Chapter 5

What do you do when you are hiding in somebody else’s wardrobe and this somebody is going right straight at you. You might be able to think of hiding behind all the clothes in the wardrobe. But how do you do it so quietly as not to be heard?

Well, Emma did not even move. One might think she froze out of fear. But if you remember the moment when she was almost hit by a car you would understand that in fact her mind was racing as fast as it could considering all the possible ways she could get out if this situation. And a human mind works much, much faster than human body. So by the time the woman named Sandy came to her wardrobe thinking what she could wear to get on Ivey’s nerves, the girl hiding in her wardrobe had come up with a plan.

Now let’s watch the next scene in a slow motion. Sandy comes up to the wardrobe, she puts her arm on the wardrobe handle, turns it and starts pulling the door open. As she opens it she notices somebody’s eyes inside. The women’s eyes meet. They look at each other precisely a quarter of a second. Sandy’s eyes start to open widely, and she only just thinks of screaming. But before she could do anything Emma is out of the wardrobe, she turns Sandy so that the latter would face the couch and tightly covers her mouth with one hand while holding the woman’s waste with the other. And then Emma put her own mouth close to Sandy’s ear and whispers: “Don’t scream. I’m not here to harm you”.

So as we see our heroine has a much sharper and faster working mind than that of the woman she was holding in her arms right now. But we cannot blame it all on poor Sandy’s mind. She lived quite in a different era with quite a different expectations of her. Plus of course people of that time did not have any Hollywood to show them how to behave in any similar situation.

Emma felt the woman shivering of fright under her arms. So she whispered again: “I’m not here to harm you. I’m sorry I’ve scared you”. She did kind of got out of the situation for a moment, but she could not for the world think of what to do next. At any moment Finn could come back to check on Sandy or Sandy could actually start pounding with her feet and somebody could hear her. Emma had to move fast with whatever she was going to do next.

She tried to sound calming as she whispered the next: “I’m going to let you go slowly, but you must promise me not to scream. Do you understand me? Nod if you promise”.

Sandy did not move. Her heart was pounding against her ribcage. She was raised in a family where promises counted and were not to be taken lightly. So if she agrees now not to scream she would be bound not to. But what if this strange woman harms her? Then again, how worse can it actually get?

After a second delay she did nod. And Emma started easing her grip slowly on the mouth. She put her arm down and waited a second to see whether Sandy would scream. And when she didn’t Emma put her other arm holding the woman’s waist down as well.

Then Sandy turned slowly to see the face of the culprit. Women stared at each other again, taking in each other’s faces. After a few seconds Sandy was able to calm her heartbeat a little, she understood that she in fact was in charge of this situation, as the woman opposite her was depending on her not calling for help. So Sandy straightened up and asked reasonably calm (though inside her everything was still trembling and she was still afraid of the woman standing opposite): “I demand you tell me at once who are you and what are you doing here?”

Emma answered: “My name is Emma Ray and my being here is just a silly mistake”.

“So you are not here to steal all my diamonds and murder me?” asked Sandy.

“God, no. I’m not a murderer”.

Silence anew settled in the room. Sandy did not believe a word of Emma’s. But she could not help but calm down after hearing that the latter was not here to kill her. “Don’t sell me a dog4. Since you are here anyway, care to tell me what a “silly accident” it was that brought you here?”

Emma did not answer. She was wondering that same thing. And also she did not understand why Sandy was talking in such a strange manner. What can she tell the woman standing in front of her, if she did not know how it happened herself. Sandy too did not make a move neither tried to speak up. She was just patiently waiting for an answer.

“I don’t know what you mean by selling a dog. But I can tell you I don’t quite understand everything about the accident myself…” started Emma, but was interrupted by the steps outside the door. The women looked at each other for a few seconds. And then Sandy took Emma’s arm and pushed her inside the closet. Then she took two first dresses and shut the wardrobe door closed.

Emma heard the knock on the room’s door and Sandy’s voice: “Enter”.

“What takes you so long?” asked the man’s voice and Emma recognized Finn.

“Oh, well I just cannot for the world choose between those dresses,” answered Sandy, laughing lightly. If you didn’t know you would never have been able to tell by the sound of her voice that this woman was terrified for her life just a few seconds ago.

“Well, hurry up, Sandy. Ivey has started doing the bear5,” said Finn and left the room.

Sandy stood there for a few seconds and could not believe that just a few minutes ago when she entered the room she actually cared about what Ivey thought of her.

Sandy breathed in and went back to the wardrobe. She opened the door and saw Emma looking back at her. If anybody asked her at that moment why did she literally saved some strange woman, who God only knows what was doing in her room, Sandy would not have been able to answer. For she herself could not fathom why.

But there they were at the beginning of the scene again. Except this time Emma had no intention to cover Sandy’s mouth. She stepped out of the wardrobe back into the room, glaring at Sandy. “Thank you,” she said quietly. Sandy only nodded.

And then it was like something happened inside Emma. She felt like she could and should trust that woman standing opposite her. So Emma told her everything. Everything that happened to her this evening, starting with the closed Starbucks to the car almost killing her to when she found the strange door and heard the voices. Sandy listened to her without interrupting. She only wondered what a car was.

When Emma was done with her retelling of what happened, she took a breath and looked at Sandy. The woman did not look distrustful. The first thing Sandy asked was: “Are your cars anything like our chardellacs?” The question amused Emma, but as she remembered the interior of the room and the dresses in Sandy’s wardrobe it all started to make sense. Also, that language they used.

“Wait, what century is it?” Emma asked. She could not believe she was actually asking that question. But after everything that happened to her that evening it was quite possible that she was no longer home.

Sandy was bewildered by the question. “It’s 31826”.

“What kind of date is that?” said Emma frowning.

Sandy stood straighter. “A very reasonable one. Since all religion was banished we finally started counting from the time it really mattered. From the year, when Homo sapiens populated Brittania”.

“Ok,” Emma said still puzzled. Banish all the religion? Where on Earth was she? And Brittania? “And what year it would be if you counted with religion still here?”

“How would I know?” Sandy said. “If you want, I can ask my brother, Finn. He’s an expert… Oh, no. My brother. He’s waiting for me. And I have not even changed yet”. Sandy turned to the dresses she took out of the wardrobe earlier, picked one and started undressing.

“What am I going to do?” Emma was in despair. She knew she did not belong here and now that Sandy started getting ready to get back to wherever she had been, she felt even more out of place.

“Maybe you should look for the door”.

“Well, I told you all I know. When I tried to return it was just gone. There was only this wardrobe”.

Sandy put on another dress without zipping it up and went straight to the wardrobe, asking “Are you sure?”

“Well of course I’m sure. I bet it doesn’t work that way”.

But Sandy did not listen to her. The woman was already searching through the wardrobe and opening doors. “In what way do you think it works then?”

“Well, I don’t know. It’s not like I’m an expert in Si-fi”.

“What’s syth… whatever?”

“Long story. Look, I think that the door opens only like once in some period of time and maybe after you went through it, it closes. I don’t know. Maybe”.

“Then why in 17 years I’ve lived here did I never see anybody else except for you”.

“Maybe, the door opens in different places all the time?”

“Then to actually get back, you’d have to find out when and where this door is going to open again”.

Sandy already searched through all the sides of the wardrobe and gave it up. This new theory made sense. But how two young women of 17 years are supposed to look for one magical door in, possibly, all Great Britain?

“Wait, we are in Great Britain, aren’t we?” asked Emma, remembering the strange Brittania and becoming anxious by the minute.

“What is that? I’m really good at geography and I’ve never heard of such place”.

Sandy did not lie. She actually studied the essence of all the sciences required of her age. And the one she was really good at was geography. She did not only knew all the countries and kingdoms on the map, she knew their capitals and if somebody asked her where is South, she would say it exactly right.

“Oh, God. Don’t tell me I might actually be on another planet”. Emma was actually on the verge of panic now.

“It’s planet Earth if that helps”.

“Wait. Do you have a map here?”

Sandy nodded and went to the table standing by the window. She opened a drawer and took out one of many maps. Emma came closer to her and both women looked down at the map. Emma looked at it for a second and breathed out with relief. It was actually a map of the Earth she knew.

“So it’s the same?” Sandy asked looking at Emma’s relieved expression.

Now after a few minutes of looking at the map Emma frowned: “Not quite. Well, the map is the same: all continents are there. But the names seem very different. Like here is City of Stones,” Emma pointed at the place on the map. “In my world it’s known as London. And the whole country is called Great Britain, not Brettania. It sounds like some ancient name for it”.

“London,” Sandy repeated deep in thought. “I’ve heard that name before. Oh, right. Yes, City of Stones was actually called that once but after year 31066 it was renamed”.

“Let me guess. After the religion was banished?”

“Not quite. But I don’t have time for history lessons now. We’ll talk about it after the ball”.

Emma nodded. Sandy took her hand in hers.

“We still have got some time. Let me just think about it a little, while I’m at the ball tonight. And you should do that too. I think you should be comparatively safe in my room. So stay here and don’t make any noise. I’ll ask Finn about that year. He’s not a church-bell6,” she zipped her dress up and looked at Emma fixedly. “Don’t panic. It’s going to be all right”.

Emma nodded, not all that sure herself. But Sandy’s cold voice calmed her somehow and she definitely felt better now.

Sandy nodded as well and went for the door. Closing it she looked back at the girl standing at the middle of her room. And maybe it was just a trick of light, but she did not seem all that much different from Sandy herself at that moment.