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.