Victor and Emilia laugh when Emilia trips over her own feet, and when she drops her sword. They even laugh when Emilia topples on top of Victor knocking him down. His arms are warmer than her blankets while his chest is softer than her bed, but he’s the crown prince. Victor shows her how to use her strength. He even shows her how she can use her quickness to her advantage. A trumpet blasts capturing Emilia’s attention. She looks to a tall stone wall beyond the field.
“I have to go!” Emilia squeaks. Quickly, she sprints through the field towards the wall abandoning her new friend and the teddy bear. She comes upon the wall running to the double doors with people rushing to the inside of the walls.
Emilia rushes through the doors too. The opposite side is full of buildings, tall, short, wide, skinny. The smell of warm freshly baked bread fills Emilia’s nose as she passes a bread bakery with only one window filled with bread. The smell of warm freshly baked bread smell is blended with the sweet smell of banana bread pudding and strawberry tarts. Next to the bread bakery is a pastry store with only a quarter of the window filled with pastry display. People in aprons stand outside the stores hold trays full of samples.
Emilia rushes past a closed and empty grocery store. The first neighborhood she rushes by mansions with fountains, swan statues, and tall shrubs. The houses become smaller, but the fences and beautiful grass remind her that she’s nowhere near her neighborhood. She comes to another wall, but a rickety door opens letting only those in torn and dirty clothes through.
“Hurry it up.” The guard yells pushing people through.
Emilia tries to push her way through the crowd of people with too short sleeves and patches on their clothes, but people, even elderly people, push her back. Somehow, she ends up at the back of the group again. Eventually, Emilia gets through the gate with the guard shoving her through like everyone else. The door shuts and locks behind the last person pushed through. The wall is heavily guarded with men in violet uniforms with sheathed swords on their hips.
Emilia dashes down the streets and cuts through the back streets. In every corner, trash is tucked comfy like nooks were made for empty dirt covered cups and balled up newspapers. Beggars hold out their hands asking for those with nothing to spare something. Interestingly enough, those with patches and tears in their clothes produce a little something like copper coins worth one cent, but others rush passed. When the dark comes, the cursed beasts will sneak through the holes and cracks in the wall separating the kingdom from the rest of the world. Everyone needs to get home immediately, or at least, everyone with a home.
A woman carries a bucket of soapy water to the street then tosses the water out onto the street revealing the grime the suds hid. The water collects scum as it slips into the holes of Emilia’s shoes prickling her like icicles. She turns down the street and jumps over ugly broken fences protecting yards, gardens, and properties. She passes by apartment buildings and small homes with roofs containing holes and doors on hinges.
One house looks better than its neighbors: new wood on the stairs and walls, the brown grass is trimmed, a small garden of flowers, and clean windows. Emilia runs up the stairs to the house skipping the broken step, but she rushes around the balcony to the back. Clothes hang on a line to dry. The back door is propped open with a wooden box. The kitchen releases the smell of warm bread as Emilia rushes inside.
A woman with long kinky hair in a braid turns around to glare at Emilia who takes a step back only to wrap her arms around herself. A man with a low cut and waves sits at the table glaring at Emilia as well, and he curls his lip. Emilia looks at the floor hugging herself frozen at the door.
“Are you crazy or something?” The woman, Emilia’s mother, finally yells, “We told you to have dinner ready when we get home. We work all day, the least you could do is cook. It’s not like you’re paying any bills.”
“Do you think the roof over your head is free? How about the clothes you wear? The room you sleep in?” Her father is silent for a while. Perhaps he’s waiting for her to respond. But no. There’s nothing to say. Emilia failed at the one thing she had to do for her family. Even apologizing will make things worse. Her father can and will slap her.
“Go to the room I pay for. You don’t deserve the dinner that we made and spent money on.” Her father demands. Emilia slowly turns to make her way towards the hallway entrance.
“Go!” Father shouts.
Emilia runs into the hall and up the stairs. At the top of the stairs, she slows down and returns to hugging herself. Perhaps she should’ve brought the teddy bear home; it’s always comforting to think there was someone on her something is on her side. She slowly makes her way to a room with giggles emitting from the door. The giggles stop as soon as two girls see Emilia. The girls glare at her. Three small beds with many tattered blankets and yellowing pillows.
“Why didn’t you cook?” The middle child, Gracie, asks disgusted. She then continues, “I should slap you for that.”
Mary says nothing, but she does roll her eyes. Father calls Gracie and Mary from the kitchen. The two immediately hop up from their beds and make their way out of the room. They move around Emilia as if she’s a disease ready to take them.
Emilia gently closes the door behind the girls then curls up in her own bed. Her bed is situated far from the other two closer to the closet. When Emilia was younger, Gracie and Mary would pretend as though they couldn’t see her. They would ignore her. When she wanted to play, they would call her annoying. Sometimes, Emilia would hide in the closet; she always felt warm and safe there. However, she’s grown too big for the closet.
Through her blurry water filled eyes, Emilia tries to make out shapes outside the window. However, she knows there are clothes on clothes lines strung from one building to the other. She knows there are three apartment buildings across from her home with three thousand windows each facing her. Emilia would like know every groove, tree, leaf, and nest of the forest; knowing would change Emilia’s world. She could dream of passing those trees on her journey out of the kingdom.
A new dark copper blob fills the corner of the window. Emilia wipes her eyes as she sits up. The teddy bear from the forest peers into the window at her. Emilia steals the bear from the window and holds the bear tightly to her chest, letting out all of her tears and moans. When the tears stop flowing, and the wails stop wailing, Emilia quietly rests on her bed as Teddy strokes her cheek. What a wonderful name for such a cute bear, Teddy. Emilia allows her eyes to close as she drifts into a dream world filled with teddy bears and hugs.