The story of Yafa

The sweet ol' lady

Thousands of questions roamed inside my head. Why was I a human? Where was I even? Eh? I let myself fall back into the grass and looked at the sky. What was I supposed to do now? I held my hands before my eyes and inspected them. Every line seemed to strike my fancy. Those things once held me with warmth and love. I missed those hands. I missed John and Y/N. They were my only friends whom I really truly cared about.

That's when I got a great idea. I'll go and search for them! I rose up and tried to stand on my feet. I almost immediately fell backward. "How do people use these things?" I raged. I tried to stand up again, a bit slower this time. My legs were still wobbled a bit but I was pretty stable. Now just the movement and I can go! I lifted my leg, which went in all directions, up. I grumbled in frustration. Quickly, I set the out-of-hand leg back down. "Step by step, Yafa," I told myself again and again. "You can do this," I began to believe myself. After about an hour I could walk like a normal person. I actually found it quite amusing!

I started walking around in the open meadow. The meadow seemed to have shrunk by at least a thousand times now that I had become a human. The gigantic trees were now smaller (but still pretty big) trees. I left the place and entered the forest. As I enjoyed the nature sounds, I touched everything with my fingers to feel the new sensations. Everything felt so peculiar. Weird, I know.

I ended up near a road. It looked like everything except for the roads I had previously seen. These roads were better laid out than the roads in New York. How long had it been? I walked on the roads and hoped that I'd find something familiar. Instead, I saw a woman.

"Woman!" I started. "Can you tell me where we are?" The woman looked at me from head to toe. For a while I was scared that I wasn't wearing anything, so I swiftly looked down. A shirt, pants and a pair of shoes, enough to not be a creep.

The woman looked at me again and spoke with a very heavy Brittish accent. (My friend, who wrote this chapter wanted to make my life hell by making me translate a Scottish accent from a Dutch sentence structure. And let me tell you, she did) "Oi lov, ye really don't know where ye are? Ye ur in th' middle of Scotland," I stared confused at the lady. "Scot... Land?" The woman nodded. "Aye," She confirmed. I thought deeply. Scotland. I was not a lot with that information. "Are ye alright, lov?" She finally asked. I shook my head. "I don't know where I am nor how I ended up here, to be honest,"

"Why don't ye come wi' me fur a wee bit?" She asked as pity shined in her eyes. I couldn't say no. "Oh, why not?" I finally said. The woman laughed sweetly and started walking again with me next to her. She began to talk about her day and as much as I wanted to listen to her, my mind was occupied as it tried to figure things out. I touched a tree and became a human. Now I'm following this woman. Then what?

Suddenly an arm appeared before me. Her small but strong arm stopped me. "Watch where ye walk, lov. You'll get run over by a car," She smiled. I laughed sheepishly. She began to walk again with me right behind her.

After a few minutes, the woman stopped walking again. "We're here," I looked past her and saw a tiny house. "We're where?" I asked confused. "My house. I told ye that ye could stay with me so we could call yer parents, didn't I?" She explained. She probably told me that when I wasn't listening. Damn it Yafa, pay attention!

The woman fumbled a bit in her bag and took out a key which she then stuck in the door. A little click could be heard and she opened the door for me. I passed her and entered.

"Woah."

The woman looked apologetic at me. "I know it's not much, but it's enough for the three of us," I turned around and looked surprised at her. "It's wonderful, ma'am! Three, who lives here with you?" She closed the door before she answered me. "Well, thank you, young man. I live here with my granddaughter, which makes you the third person. I have an unoccupied room upstairs," A granddaughter? I had to say, the woman didn't look that old...

"Ye don't look well, lov. Do ye want to eat something? I can quickly make something," She rambled as she hung her jacket on the hanger and neatly put her shoes on a rack. "Well, I don't want to be rude but I feel as if I haven't eaten in days," The woman laughed. "In this house, you're never rude!"

She laughed again and opened a door. "Ah, take off yer shoes, will ya?" I nodded and undid my shoelaces with a lot of pulling and determination. I placed my shoes on the rack and followed her. We entered the kitchen. I could tell from the aromas but mostly from the jar of cookies that was placed in the middle of a little, round table. The woman saw me staring at the jar. "After we eat, you can have one,"

She motioned me to sit down while she set down her bag and put the stuff inside of it away. When she was done, she folded the bag and put it in a cupboard. "What'd ye want?" She asked as she turned to me. I looked confused at her. "To eat, lov, to eat!" I shrugged. "Everything is possible," She smiled and looked at her ingredients.

"Ah, what is your name, lov?" She suddenly asked. "They called me Yafa," I mumbled. "Interesting name. My name is Leith Laurence, but you can just call me Leith," She smiled. "Are you family of John Laurens?! Do you know where he is?" I abruptly asked. She smiled. "My name is with a 'ce' not a 's'... John Laurens... ye don't hear that name every day. I was a history teacher so I DO know him but that's a funny joke, Yafa,"

When she saw that I was pretty lost in her previous explanation, she tried to clarify. "John Laurens has been dead for 300 years,"