Daniela

Chapter 5 Where Am I?

Daniela's eyes were closed as she imagined going down the footpath. As she opened her eyes, things looked somewhat different. She was expecting to see a cottage, or a cabin, or some kind of residence where Esther might live. In fact, the beautiful surroundings of the footpath had disappeared. There before Daniela is a completely different landscape, it is stark desert, and there was no green at all that she could see. She thought to herself, "What kind of place is this?" Before her she could see what appeared to be walls and some kind of buildings made of rocks, or big stones. She wasn't sure what it was, but there appeared to be an entrance in the distance ahead of her; so she continued walking toward the unfamiliar structure.

It took some time to reach what looked to be some kind of a gate. It was much bigger up close. As she looked around she had never seen anything like it in her entire short life. It was pretty impressive. As she stood in the gate and looked around, her eyes found a small group of men talking and standing in kind of a circle. They were speaking a language she had never heard before. As she walked toward the men, one of the men turned and walked toward her.

Daniela tried to be brave, but with a shaky voice she asked the man, "Does Esther live here?" The man's eyes squinted as though he understood what she asked. He then turned to the other men and, in that language she couldn't understand, said something to the men. For a moment the men talked among themselves, and then the man standing in front of Daniela pointed in the direction of what appeared to be an alley and simply said, "That way."

Daniela never thought of herself as being brave. But this experience was calling on her to do something that looked like bravery. She was not sure of anything. So off she went in the direction that the man pointed. Her surroundings were like nothing she had ever seen before. The people all looked so different, all chattering that same language that she couldn't understand. There were no sidewalks, no front yards, no stores, and no cars; there was nothing that was familiar to her at all. But she continued as the man had directed. She suddenly came to a stop! "Wow! Which way should I go?" There was a choice to be made, because the way she was going now became either right or left. It was a fork in the road. Daniela thought, "Now what?"