Chapter 4 - Searching for Annabella/Perdita

Gabby and her roommates found Marie's story hard to believe. They thought it was more likely that she was a little rich girl who ran away from home. Her designer bag screamed wealth. Is it even possible for her to have come from some sort of cult, like she claimed? It felt highly suspicious. 

But why would she come here? And why would she claim to be my daughter? And how does our DNA match? 

“It’s obvious.” Gabby said. “My twin sister must have been switched at birth.”

“I have heard of that happening, actually.” Cherry said, “Or maybe another mother in the same hospital the day you were born lost her baby so the nurse replaced hers with your moms surprise baby.” 

“Uh, yeah I’ve never heard of that happening.” Jewel said.

“Honestly, I’d believe that more than her being Gabby’s daughter.” Edith defended her roommate.

“Why don’t we all do a little research?” Clair suggested. “What’s your sister’s name?”

Gabby was going home for the first part of summer to do her own research, but she welcomed the help. By the end of the day there were three leads worth looking into. 

Annabella/Perdita Montgomerie who lives in Denver.

A woman who shares her same birthday, and lives in Omaha, but she's moved around a lot and looks like she was born in Pennsylvania. Her name is Danika Delmar. 

And the most promising one is a woman living in upstate New York. Not only do they share the same birthday, but they were born in the same place, ACMH Hospital. Her name is Collette Poughet.

“If you’re really not my mother, and you’re going to find my real mom, I’m coming with you.” Marie emerged from the hall where she had been listening. 

"A cross country road trip is exhausting enough without having to entertain a nine year old." Gabby said. 

"You won't have to entertain me. I've done it before, remember?"

"That's true." Clair agreed, "it might be good to take her with you. She doesn't belong here with us."

Gabby rolled her eyes, "So if I take her I can leave her with her real mother. I guess that makes sense."

They packed up her small commuter car and left the following morning. The first couple hours were quiet. Neither of them said anything. Gabby finally remembered that she had brought some cds to keep her alert. She popped one in and started singing along to her favorite Disney songs. Marie stayed silent, though she did smile at Gabby's enthusiasm. 

"Don't you know these songs?"

"No. I've never heard them before."

"These are from Disney movies."

Marie looked confused. 

"Haven't you ever seen a Disney movie?"

"Movie. I've seen Casablanca."

"Casa, no, I mean. What's your favorite movie?"

"I haven't really seen many movies. We never heard of them growing up, and Madam Gabriella only liked proper movies. She said frivolous things were a waste of time."

"Disney movies are not a waste of time. I'll show you my favorite ones when we get home. I mean to my moms house."

They continued to listen to various soundtracks and songs until they arrived at Annabella/Perdita Montgomerie's house. It was around 4pm. They didn't have a plan when they nervously knocked on her door. 

A woman who looked to be about the right age came to the door.  She had long blonde hair with darker roots and tan skin. "Can I help you?"

Gabby smiled. "Hi, we're conducting a research study collecting data about people who live in our neighborhood. We want to find the percentage of people who have grown up here or have relocated from somewhere else. It's for her third grade class." She lied on the spot. 

Marie gaped and then forced a smile. "So... did you grow up here or move here? "

"I moved here."

"Really? From where?"

"Wyoming. I grew up on a ranch. I competed in rodeos. That's where I met my husband. Ricky Montgomerie. He was born and raised here."

"Oh." Marie hung her head. "Thank you." And then she returned to the car. 

Both women watched her for a moment, "uh, thank you. Have a nice day." Gabby said and rushed to the car to drive away. 

"Montgomerie is her married name. That makes it easy to cross her off our list." They pulled into a parking lot to find the route to Marie's next potential mother. Once they figured out their next route they realized they were in a movie theater parking lot. 

"Marie, it's time you experience something magical." 

"What? "

"Your first movie in a theater. "

They bought two tickets for the only Disney movie showing. Then Gabby really splurged and bought them each drinks and candy and popcorn to share.

They both enjoyed the movie, but Gabby really enjoyed watching Marie watch the movie. It was the first movie she had seen that was actually age appropriate. Her eyes were wide while she gazed at the massive screen. She jumped at the startling part, sending popcorn up into the air which made Gabby laugh. She pulled her knees up and hid her face - mostly - at the scary part. All in all it was a fantastic time.

The drive through Nebraska was long. They only made it four hours before they had to stop at a motel to rest for the night. But it was fun. They spent the whole time talking. About the movie. About food they liked. About animals. Gabby began to really enjoy spending time with her, even though there was a 14 year age gap. 

The next four hours in the car were filled with singing together, laughing, and actually planning what to say when they met Danika. 

"The study idea worked well enough. Except that we didn't have any paperwork or anything. "

"Yeah, but why can't we just tell her why we're there?"

"Because that's weird and creepy. "

"That's what I did when I found you. "

"Yes. And it was weird and creepy. "

"Well it worked. "

"How about we buy a notebook and clipboard so we look a little more official. Then we can ask the questions we have. And maybe you can stay in the car."

"No, I can be useful. "

"Fine. "

"And we should take her cookies."

They came up with specific questions that would answer the main question at hand. If she was her biological mother. 

This time they knocked but no one answered. They rang the doorbell. Nothing. 

"Oh man, she's not home! " Marie shouted. 

Then the door opened slowly. 

A hesitant woman peaked out. 

"Hi, are you Danika Delmar? "

"Yes." She squeezed through the narrow opening into the porch. 

"Hi, we are with an adoption agency. And we're collecting data from our community. Will you participate in our two minute survey? You get free cookies at the end."

"Okay, sure." Danika said. 

"Great!" Gabby said and continued to take off her questions:

Where were you born? Washington DC. 

Were you adopted? No. 

Have you ever given a child up for adoption? No. 

Would you ever consider adopting a child? Maybe. 

What is your heritage? Filipino.

Are your parents alive? Yes. 

Do you have any pets? Yes. 

"Okay that's all we have for you. Thanks for your time. "

Marie handed Danika a box of cookies and she and Gabby headed back to the car. 

"Why didn't you ask her all the questions? " Marie asked. 

"At first I thought she looked enough like me to be Annabella/Perdita, but there was something off. She looked less Italian and more Asian. It's not her."

They had another 19 hours to drive before they would get to Gabby's moms house in Philly. Luckily they had plenty of car snacks to eat and music to listen to. 

When they got too the motel that night they didn't just fall asleep when their heads got the pillows, even though they were exhausted. Instead they talked for a while. 

"Gabby?"

"Yeah? "

"I wish you were my mom. I really like you. "

"I like you too Marie. "

"I neve knew mothers were real. Growing up there was only one woman I ever saw. She was neve happy. She always had a frown on her face. And she hated all of us. "

"There weren't any other girls where you grew up?"

"No, there were other girls. Just not women. We were told that our mothers died and she was our mother now. But she hated us. The only person she liked was Apophis, but everyone had to like him. He was our god."

"Your god?"

"Yeah we always had to kiss his cheek and let him examine our growth. He didn't want us to be too fat so if he couldn't feel our ribs through our smock we weren't allowed to eat that day."

Gabby was speechless. 

"That's no God. He sounds more like a demon if you ask me. " She put her arm around her and pulled her close. "You don't ever have to go back there. You're safe from them now."

Marie snuggled her head into Gabby and fell asleep. Gabby didn't fall asleep so easily. 

I can't believe she went through such awful abuse! It doesn't seem like she ran away from home, she seems eager to find her real family. But how could her story be true? Then again, how could Marie make all of this up? It's insane to think that she could imagine all of this. But could this be real? Is there really a cult out there starving children and killing their mothers? What a horrible thought! 

What if they took my sister when she was born and froze her and Marie isn't my daughter but my sister? How does DNA work anyway? Gosh I need to sleep. I have a long drive tomorrow! 

There's still a possibility of the woman in upstate New York being her mother. And my sister. I hope it's her. I hope it's not her. That would royally upturn my whole life not to mention my moms life. She's been through enough! She doesn't need this, too. But maybe it would be good for her. Maybe she would be happy about it. Or maybe she would feel guilty all over again. Ugh, turn off, Brain. Sleep. Just sleep! 

Her demands weren't met for another couple hours. She spent the time worrying about what may or may not come while holding the little girl who seemed so innocent. 

"I promise you," she whispered to Marie, "we will find your mother or someone safe who can be your mother. You will never be mistreated again." And with that she fell asleep. 

Cinderella's dark and twisted secret

 I wanted to see how Ai would wrote the story of Cinderella if she became a serial killer. And see how it differed from my story. Her it is: 

Chapter 3 - Marie

She burst out of a tub of water where she had been submersed. Panting, she looked around trying to catch her breath. How long had she been under the water? She couldn’t remember. She couldn’t remember nearly anything. The room was dark. The only light was coming from the eerie glow of the water she sat in. Peering over the edge she saw how far up she was sitting. Am I in a fish tank? She wondered due to the glass sides of the tub and the position in the room. She certainly felt like she was more on display than she would like to be. 

She climbed out as carefully as she could, but her little body didn’t reach the ground even when she hung holding the edge of the tank with her arms extended. She slipped when she hit the floor, landing hard on her hip and sliding a few feet on the slick tile. She swallowed a yelp of pain and got herself up. She looked around the room for clothes and found a stack of gray tunics. It was rough on her delicate skin, but she didn’t care. She needed to find her way out of wherever she was.

She opened the door slowly and peeked out the open slit. She saw no one, but she heard male voices. 

“The operation is behind schedule. I need this done NOW!” 

“We are working on it, Sir, but she...”

She closed the door gently and looked around frantically searching for a way out. She saw a desk with papers and notebooks on it. She looked through them for clues as to where she was and why she was there but didn’t find any information on her whereabouts. Instead she found stacks of documents for everyone she knew. She riffled through until she found one on herself.

Specimen # 5762 - Marie

Host - Gabriella Montgomerie

Blood Type - AB Negative

Ph value - 7.21

Metamorphosis - Stage 0

She folded up this document and headed for another door. She couldn’t see or hear anything when she peeked through. It was completely black. So she opened it wider until she could see that it was just a closet. She almost closed the door to move on to a more promising exit route but then she noticed a window with the blinds pulled closed inside the closet. So instead she entered the small room and shut the door behind her. 

Carefully, she lifted the blinds to see that it looked out to a hallway she knew quite well. With some effort she managed to get the window open and climb through. If I go left I’ll get to the dining hall, but if I go right... She searched her memory, I don’t actually know where that leads. She went right. Her steps grew faster as she continued down the hallway, worried she would be discovered and punished. She didn’t want to be sent to discipline. An awful punishment for misbehaving where she would get strapped to a chair and questioned. If they were unhappy with her answers she would get slapped with a paddle. Even more than not wanting that, she didn’t want to go back to the dark room from where she had just left.

Guessing on which turns and hallways to take, she finally reached a door that she had never seen before. It was bigger than the other door in the building. Most doorways were free of doors. There was only one door she had ever gone through, once a day to eat. 

She looked behind her to assure no one was watching or coming after her. Then she opened the door slowly. A blinding brightness burned her eyes, but as she squinted into the room on the other side. It was beautiful. It was like what she had only heard stories about with green grass and real trees. There were cars passing and birds chirping. Hesitantly, she stepped through the threshold into unknown territory.

She walked as nonchalantly as she could until she was about a block away at which point she began running along the side of the road for as long as she could. Fatigue set in fairly quickly, forcing her to slow her pace. She wandered down the road for a long time. Finally a woman slowed her minivan to match her pace. 

“Hey kiddo, are you okay?”

She just stared back at the lady.

“Are you on your way home?”

She looked back the way she came.

“Do you need help?”

“Yes, please.” She finally answered, in a tiny voice. Terrified it was a trick. 

“Can I call your mom? Or give you a ride?”

She nodded. Hoping against hope that this lady wouldn’t take her back to the place from where she came. She approached the car and tried to turn the handle to open the front door with no success. 

“Oh, here ya go.” The lady said, and pushed a button to open the sliding door to the backseat. Do you know where you live?

“No.”

“Do you know your moms phone number?”

“No.”

“Well what’s her name? Maybe I can look her up.”

She was quiet for a minute. Then gave the only name she could, “Gabriella Montgomerie.”

After a few minutes searching the internet on her phone the kind woman found only a few options. The closest was a lengthy bus ride away in Ohio. She wondered how on earth this little girl got so far from home.

“Do you live in Ohio?”

She didn’t know where she lived, so she just said, “Yes.”

“How did you get all the way out here to Pittsburg?”

“Um...” She said, unsure of how to respond. “I was visiting a friend. But I want to go home now, so I left.”

It was believable enough, so she wrote down the address and directions to get to the Gabriella Montgomerie who lived in Cleveland, Ohio. She dropped her off at the bus station and gave her more than enough money to get there. She also gave her her own phone number in case she needed help again. “I’m a mom, so I tend to look out for all kids. You call me if you need help again, okay. I’ll pray for you.”

“Thank you.”

She followed the directions to a little house off 32nd Street. She climbed the five steps up to the porch and knocked on the door. A tall bulky man with a wiry red beard came to the door. 

“Are you selling cookies?” He asked.

“No.” She was confused as to why he would assume such a thing. “Does Gabriella Montgomerie live here?”

“Yeah, let me get her.” He left the door open for her to come in, but she did not move from the doorstep. “Mom,” he called as he walked down the narrow hall. Soon a very old woman with white poofy hair hobbled to the door. 

“How can I help yuz?”

“Um. I think I have the wrong person.”

“Who yuz lookin’ for?”

“My mom.”

“Oh, well Kip my youngess. You juss met him. He 47 and still live at home.” The old woman was missing teeth and Marie had a hard time not staring.

“That’s okay. May I use your phone?”

The old woman led her inside to a dingy yellow phone attached to the wall. It had a curly cord that looped all the way down to the floor. “Here yuz go.” Then she scuffled back to her bedroom, where a TV was blaring.

She called the number of the mom who had picked her up. 

“Hello?”

“Hi. This was the wrong one.”

It took a moment for the minivan mom to connect the dots, but then she understood. “Oh dear. Well let me see. She put her phone on speaker and found the next closest Gabriella Montgomerie. “Okay, I have another address for you. Are you ready to write it down?”

“Yes.” She lied. She didn’t have a pen, but thankfully she was able to reach the counter by the fridge where there was a pen sitting on a notepad. 

She wrote down the next address in her own large handwriting and made her way back to the bus station. Her next stop was Cincinnati, Ohio. After eight hours on a bus she was too tired and too scared to find her way to the next house. She found a bench and curled up on it. In the morning she woke to bustling voices passing her. She rubbed her eye and started on her very long walk to the next house.

But when she arrived there a beautiful woman with long back braids that faded into pink at the ends opened the door. 

“Hey there, young’un.” She said in a smooth voice.

“Hello. Are you Gabriella Montgomerie?”

“Yes, ma’am. What can I do you for?”

Discouraged, she looked down at her own hands. “I think I have the wrong person.”

“Who are you lookin’ for?”

“My mom.”

“Oh, goodness me. Well let’s see if we can find her.” She pulled out her own phone to find another Gabriella Montgomerie. “There’s one in Cleveland..”

“No. That’s not her.”

“Okay, well I see one in Nashville, Tennessee. Does that sound right?”

“Oh yes, that’s it.” She tried to sound confident.

The chocolate colored Gabriella wrote down the address and gave it to her along with a fresh buckeye cookie she had just made.

The next bus took over six hours. She couldn’t hold back the tears as she walked to the next house. This is pointless. I don’t even know where I am or who I am or why I’m here! She almost gave up before she even arrived, but was glad she didn’t when she saw the house. 

It was huge. Very majestic with four white pillars standing in front of a red brick building. She crossed the expansive green lawn to the big red door adorned with a wreath. She stood there hoping she was at the right place. Hoping they would let her in. Hoping they would let her stay forever. She knocked and waited but there was no answer. So she pushed the doorbell and heard a loud chime coming from inside the house.

At last, the door opened. 

“Good evening miss.” a man in a bow tie greeted her.

“Hi. Is Gabriella Montgomerie here?”

“Yes, follow me.”

She timidly followed as he led her through the large entryway, down a short hallway to a very pleasant sitting room with lion feet sofas and an elaborately decorated coffee table. There was a woman wearing glasses with shoulder length blonde hair sitting on one of the sofas reading a book. 

“Madam.” The man announced.

The woman looked up from her book and over her glasses. She furrowed her brows in confusion. She removed her glasses entirely and folded them as she stood. 

“What do we have here?” She approached the small girl.

“Hello.” She nearly whispered.

“What is your name, child?”

“My name? My name is Marie.”

“Well, Marie. What is your business here?”

“I was hoping to find my mother. Are you her?”

“Am I your mother? No.” She said very judgmentally. “I should think not. I could not possibly be your mother. I think I should know better than to have such a scrawny little thing for a child.”

“Are you Gabriella Montgomerie?”

“Well of course I am.”

“That is my mothers’ name.”

The woman examined her. “Where did you come from? Why do you not know your mother?”

“I...” Marie trailed off. She did not know what to say. “I was raised by my father.”

“Well where is he?”

“He’s at home.”

Her eyes narrowed. “It’s getting very late. I am about to have dinner. You are welcome to join me.”

Marie’s eyes widened and her jaw dropped. “Thank you!”

The two sat in a large dining room at a long table that was surely meant for more than just two people. They were served delicious fancy food. Marie couldn’t believe the sensations of happiness that came just from eating. She had never eaten food for any other reason than to satisfy hunger, and avoid punishment. 

She was allowed to stay there that night. The next day the lady of the house spoke with the girl. She proposed an arrangement where Marie would be allowed to stay with her so long as she helped as a maid.

Marie was elated with this offer and eagerly accepted. She stayed there through the holidays and into the Spring. This Gabriella turned out to be kind and generous. She bought her new clothes and even her own cell phone. She taught her valuable life lessons about charity and generosity. 

“I am an example for you to follow.” She would say. “If you follow my lead, pay attention and learn from me, you, child, will go far in life.”

Marie learned how to search the internet on her phone. She sent her DNA into 23 and Me and in April she found there was yet another Gabriella Montgomerie who seemed most likely to be her mother. She was originally from much closer to where Marie, herself, had started her journey. She had moved across the country for school after living in a tiny country across the ocean for almost two years.

As much as the thought of giving up this life of luxury pained her, she felt a pull to pursue finding her mother. So she told Ms. Montgomerie that she had found her mother and asked her to help her get to her. Ms. Montgomerie agreed and bought her a plane ticket.