Harmony

Gadgets and Things

Restoring her lost memories, along with her identity, soon returned to forefront of her thoughts. The art and music room had provided only a temporary distraction for an hour or two. She needed some sort of plan, or at least some renewed urgency, as she was wasting time here and not helping herself. She took steps towards the door.

Before leaving, she looked up at the wide and expansive windows in the front of the room. They presented a clear view of the lower portion of the picturesque valley this resort was in. She paused for a moment to take it in. The stream running through the resort had deviated slightly so as to go under this art and music room, seemingly providing a focus for inspiration, although she was unsure where this notion came from.

The stream flowed on down the gentle grassy slope of the valley interrupted by copses of small trees and bushes along the way. Several forests were positioned here in there in the distance, and the valley itself was surrounded by peaks in all directions. The path she'd used to get to the village continued down the valley, disappearing into one of the forests. She wondered where it led and if it was worth pursuing at some point. Beautiful as it was, the scenery did not resonate with her. Questions resurfaced as to where on Earth she was and how she had gotten here. None of this scenery, as pretty as it was, was at all familiar.

It did look European. At least that much was obvious to her. Where exactly, she wasn't sure. It wasn't her home country of Holland, which she thought about for the first time. She tried to focus some more on Holland. Which city came to mind as her possible home? It was The Hague. The Gothic buildings, the moderate temperatures and the North Sea all came back strongly, more so than any other Dutch city. Thinking about it didn't do anything for her memories, but it was nice to ground herself somewhat by concentrating on her likely origin, based on her knowledge.

She continued exploring the community centre. The next and final room fascinated her. Like the others, it was quite large, and also had a theme: clothing. Shelves and shelves of clothes, sheets, cushions, blankets and other fabrics adorned both walls, from the floor to the ceiling. In the middle of this room were some unfamiliar machines on some central tables that might be used for cutting and sewing clothing. There was also an assortment of needles, pins and other fabric decorations of varying colours on the tables with these machines. It was all neatly ordered and quite pretty. She liked this room too. It was colourful and immediately useful. Why would a resort have such a room, though? Maybe this was a self-sufficient village. It was all too hard to determine and no identifying information was presented anywhere to describe the purpose of this place. That just added to the mystery.

She perused at the clothing for quite some time, carefully taking items off the shelves and measuring for size and fit. There were men's and women's clothes, but nothing for children. She found this odd. It was unlikely a holiday resort would have a room such as this. Taken together, and aside from the art and music room, this wing of the community centre seemed to be more of a warehouse for a small village than part of a resort. She was once again undecided as to what exactly this entire group of buildings was meant to be for. So many questions she didn't have answers to. At least not yet.

She wanted to borrow some clothes. She got the sense, without knowing why, that this was perfectly fine. Not a problem. However, she wasn't quite ready to take just anything. Putting on her clothes from the day before had not been a problem other than not having fresh underwear and socks. She resolved to change only those for now. There were some nearby changing rooms, conveniently placed in the centre of each wall. Slipping into one of these changing rooms, she did so. As with everything else, this room was designed for convenience, and had laundry baskets next to a couple of machines that seemed to be for washing clothes. She would try to work out how to use those later if needed. Hopefully she wouldn't be here that long. She placed her underwear and socks in one of the baskets, vowing to come back for them later.

Her tour of the centre had taken some time, although she had no clear idea of the precise hour and minute of the day. She hadn't found a single clock anywhere and was not wearing a watch, but she guessed it was approaching the lunch hour. Her sudden perception of her own hunger made this guess pretty reasonable. She headed back to the expansive kitchen in the opposite wing of the centre to determine whether or not the food machines there worked the same as the one in the house.

The thought of the many possible food options once again brought a small tingle of excitement as she crossed the gathering room and entered the kitchen. Would these machines be different, with more options? There were quite a few of them. As she began to press buttons, she noted with delight that they were indeed different.

In fact, they were all different to each other. They were cuisine based. One had an assortment of Asian looking dishes. Another had South and Central American food. Yet another had European and North American food. The final one had African and Middle Eastern food. She was spending way too much time browsing through the menus. There was almost too much choice.

She eventually settled on a simple vegetarian stir fry that appealed to her, from the Asian menu. This was her third meal from one of these food machines, or whatever they were called, and the whole process still amazed her. There was no attachment to a refrigerator or other food storage device anywhere in this kitchen either. Like the one in the house, the machine was creating the food out of nothing. It still astonished her. What's more, it tasted as if it had been made from fresh ingredients, at the best possible restaurant.

After putting away her dishes in another bench-based composting machine, she made a fruit juice drink and took it out onto the front patio. She would sit down, get comfortable and try to figure out how to find someone to help her, while taking in the view of the valley from the outside. There was a back patio too, but she chose the front one.

There were a dozen or so chairs on the balcony, of different shapes and sizes, and she picked one that was deep and comfortable. It was made of a bamboo-like material but was a great deal sturdier than similar chairs she had pictured in her knowledge bank. It had a lovely ruby coloured cushion lining, and it felt even better than it looked when she sat down in it. She put her drink down on the side table next to the chair.

At that moment, the sun was high overhead and gently warming as it was the day before. A light breeze drifted up from the valley below. She glanced around at this lusciously green valley she had somehow found herself in. Was there anywhere in her locked-away memories such a scene quite so idyllic as this? The view, along with the sunny day and her enjoyment of her meal and drink, put a temporary hold on her plans to think hard about what to do next. She was beginning to feel quite drowsy, remembering that her sleep the previous night had been interrupted. Her chair of choice was nap-inducing as well.

She allowed herself to close her eyes and gently drift off to sleep. Fortunately for her there were no dreams this time. She slept peacefully for a time, undisturbed by any loud noises, although the calls of distant birdlife penetrated her sleep state at intervals without doing enough to fully wake her.

Finally, she woke, once again remembering the idyllic location she had found herself in, albeit with a case of amnesia. As her senses returned, she had the urge to continue her exploration of the resort as far as she could, hoping to find some information somewhere, anywhere, that would help her locate other people. Maybe there was a map she could use to locate where on Earth she might be. If she could determine where this place was, this might help her figure out who she was. If was a little frustrating that, as lovely as the house and the community centre had been, there was absolutely nothing thus far that could provide answers to her situation.

Solitude was very much okay for her – even a preferred state of being. She knew this about her own character without remembering her history. Nonetheless, not finding anyone for a significant period of time might increase her anxiousness at being alone and not knowing who she was. As these thoughts threatened to overtake her, the waves of calmness and peace returned. They were still arriving, and it remained a source of wonder.

Feeling calmer and more energised, she resolved to continue with her plan to search more thoroughly. Answers were surely not far away. She stepped off the front of the patio and headed over towards the first house on the right-hand side of the resort. She hadn't taken more than a few steps when she saw movement farther down the valley.

It was another person, walking up the hill towards the village.