Where The Mind Is With Fear

Part 2

"Courtney, did you hear that?", asked Aarya, as scared as I was.

"Yes", I replied silently, trying not to move too much.

So even she had felt the bush moving. That too twice. I knew that she had become terrified as I was at the moment. But, summoning all my courage I was capable of, I assured her flase hopes. "Maybe it is just an animal, Aarya. Do not worry. Just ignore it". There was not a hint of truth in what I'd just said, except that it did turn out to be an animal. Behind the bush was a rabbit, it's coat as white as the snow. It was nibbling on a piece of something. I sighed in relief and Aarya's emotion turned from a bewildered one to a delighted one. She had always a thing for these tiny, cute animals. I let her pet it for a few minutes.

"It's getting darker Aarya. It's better we make our move now"." said I. We hurried on from the spot and continued our walk.

It was almost time for sunrise. A worn-out milestone told me that we were 2 miles from the great city of Venice. My delight could not be expressed. From my very birth, I always wanted to visit Venice. It was the city of old tales, of statues of magnificient lions and gondolas. In fact, I even read few books on Venice, my favourite being "The Thief Lord". It described Venice beautifully.

Aarya and me sat down on the rough ground. I noticed, for the first time, that both of us were dirty and had scraped ourselves because of all those thorny bushes in the forest. None of us had realized this in our haste of crossing the forest hurriedly. As I sat, I wondered.

What were we going to do? Where were we going to live? Before leaving, I'd made sure that I had money with me. It was time to utilise it. I got out my Victoria's purse, one of my very prized possessions of which I was very proud. It contained 10 dollars and 69 pennies. Enough to cost us our three-day living. After all, we were habituated to eating less.

After resting for sometime, we continued walking for another 60 minutes, when we came across the city of Venice. "Here we are", I said to no one in particular.

"Wo-ow", said Aarya, breaking the word in two syllables. I laughed at her innocence. "Now, were are we staying?", I asked, again to myself. Aarya just hopped in front of me in ecstasy.

Suddenly, she stopped and said, "Courtney, I'm hungry". This was the beginning of me having to be a babysitter.

I sighed and said,"Let us find a place to wash first, and then we can eat". We walked some more and ended up behind a place where clearly, construction was going on. There was a tap on the wall, marked "For drinking only" in red. We had no option left, but to use that water. So, as quickly as lightning, we briefly washed our hands, legs and sprinkled little water on our heads without anyone noticing.

I slipped on my jacket from the rugsack we'd bought along with us, which contained all necessary things. As was evident, my sister too, asked for her jacket. I gave her a Donald Duck printed cardigan which she was happy to wear. The air had become chilly suddenly. I had no time to notice the city because of fear that we might be caught washing ourselves with drinking water. Such was our condition, but better than the one in our orphanage.

Mistake, our ex-orphanage. Anyway, we went over to a small inn. I expected people to stare at us, wondering how two small kids came to a place all alone. But, no one bothered looking at two homeless girls. I went over to the counter and ordered for the cheapest available things. Hot tea, small, coupled with cheese and bread.

This was by-far the heartiest meal we had had. I could see the shine in Aarya's face. I ate slowly, to savour each moment. Aarya ate with her usual pace, which was slow anyway.

As we ate, a lady approached us. She looked kind-hearted and rich too. She wore sandals from Queen Victoria's, a blue skirt with light blue beads on it and an equally expensive top from Madam Diana's. Her head was tied high up in a ponytail and strands of it fell here and there, like scattered wheat stalks in a field. She spoke in a gentle voice, "Oh my my! What cute children! I wonder who your parents are?"

I was taught by my mother, long ago that talking to strangers was like talking to deceptive people. I muttered quietly, "They are in the nearby store, buying candy for us". I wasn't going to tell her that we were vulnerable.

But, Aarya interuppted me and said" What rubbish?", then ignoring my look of warning, she continued to the lady,"We are homeless, run-aways. Our parents died. That is the truth". The lady gave me a hard glance, but quickly returned to her normal, soft self again.

"Are you saying you have no place to live and eat?", she asked.

"Yes", replied Aarya again, much to my annoyance.

"Fate I tell you", said the lady and continued," Just yesterday, I was begging God to bless me with two, pretty doll-faces. Look here, lo and behold, I'm talking to you now! What sheer luck. Thank you God. Thank you very much."

"So you are telling you will adopt us?", I asked, tight-lipped.

"Of course, if you don't mind. How can I deny a gift sent by God?"

"Uh-huh. Well, how de we trust you?", I was beginning to act elderly.

"Haha! Such small kids, and such tall talks. I say, what must be your age?"

"I'm twelve and my sister here is nine. Before you can ask us, let me tell you I'm Courtney and this is Aarya.

The lady chuckled again. "Yes you saved me the energy of that. Very clever of you. So tell me, would you like to live with a lady as sweet as I?"

"Yes yes!" said Aarya. I remained quiet.

"Honey , don't you want to say yes too?", asked the lady to me.

I took my time and thought, "She seems kind and helpful. Plus, we have no other option, but to believe her and try our luck. If she turns out to be who she potrays herself as, then well and good. If not, I can plan another run-away just as easily."

Muttering a silent prayer inside, I said,"Yes, I'd like to come with you"

"Ah, I like you, Britney", she said.

"Courtney", replied Aarya with a chuckle.

I sighed and the lady spoke, not to us, but everyone present at the inn,"Ladied and gentlemen, if you'd give me your minute. I here, was praying to God to give me two children. And these two here, were praying to God for a mother as they are homeless". This was exaggerated. But, anyway I let her continue.

"Here's to my newly adopted children, Courtney and Aarya. I now organise a toast, and all expenses today will be taken care of by me. Cheers.", she ended.

There was a round of applause and every pair of eye turned towards Aarya and me. Then began the merry and joy. The lady winked at us, and I winked back. Well, here goess nothing, I though to myself.

As soon as the day at the inn ended, we were to go home. The lady was named Mrs. Russo. She owned a white, big car, whose name I couldn't pronounce but as far as I remembered. it was spelled as B-E-N-T-L-E-Y.

We got into the car, and for the first time I started gaping at the city. Beside me in the car, Aarya was fast asleep. Poor, little girl.

The buildings of Venice weren't those huge, skyscraper types but were mostly royal white storeys of three to four floors. Most of them had backyards and a garden in front. Venice was skillfully divided into streets. After further travelling, there came a waterbody. I saw many gondoliers there, all waiting for customers who needed to cross the water body. Some of the gondola's were big, some small. I watched as a couple sat on one of them and floated away with the water. As we neared Mrs. Russo's house, I saw several statuettes of winged lions, all golden colored. There were also statues of young girls holding pots near their hips.

Then finally, we reached the house. I was wrong to call it a house. Mrs. Russo lived in a mansion.

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Part-3 will be updated soon. Thank you for reading =)