What I have been waiting for

Chapter 7

That night all we did was talk. I learned so much about Aditi, as I expected she is not from here hence her accent. She was born in India and her family moved here when she was ten. "What was it like moving to a new country?" hoping that asking questions would help to continue to open up. "It's amazing everything is new and different and I will be honest I felt that scared sometimes."

"It is like there is so much to learn but, not everyone is willing to be patient with you. It's towards the point that I am very fortunate to be able to speak English."

"Really?" I held her hands closer.

"Yeah if it were not for my school librarian I would not be able to speak the language. She was trying to teach me how to read and write as well but then they came." Aditi started sniffling and I felt her hand tremble against mine. "It's okay if you don't want to continue." My hands glided up and down on her back as her chest went up and down. 'My parents came here illegally, our papers did not come in time so these tall men came and took them away. They came and literally took away my They shoved my dad up against a wall and called him an alien. They cuffed my mother's hand and put her in the back of a black van."

In the corner of a window plane, a small sunbeam was starting to rise. The beam slowly grew in size as the sun began to show its head from behind a bush. It was a lot easier to see Aditi now, her eyes puffy and red from the night's events. "You miss them don't you?" I leaned my head up against her shoulder. "Yeah, if they didn't lie and say I was adopted from here, who knows where I would have ended up."

I held onto the railing of the stairs and hosted myself up "Not here that's for sure, but um if you are willing, I can always teach you how to read and write. I was in the advanced classes in my school or when I went to school that is."

She giggled "So you were in the advanced class but, you did not know not to drink un-boiled river water."

"Hey, we don't get taught all those things in school!"

She began to shake her head" besides I only know the alphabet and that was from years ago I don't even think I remember it correctly." She got up too and held my hand arm to support me, "That's okay I will still teach you."

"Thank you," she whispered underneath her breath.

"So, what now?"

With the light snow in the cabin, it was easy to see that it was quite run down. The walls were stripping and the roof was discolored. There was very little furniture and not much was left of the ones that were there. The stairs that we spent the night on had missing pieces in them that thankfully Aditi did not step in. "Well this place is not the best, but you are not in any situation to make the journey back, so I guess we're stuck here for a while."

"I did not really get a good look of upstairs from last night. ''Would you like to start there for now."

I hobbled up along the railing slowly making my way up to the top. There were three entrances each with missing doors. The doorways were rusted brown in color and holes were scattered throughout the frame.

"Let's go in this one" I pointed at the middle frame, upon entering there was an old mobile that hung from the ceiling. Walls were painted what seemed to be a light ocean blue and they were bookshelves of books. A red and yellow striped ball lay in the corner of the room. "No one lives here then huh." Aditi took one of the books off the shelf she held its torn-up cover and flipped through the pages raveling its layer of dust within it Aditi sneezed instantly. "Maybe we should move on to the next one" I laughed after her.

Going into the room on our right showed to be much more useful. A map was hung in a wooden frame across the window. There was a table right in front of the window its surface scratched and decaying. A giant chalkboard hangs to the left of the table with single chalk on its stand it. Other than that the room itself was pretty desired.

"We need to start finding food" announced Aditi as she grabbed her stomach. My stomach began to growl at the idea of food as well. "How about you try looking for some I am going to stay here and keep looking through the cabin." She nodded at me and her way down the creaking stairs. In the left room, there was a sewing machine that looked in surprisingly decent condition but there was nothing else of use in that room. As I made my way to the central living room I had to scoot my way down the stairs without the pretense of Aditi.

When I got to the bottom I noticed there was something etched into the wall of the living room. "A fireplace!" its mantle was quite dusty and cobwebs have covered up the majority of the entrance. "It's much like the one back home." I laughed, "I sure with Aditi here it would be a lot better than how it was back there. I rarely even think about going back there."

I explored the bottom layer of the cabin some more there was a kitchen separated by the wall of the living room. It was, just like everything in the cabin, quite old and covered in dust and cobwebs. There was a stove and oven but it was so dark I could not really make out anything else in the room. I went back to the stairs and began to let my mind wander.

"I hope L.A is okay." I have not seen her for two days now and I am sure I am not going to be seeing her anytime soon until I get better. If L.A haven't taken me in I wonder where I would have ended up. Would I even be alive? Now that I think about it, I don't even know much about her. She rarely lets me know anything about her self but she is always willing to give me an ear when I need it the most. Maybe I can return the favor, one day.

The sun was starting to go down and there was no sign of Aditi's insight. Limping over to the exposed entrance door frame I looked out from the front porch. Some bushes started to rustle and she emerged with a wagon of fruits and vegetables. "Wow! Where did you get all of those?" the wagon was filled with a plethora of colors and shapes. "There is a whole garden up head, it looks like it has not been managed very well as the weeds were out of control but wow it's big." I did my best to help her lift the wagon inside. Getting a better look there were fruits such as oranges, apples, and even pears which are loved by the animals here. Aditi liked the carrots and other vegetables more as we gobbled on them throughout the night.

The next morning I felt a lot better, I could not go long distances but at least I could go up and down the stairs without Aditi's help. "I'm glad I was able to find this wagon maybe I can try to find our way back to the railroad, with you in the back of course." "Let's try it!" We took the wagon onto the grass and Aditi placed me into the wagon. "Wow Ora, you not getting any lighter." "Oh, you are fine, your quite strong. I mean you don't have those sculpted muscles for nothing." Aditi's face started turning red.

She tugged me behind her while we passed by all shrubs and trees. Trying to remember the way we took to get here. "Go left!" I shouted at her. "Ugh relax Ora! It's right not left" she insisted. The mud squished underneath the leaves of the wagon. We soon saw the curve of a road up the head. "See Ora I told you it was right to look this road leads us right into town." "Why couldn't you find this road two days." I retorted back at her.

She started to stutter "t-that's not important" she pulled the wagon onto the road full and gave me the handle the hold. "Oh no Aditi this is not a good idea." the wagon began to move back and forth. "3" "Aditi no'' "2" she continued to tease me "1!" she gave the wagon a push and hopped in right behind me. Wind attacking my face and wheels crying in pain we zoomed down the road. "Aditi if we do not die by this alone I will kill you myself!" I screamed. "No you won't you like me too much!" she laughed back.

Eventually, we started to slow down and I could see the outline of houses on the horizon. Aditi stepped out of the wagon, "Whew that was fun!" she took the handle out of my hand "and a lot faster" she winked. We strolled on leading into the town's entrance.