Just Rose

Chapter Three

I woke up in a cold sweat, faint light shining in through the window of the still-unfamiliar room I was in. I waited a few moments for my breathing to return to normal, trying to clear my foggy mind and remember where I was and why.

Finally it came to me. I was in some house in some neighborhood of Seattle with some lady who had saved me from some scary guys in some alley.

Yeah, that clears things up.

I slowly sat up against the headboard, stretching out my arms and legs painfully. Apparently it was a bad idea to accidentally fall asleep sitting up. Ouch.

Looking around, I saw that most of my guesses about the room in the dark last night had been correct. It was small with a ceiling that sloped gently towards one wall. The window had sheer curtains hung on both sides of it and a small dresser with drawers underneath. As for the bed I was sitting on, it was covered with a simple quilt.

It didn't seem like a room that would be in the house of a woman who went and took people off the street in the middle of the night...

I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do but put on some clean clothes and pulled a brush through my hair. If I'm going to die, I may as well look like something other than a homeless weirdo. Maybe someone would recognize me on the news and put this woman in jail.

I took a seat on the bed again, swinging my feet into a position in front of me. The sound of rain that I hadn't really noticed before grew louder and louder until it sounded like rocks were hitting the house. I peeked out the window. Hail. That made sense.

And then the pounding spread to the floor, growing louder and louder until it was almost just outside the bedroom, in the hallway. It almost sounds like...

"We've been hit!" screeched a kid's voice outside the bedroom door. "Miguel, quick!"

Feet.

"They're coming!" yelled another. "The pirates are coming! The ship's going down!"

"Get the cannons!" called a third, considerably younger-sounding voice. In a split second I opened the door, figuring that if I was going open it to my near-certain demise, I may as well go out to someone who probably wouldn't kill me on the spot. A little guy who looked like he was three stopped in his tracks. "Who are you?" he asked. He seems familiar...

"I'm... Rose," I told him slowly, pointing to myself. What was this, some place where kidnapped children were kept?

"I'm Timmy," the kid said, pointing to himself.

We stood there for a minute or two or ten before Timmy grabbed my hand in his tiny one and led me down the stairs. "Mommy wants to talk to you," he informed me.

Timmy led me down the stairs and around a corner into a kitchen. "Mommy, who is that?" he asked, pointing to me. The lady from the fountain and the alley turned away from the stove.

"Oh, Rose, good morning! Did you sleep well?"

"I slept great, thanks..."

"Good. Would you like some breakfast? Don't mind Timmy, he's not as used to having new people here as the others are." She handed me a plate with a couple of pancakes on it.

"Who... who are you?" I asked her, repeating my question from last night.

"Just call me Julie," she told me.

I stood there for a minute with the plate of pancakes in my hands, unsure of whether I should eat them or not, or...

Timmy tugged on Julie's hand. "Mommy, what's Rose doing?" he asked.