. Besides my robe, there's also my incredibly long hair. It's still nice and clean, but like Marrianne cleaning those stables, if I just go sweeping all this dirt around, it's going to wind up dirty in no time. I need to tie it up.

Which leads me to quite a problem. Marrianne used a wooden stick and some cloth to tie up our hair that day. I fumble back through the storage room one more time, eventually finding a stick that I think will work. It's not terribly straight and has some bumps on it, but it'll work... more or less. I sit on the floor and work from memory. She grabbed her hair and twisted like this...

I twist my hair, clumsily sliding the stick through, then wrap it all around the stick over and over trying to bunch it all up into a ball like when Marrianne did it. Then she kind of turned it over and finished pushing the stick through somehow. As soon as I release the stick, all my hair falls out like it wasn't held at all, and the stick falls, going bouncing off the floor. "Hmm, it looks like I'm still missing something."

I think about the stick and how it's actually holding the hair in place. If I'm just pushing it through my twisted up hair, it's not actually being held by anything. Maybe if I used the hair near my scalp it will work better? That should give it something to anchor it in place. So I try again, twisting and curling and wrapping. This time I try sliding the stick along my scalp, pinning it under the hair there before going through the twisted up hair. Then when I turn it, after a good bit of struggling, I manage to push it under the hair on the other side. The bendy bumps aren't helping.

It sort of tries to stay in place this time. At least for a few moments, before my clumsy, awkward twists and wrapping come right out. So I try again. I work at it for a little while, making numerous attempts to tie up my hair properly before I get good enough at it for the stick to stay in place. Of course, it's awkward and pulls out as soon as I move around a bit too much. Even after understanding the method, it really takes a while before I can actually accomplish it.

But eventually, I do successfully wrap all my hair up into a small bun. I wrap a piece of cloth around it a few times to secure the stick and the bits of loose ends I missed earlier. Then I tie it off, and it's complete. I bounce around some and it doesn't come out at all. I don't need to put another cloth over my whole head like Marrianne did, all I need is to keep it up as I work.

After struggling through one challenge after another just to get ready to clean, the fourth bell rings just as I start sweeping. I quickly manage to finish the first room, and sweep all the dirt out the front door. However, it won't stay clean long if everyone walks right through that dirt. So I sweep away the pile of dirt along the sides of the road to get it out of the doorway.

I go to the next room, but as soon as I start sweeping, I discover another problem. If I sweep this room clean, I'll just be tracking all of the dirt and dust back through the room I just cleaned. Then I'll do the same with the two clean rooms, then three...

"Aah, I chose wrong. I need to start at the back and work my way to the front." So I change plans, going all the way to the back of the house and starting to sweep there. When I reach the stairs, I stop and look down at my feet. If I do the upper floors after, won't I run into the same problem as before? I'll wind up tracking dirt from the second and third floor back across the first to get to the front door. "So I do need to start on the third floor," I say aloud and nod to myself. He'd said to clean the house top to bottom. I thought 'top to bottom' was supposed to mean 'everything,' but I guess he also meant it literally. I should have listened closer, I could have saved some time figuring out the right way to do it.

Having come to that conclusion, I start climbing the stairs. It's much more difficult while holding the broom that is so much larger than I am, but with some persistence, I make it up. "The third floor goes in two directions from the staircase, I guess I'll do each half individually." I nod to myself a few times. Then I walk to one far corner and start sweeping. It's not long before I make it to the first bedroom door in that corner of the building. "He said to clean everything, I guess that includes all the rooms..." I'm starting to realize that this is going to be quite a task. This place is just so much bigger than anywhere I've lived before now, it hadn't really dawned on me just how long it could take to clean.

To get myself ready, I nod strongly and go into the first bedroom. "Wow, so dirty!" I exclaim when I see the floor inside. Each bed has an assortment of things underneath. I can see a lot better today with the daylight coming in the window. Unlike last night, there are no baskets under the beds. I guess they went to the forest.

But besides the missing baskets and various other items under the beds, there are piles of dirt, dried mud, small twigs, leaves, sticks, little green needles from different plants, and all sorts of other tiny bits of debris covering the entire floor. "It must all be from bits of stuff that get in their gathering baskets," I realize. In any case, I get to sweeping. I start near the far window, sweeping out around and between each of the six beds.

Once I finish with that, I get down low and carefully sweep out the piles of debris collecting under each bed. I have to move some of the stuff sitting underneath to sweep up all the dirt, but I don't want to mess with anyone's stuff, so I make sure to slide it back into place where I found it afterward. One at a time, I get the areas cleaned out, and sweep all the junk out the door into the hall. Cleaning every room like this is going to be really time consuming.

It kind of reminds me of Marrianne. I smile a bit as I go into one room after another, like she did in the stables. One by one, I sweep them out, leaving the floors all nice and clean. I find myself getting lost in the task pretty soon. Like she was, almost moving automatically. My speed picks up as I gain more familiarity and confidence with the long broom. I sweep out rooms in far fewer sweeps, quickly piling the dust outside each door with well placed motions.

Before I know it, I've gone through all the rooms on the third floor and swept all the dirt and sticks, all the leaves, and bits of everything else, all into a big pile. I stand at the top of the stairs, looking down. This is my next big challenge to overcome. I need to sweep all this dirt down these stairs without falling down the stairs myself. Carefully, I push the pile off the top step. Most of it falls to the step below, but it's a pretty big pile, so some spills over to the next step below that.

Now I could step down and sweep the next step, but I'd wind up stepping in the dirt and tracking it back on the clean floors later. If I can sweep it in front so I walk on the clean stairs behind, that should work. So I lie down on the edge of the steps, holding the long broom over the side so I can awkwardly sweep all the dirt off of the step. Then I carefully slide down to the next step. It's too narrow for me to lie down across, so I carefully sit sideways, half off the step, and keep working to push the pile of dirt down.

One step at a time, I work my way down the flight of stairs. Slowly and carefully, I get all of the dirt and debris to the bottom. When I finally step down safely onto the second floor, I let out a long, relieved sigh.

After spending one bell's time figuring out what to do, it's taken about two more bells to sweep the third floor. At this rate, I should be done by the tenth bell. Before I get to sweeping the second floor, I push my big dirt pile all the way around, over to the top of the next stairway on the opposite side of the house.

Then it's back to sweeping each room, carefully cleaning out underneath everyone's beds where all sorts of junk from the forest has collected. I guess the kids here go gathering in the forest a lot. Then I stop in one room. Rather than a small bit of twig, there is a stick large enough to be considered a branch under one of the beds. It's longer than my arm. "This looks too big to be here accidentally, I guess I'll leave it..." I put the small branch back under the bed, right where I found it, and move on. But now I'm a bit interested in what everyone has under their beds. With each room, I make some new discoveries. I don't recognize most of the things. Some are large, some are small. Some are really heavy when I move them out of the way, and some are surprisingly light and airy. Now I want to find out what all these interesting objects are and what they're used for.

Two more bells pass while I clean the second floor. Shortly after the eighth bell, I stand once more at the top of the stairs, now with a pile of dirt that reaches my knees. "This is going to be really difficult..." I mutter as I look at the dirt pile. Because it'll just complicate things, I pick out the biggest sticks and twigs and put them in a separate pile on the side. Then I start pushing the dirt down the stairs like last time. There is so much that it just kind of dumps all down the flight of stairs and kicks up into the air from the fall. I have to back up, coughing and waving away the dirt. Some of it even sticks to the walls a bit and I need to brush it off.

I lie over the stairs once more and work on pushing the dirt down. As I do, I hear Mister Fredricson's door open at the far end of the hall. I keep working, getting the first stair clean as his footsteps approach. Once I've finished the step, I hear his voice.

"What are you doing?"

I stand up and turn back. He's still halfway around the corner from the stairway, so I have to take a step back to see him. "I'm sweeping." I've been working on this for a long time now; It's only now that he asks that it occurs to me that maybe sweeping isn't the right way to clean the house. I gulp nervously.

He just narrows his eyes. "Uh huh..." When he doesn't say anything else, I slowly go back to cleaning. But as soon as I turn away, he says, "Wait." I freeze in place, glancing back at him. His eyes just narrow further as he leans toward me. His eyes aren't looking right at me though, he's looking a little to the side. At... my hair? "Hmmm," his brow furrows. I wait for a few moments longer. It seems like he's thinking about something, but I can't imagine what. "You, what is your name?"

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My voice catches for a moment. My name? I have a real one now. This is the first time I've gotten to tell it to anyone. Without meaning to, I smile as I answer, "Aria."

"Ah.. ree... ah..." he repeats it slowly, sounding out each part of the name for some reason. Francis said it was a normal name, so why? "I see, that explains things." What does he see? What does it explain? I don't understand at all! "Now get back to work. If you don't finish the whole house, you won't get dinner. Those who don't work don't eat."

"O-ok," I stammer. However, he continues standing there without moving. Maybe he's still thinking about something? I hastily turn back to my work. Nervous under his watching eyes, I carefully edge my way down off the landing onto the first step of the staircase, trying not to mess up in front of him. Once I'm safely on the step, I hear a strange snort. I turn to see Mister Fredricson, clearly trying not to laugh. He begins to walk away before I can guess what's so funny.

I shake the confused thoughts from my head. If I don't focus on this, I'll wind up falling down the stairs. So I continue to move slowly and carefully down the steps. Once at the bottom, I only have the first floor left to sweep. It's a little after the eighth bell after that strange conversation. I have a good amount of time left, but I'm starting to get worn out. There was no lunch, which seems to be normal when people are working during the day. At least we skipped it that day Marrianne was working at the stables. I did eat with Francis when I went to work with him though, so I'm not entirely sure.

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In any case, I'm also really thirsty. Unlike food, I can do something about that. I go to the kitchen, where there is a big jug of water. I nod. Just like at Marrianne's house. There should be cups in here somewhere. I look up to the shelves overhead. That's where Marrianne kept her cups and plates in the kitchen. They're far too high up for me to reach though. But I should be able to reach if I climb up on the counter.

Even the counter is high up though. I'm only eye level with the top of the counter, I can look up onto it if I go up on the tips of my toes. When I look around, there isn't much to help me climb here. So I go into the other room where there are chairs. Unlike the stools at Marrianne's house, these chairs have four thick legs with seats and backs. They're made of wood, but are bigger than me and very hard to move. I manage to drag one into the kitchen and shove it up against the counter.

The chair is at chest height, so I manage to lift myself up on top of the seat. I don't want to get my shoes, filthy from cleaning the entire house, up on the clean counter. So I slip my feet out of them. Even from the seat of the chair, it's a climb to the counter, but I manage to pull myself up without too much trouble. I carefully stand, holding onto the shelves to balance on the edge of the counter.

Going along the shelves, I manage to pull one of the cups from on top, all the way on the far right side. I take one of the wooden cups and carefully lower myself back to the chair, put my shoes back on, and make it safely back to the floor. Everything is so tall here!

With a sigh, I walk over to the water jug. I dip the cup in, and drain the cup. I repeat this three times before I'm satisfied. I shake off the excess water on the wooden cup. With another sigh, I climb all the way back up onto the counter and put the cup back. Then I climb down again, and drag the chair all the way back into the other room. Just getting water to drink is a pretty difficult task here.

At least I'm not thirsty anymore. I sweep out the first floor much more quickly than the others, since there aren't a whole lot of tiny rooms to go through. It's mostly just big rooms with open floors I can sweep easily. The only exception being the storeroom in the back. It's so dark in there, I can't see what I'm doing at all. I consider what to do.

The storeroom is quite long in one direction, its back wall against the outside of the house, but with no windows. The long wall facing inward contains the only door into the room. It connects to an open room that has plenty of light from the big windows on one side, but that light doesn't make it to the storeroom when the door closes behind you.

"Oh, duh," I feel like an idiot when I realize the obvious fix. I drag a chair over to the storeroom. With a big, heavy chair like this, propping the door open is no problem.

Once there's a little light from the next room over, I can at least see well enough to sweep the floor. It's still a big room, with all sorts of things inside. I try to be careful and not hit anything with the long handle of the broom as I sweep, so it's a pretty slow job, but I manage to sweep the room out eventually. There is one interesting part in the floor though. It looks like there's a random handle sitting there, but I shrug and ignore it because I have something to do right now.

Soon enough, the dirt joins the terrifyingly large pile near the front door. There was this much dirt in the house? It's almost as tall as me! I have it all pushed off to the side just in case someone comes back so they don't walk into it.

Now that I've done the whole house, I fight to sweep the big pile out the front door. I wind up needing to take it out in layers, sweeping off the dirt on top, then working my way down. The first floor was still much quicker than the upper floors, so I manage to finish by the ninth bell rather than the tenth. That leaves me with three bells of time before curfew. What should I do until then, I wonder?

Even as I consider that, the door opens and a child walks inside. She walks past, glancing at me as she goes. For now, I guess I'll put back the cleaning stuff. I walk back to the storeroom. When I get there, I see the chair propping open the door and realize I forgot to put it back. I'll take some time to do that before heading into the storeroom. I lean the broom up against the wall where I found it, then undo the cloth ties keeping my robe up at my knees. I fight with the knot I put in the cloth around my hair. It's hard to undo without seeing it.

"What are you doing in here?" I turn to the door while fighting with the knot. People really ask me what I'm doing a lot, don't they?

"I'm putting away the stuff I used to clean," I explain, pointing over at the broom. It feels like the knot is starting to loosen a little as I pull at it. I look over and see that the person asking is another older child. Quite a bit older, he looks almost fifteen years old, like the other rail units are now.

"You new here?"

"Yeah, it's my first day."

"And you're cleaning?"

"Yeah. Oh, actually," I speak as I realize the opportunity. "Besides sweeping, is there anything else I'm supposed to do when cleaning?" Mister Fredricson didn't say anything when I told him I was sweeping, so I'm assuming that was fine, but I don't know if there are other tasks he expects me to do that I'm not aware of.

He thinks for a moment. "Besides sweeping, emptying the chamber pots should be fine," the older boy comments.

"Ahh, I'll do that then." Just as I think I'm about to get the knot out, I stop. Apparently there is some more work for me to do. I give it a tug to tighten it again instead.

I leave the storeroom, and thank the boy. He smiles and says it's no problem. I walk off to continue. As I go, I see a couple more children around. I guess they start coming back around the ninth bell.

It's time to do the chamber pots. While exploring, I saw five of them. Two on each of the upper floors, at opposite corners of the house, and one on the first floor, in the open room connected to the storeroom.

Since I'm already on the first floor, I head to that one first. Marrianne always emptied the chamber pot around the side of the building, and people living on upper floors emptied them out of open windows. I pick up the one on the first floor. It's really heavy, I can just barely lift it without seriously overexerting myself. And it's only made more difficult by the waste inside sloshing around when I move. I have to be extra careful so it doesn't come out on me or the floor. Just thinking about it makes me start to gag again. I need to put it down, turning away and continuously breathing in deep breaths to push away the horrible memories that begin to surface again. I look around. The big windows in this room are too tall for me to reach out of. I'll need to go out the front door.

I carefully pick up the chamber pot one more time. Taking small, careful steps, I walk all the way through the house while carrying it. It's so heavy that my arms are already getting tired by the time I make it to the front door. I set it down just outside the front door to take a breather and recover before continuing. I carry it a short distance around the building until I find a spot where it seems it has been dumped before. After another break, I carefully tilt the heavy chamber pot over. While trying to keep myself and my clothes clear from getting splashed, I dump the chamber pot near the side of the building.

Despite my best efforts, it splashes out messily, and few drops get on the bottom hem of my robe. I grimace, I should have tied it back up. Now I definitely need to wash it later. Once empty, I have much less trouble carrying the chamber pot back inside.

That's one of five done. Next I proceed up to the second floor. This one sits on one corner of the building, near a window. It would be easiest to dump it out the window, but the windowsill is as up high as I am tall. Like the counter earlier, I won't be able to climb up on it very easily from here. Much less while trying to carry a chamber pot so heavy I have to fight to lift it. So I'll need to carry it out the front door. I pick it up and bring it over to the stairs. As always, the stairs present a new challenge to overcome. How to go down with a heavy object...

I set the chamber pot down at the top of the stairs, then slide down onto the first step. I grab the chamber pot and pull it over, trying to transfer it to the step I'm standing on. However, it's too large to sit on the narrow step, so I can't set it down. I fight to lift it back up onto the landing above me, and set it down there once more. If I can't get it down the stairs, I have no choice but to dump it out the window. How do I get it up onto the windowsill though?

"I could try climbing like before." I think aloud. If I get a chair, I could use it to climb up to the windowsill. However, I need my hands to climb, so I can't do it while holding a chamber pot. I look up at the windowsill. It's large enough to set the chamber pot down, so I should be able to get it there as long as I have a chair to stand on.

I carry the chamber pot all the way back to the window, then head back downstairs again. There are a lot more children around now. Many seem to be following me with their eyes. Maybe because I'm new here and they don't recognize me? I don't know, there are so many of them I feel like it's going to be hard to get to know all of them. Or even some of them, actually. I've spoken with a number of them now, but I haven't met even a single one twice yet.

In any case, I ignore their eyes as I focus on my task. I drag the chair over to the stairs. This part is going to be really hard. I wonder if I can do it? After taking a break to regain as much energy as I can to prepare myself, I begin the climb. I use one hand and my feet to climb the stairs, holding onto the wooden chair with all of my might with my other arm, while slowly dragging it up the stairs behind me. By the time I make it all the way up the stairs, I collapse in a heap, panting heavily. My arm is really sore from pulling that chair up with me.

Once I've recovered enough, I drag the chair down the hall. Now the surrounding children are really staring at me. A few even follow me to see what I'm doing. I get the chair over to the window. It's too small to set the chamber pot down on while I'm standing on it, so I'll have to pick it up from the floor. I set the chamber pot right next to the chair then climb onto the chair.

I lie down over the side of the chair and heave the chamber pot up with all of my might. Standing and lifting, I turn and raise it up over my head, sliding it onto the windowsill above me. Once it is in place, I sit for a bit to let my trembling arms recover. As soon as I think I can, I climb up onto the windowsill. It's not that deep, but I can easily sit on it. I pull myself up on top and carefully tip the chamber pot. When I look down, the ground is very far away. I definitely don't want to fall from here. I put my weight on the foot near the edge so I don't fall. I slowly pour out the chamber pot so it falls to the ground below. Once empty, I set it back on the window sill.

I climb to the chair, grab the chamber pot, transfer it to the floor, and climb down once more myself.

Who would ever have thought emptying chamber pots was such a difficult task? I drag the chair to the other end of the building to do the next chamber pot. Then it's on to the third floor stairs. I drag the chair up with my other arm this time since it's a little less tired. After each ordeal, I need to rest longer and longer. By the time I've finally emptied the last chamber pot, I sit on the floor, no energy left for a long time. It's already after the eleventh bell. Dumping five chamber pots took as much time as sweeping an entire floor of the house.

When I think I've recovered enough to move again, I begin dragging the chair back with me as I head back downstairs. I arrive at the top of the stairs and realize that I didn't think this far ahead. How am I supposed to get this chair down the stairs? I consider my options. The chamber pots were too heavy to carry down since I couldn't set them on the steps. With its legs, I won't be able to set down the chair either. Is there any way I can carry it? Unlike the chamber pot, I don't necessarily need to carry it in my arms. I could try putting it on my back since my legs are much stronger than my arms, especially after all the tiring lifting I've been doing.

I crawl under the chair and stand up. It's heavy, but with my whole body supporting it, I'm able to lift it up. I carefully slide toward the edge of the stairs. However, when I try to go down to the next step below, the legs of the chair hit the edge before I can get past it, since they're almost as tall as me. I hastily pull back from the edge before I lose my balance. I fall over, the chair toppling to the floor beside me. A few nearby children look at me with confused expressions, but don't seem to want to get involved.

It seems like I can lift it, but I can't go down the stairs that way. Seeing the chair lying on its side, I mentally rotate it around. I don't necessarily need to keep it upright to carry it, do I? I roll the chair so it's upside down, the back and the seat resting on the floor so it makes a triangle with the floor.

I wiggle into the gap and stand up again. I'm able to grab the sides of the chair and hold it up by the spot where the seat and back of the chair meet. The legs stick up into the air, so the chair doesn't go nearly as far down to get in the way like this. The only problem is I can't see anything. My head is pointing straight at the ground with the back of the chair in front of me as I support the chair with my back and shoulders. At least I can see the stairs directly below me.

Once more, I approach the edge and slide carefully down. Keeping the chair balanced makes it more difficult, but I don't have nearly as much trouble as I expected by keeping myself leaning back against the stairs behind me. I move bit by bit, descending until I've safely arrived on the second floor. I let the chair roll onto the floor beside me as I stop to rest again. When I look up from the floor, Mister Fredricson is standing over me.

"What on Loqa are you doing now?" he asks. He looks so angry all of a sudden, I think his eye is twitching. I don't even have the energy to cower from his glare though. And another word I don't know...

"I'm... putting... back... this... chair..." I barely manage to answer through panting breaths.

"Why are you carrying this chair in the first place?" he growls.

After a few deep breaths, I manage to answer clearly. "I needed it to empty the chamber pots."

"What?" He rubs his forehead.

"I couldn't carry them down the stairs, so I had to dump them out the windows, but I couldn't reach the windows so-"

"Shut up. Why were you emptying the chamber pots?

"Someone told me I needed to empty the chamber pots when I'm cleaning the house."

"And you believed them?!" he shouts angrily. "What sort of gullible idiot are you?"

"Wait, I'm not supposed to empty the chamber pots?"

"Of course not, those are completely different tasks. This is why I can't deal with stupid children..." he mutters while walking away. Oh, so I didn't need to empty the chamber pots after all? Then why did that boy tell me I was supposed to? I'm too tired to think about it too much. After I finish resting, I grab the chair and begin making my way down to the first floor. However, as I'm starting on my way down the stairs, Mister Fredricson shows up again.

"You stupid girl!" He grabs me and lifts me into the air all of a sudden. I lose the chair and it goes clattering loudly across the floor of the hall.

"Waaa?" I shout in surprise. He drops me across his knee, holding me down with one hand. He lifts up my robe with the other, then slaps my butt with his hand. I wince at the sudden pain. "What? Why are you hitting me?" I ask.

"Stop being stupid!" is all he says in response. He hits me repeatedly while holding me down. I don't get it at all. Why is he so angry? And why is he hitting me? All the children standing around look on with terrified faces. While they all watch, he just keeps hitting me, and it kind of hurts.

I'm so frustrated, I finally shout, "Did I do something wrong? I can't understand if you don't tell me!" In response, he throws me off his leg to the floor. I stand back up. My butt sort of stings.

"You, stop this idiot from doing anything else stupid," he commands a nearby child. Then he addresses me. "You will sit quietly and stop bothering me for the rest of the night. Do you understand?"

"No, I don't understand!" I shout back angrily, tears stinging in my eyes. How am I supposed to understand if he won't tell me anything?

He swings his hand down, slapping me across the face. It doesn't really phase me though. His hand isn't even comparable to the weapons the rail units used. It's not even enough to make me flinch. If he would just tell me what he wants, instead of hitting me, I could at least try to stop making him angry.

He looks surprised after I don't react to him hitting me. Then he just gets more angry and hits me again with his other hand.

"That hurts you know," I complain, "can't you just tell me what I'm doing wrong?"

"You don't talk back!" he commands as he hits me again.

"I don't want to talk back," I say. In the face of his overwhelming rage, I just can't seem to stay angry myself. I'm more frustrated than anything else. I just want him to answer my question. If he needs to hit me to answer, there's nothing I can really do about that. "But I need to know what I did wrong, or I'll just make you angry again later."

"Don't carry heavy objects down the stairs! It's dangerous! You'll break something!" he yells as he keeps hitting me.

"So that's what it was? I'm very sorry." I bow deeply as I speak. "I'll do my best not to do anything dangerous in the future. I'm also sorry for talking back." As much as I hate the way he responded by hitting me, at least I got him to answer my question. It took some pain, but now I understand how to act in the future. Mister Fredricson stands back, rubbing his hand.

"Go to your room, no dinner for you tonight! I don't want to hear a peep from you for the rest of the night." I nod to his command. I'm hungry, but I'll have to deal with it. "Someone get this chair back to the dining room." I walk up to my room as I hear him stomp off. I lie down in bed. My face and butt sting a bit, but it should go away by tomorrow.

----------------------------------------

The biggest issue I have is going to sleep. Mister Fredricson said he didn't want to hear me again until tomorrow. That won't go very well if I wake up screaming over and over. There's nothing to do for the nightmares, so I need some way to keep from screaming each time I wake up. Except I have nothing to work with.

Wait, that's not true. Since I didn't have an opportunity to put them back before Mister Fredricson sent me to my room, I still have the stick and cloth in my hair. The stick is no help, but if I bundle up the cloth, I can put it in my mouth to stifle my screams.

I continue fighting to get the cloth unknotted and take it out of my hair like earlier. While I work on that, another child comes into the room. She's a girl and looks a little older than me, maybe eight years old. "Oh, are you the new girl?" she asks. She has short brown hair, and dirt smudged all over her face.

"Yeah."

While taking her gathering basket from her back, she glances my way. She asks quietly, "Is it true...? You yelled at Mister Fredricson?" She tucks her basket under her bed. While waiting for my answer. I glance past to see she's on the opposite side of the room, in the middle bed, diagonal from mine. I notice some dirt and sticks fall out on the floor as she does. So my guess about the twigs earlier was right.

"Yeah."

"You're either really brave or really stupid then," she warns. "You shouldn't get Mister Fredricson angry like that."

"I know, I don't want to." She quirks an eyebrow up at my response. "I just wanted him to tell me what I should do so I don't make him mad. But all he did was keep hitting me." I sigh. Then I get back to working on the cloth in my hair. I finally manage to wiggle the knot loose, and get the cloth out. I really need to get better at tying it so it doesn't get stuck like that.

"That's right, everyone said that you didn't even cry when he spanked you!"

"Umm?" I don't really understand. "What does 'spank' mean?" Wait, why is everyone talking about me?

"You know, when he bends you over and... hits you..." She whispers the last part for some reason. So that's called 'spanking'? Why is there even a name for that?

"Oh, that. I just wanted to know why he was hitting me." After a moment of shock, she chokes out a disbelieving laugh.

"You're a really weird one you know."

"Yeah..." Even with everything Marrianne taught me, there are clearly so many things that I don't understand, of course people will end up thinking I'm weird. All I can do is keep learning. While I consider this, I take the stick out and finally let my hair down. The back of my head feels a bit sore after keeping held up tight like that for so long

"Woah, you have such pretty hair," the girl gasps.

"Uhh, thank you." Somehow, I feel a bit embarrassed by the sudden praise. Maybe it's just because I got yelled at so much that it feels weird.

"So what's your name? I'm Emily."

That's the second time someone asked for my name. I smile and respond, "Aria." I really like having a name.

"Hey Aria, what's with your clothes? They're all white."

I shrug. "I don't know, that's just the color they are." She really has a lot of questions.

"Huh." She doesn't really look satisfied by my answer though. "Well, we'll be sharing a room from now on, so it's nice to meet you."

"Yeah, it's nice to meet you too." We share a smile. It really is great to meet a nice new person.

"Well, I'm going to dinner, what are you up to?"

I smile sadly. "I'm not allowed to eat dinner tonight because I yelled at Mister Fredricson."

"Yeah, makes sense. You're lucky he didn't kick you out." I feel the blood drain from my face for a moment. Wait, he might have kicked me out just for that? I'd never even considered that.

"A-ahh..." I mumble. "Well, I'll just be here."

"Ok. I'll see you later, Aria."

"See you later, Emily."

After she leaves the room, I lie down in bed. The hard wood doesn't feel that nice, but it doesn't bother me much. I'm really tired after everything that happened today. I ball up the cloth from my hair and put it in my mouth. I don't know how effective it will be at stifling my screams when I inevitably wake up from my nightmares, but it's better than nothing. I just worry that I'll wind up choking on it...

Even with those unpleasant thoughts in mind, my tired body drifts off almost immediately.