Muriella

In a quiet farming village called Trap, on a Sunday afternoon when fingers of mist reached through the forest and curled around the base of the ancient oaks, Fina was idling her way back from church, thinking about what she would cook up for dinner. She decided to take a shortcut through a field that lay in the shadows of a castle ruin, high up on a mound of rock, to make her way back to her arable farm .  It was  grey and wintry and as she passed through the field littered with nettles and cow pats and thistles, looking at the gnarled trees, striped bare, leaves gathered at their bases. The sound of the river grew heavy in her ears as it rushed along in a rage  of froth. Fina came across a semi- naked woman caked in mud. It took a minute to register and a fountain of questions poured into her head. "Was she a victim of abuse? Was she on drugs? Where on Earth had she come from. Why was she here? All questions were silenced  as she drew closer and realised the woman could be no older than twenty with a lock of long white hair coiled around the top of her head like a crown, dark auburn curls covering the more delicate parts of her nakedness. She looked like she'd fallen from the sky or had found her way to the forest after wandering away from a music festival, only there were none around these parts. The woman seemed dazed. She stared up at the castle shielding her eyes and not moving a muscle . Fina approached her with caution not wanting to startle her. She was an unusual sight and she looked far too young to have such a mass  hair with a white stripe. As Fina drew closer to the woman, she noticed her eyes were more deep sea-green and she moved her head strangely, pushing her head back to turn to look at Fina. Fina was surprised by the unusual looking woman who was not only beautiful but somehow unearthly. She eventually asked if the woman were alright. The woman asked:  "Where am I?" In a soft, buttery voice and Fina replied:  "You're in Wales, in a village called Trap." "What year is this?" She asked, staring up at the castle darting her eyes left to right, as if reading it .  "2020" Fina said, trying to figure out what she was looking at. The woman snapped her head back to Fina, smiling what looked like a relieved smile but there was something very odd about her calmness.  The woman  whispered to herself: "So, this is what freedom looks like." And a wide smile broke that made Fina feel lightheaded, tingle from head to toe,  as if she was suddenly light enough to fly. "Will you help me get something to wear and some nutrients?" The woman asked.  "Where have you come from?" Fina asked as she shook away the light sensation.  "From here, but not now." "You must be freezing, here, take my coat, let's get you to the farm. Are you sure you're not hurt?" Fina thought she might be from a nearby mental health facility, they had had escapees before found wandering in all sorts of places, including, bathing in the river.  "Not anymore," she replied and stood abruptly, yet rather elegantly and very upright. She was very muscular, athletic and must have been at least  six-foot-eight. She followed Fina to the farm, walking across rough terrain, not one flinching at the twigs and small rocks beneath her feet. She smiled up at birds in the trees and stopped to c**k her head as if tuning into their birdsong. She paused to observe the river, curiously, touching the flow of water with her forefinger and smiling inwardly, a look of peace spreading across her face.   When they reached the Farm, Fina found her a pair of jeans and a jumper which were too-short at the ankles and wrists. She asked the woman while making her a hot drink.  "What's your name?" "22" She replied and twisted her wrist for Fina to see a bar code tattoo. "That's a pretty radical name." "Yes, it is radical, and it is my identity, look." She thrust her forearm out towards Fina who found it hard to hide her shock at seeing the woman had been branded with the number 22 on the other wrist which rose in a welt.  "That must have hurt, who did that to you ?" "The Friend, he gives all his subjects their names.  "This friend, where is he from?" Fina's thoughts immediately turned to some kind of cult. The area was rife with communes and hippy camps, being so rural it attracted the weird and wonderful.  "The friend has no gender, it is also from here but not now." Fina's cat jumps onto the table and hisses as it spots the woman, who's eyes widen and darken as she cowers. "What is that?" She asks, her voice suddenly unusually deep, covering her ears.  "My cat, Arty, he's very nosy." "What does it want?" "Feeding, probably." Fina laughs and thinks that the woman  must definitely be from the mental health facility.  She decides to sneak out to the hall to give them a call.  "Wait here, drink your tea, I'll find you some footwear." She examined the woman's long toes and knew she would have nothing to fit such enormous feet.  The woman sniffs the tea, with cat-like twitches and puts the cup down. She inches away from the cat who sits at her feet, mewling and rolling around frantically, as if it's had an over dose of catnip.  Fina watches through a c***k in the door as she calls the facility, only to find she is not an escaped patient. She wonders who to call next, and decides the police would be the best bet.  After phoning to explain about the peculiar woman found but naked in a field, the police simply say they'll send someone out to assess her, as if it's perfectly normal.   The Woman looks around at everything, as if scanning and memorizing every item in the room. Fina noticed the tea was gone from the cup and yet the woman hadn't once placed the cup to her lips.  "Are you alright? You seem a little shocked." "I'm happy to be here after all that time." "All that time where?" "Here but then." Fina is convinced the woman is a few sandwiches short of a picnic and sits tight until the authorities show up with a young female officer; who asks a few questions, then suggests I ask around at the local campsites and as she maybe from some kind of cult or hippy commune as Fina had originally thought. Fina explained that she wasn't  her responsibility and asked for the police officer to take her. The police officer said she wouldn't and left Fina open-mouthed and outraged. What was she to do with an almost seven-foot strangely beautiful. weirdo?  When Fina returned to the dining room, her cat Arty, was suspended from the ceiling in a crochet bag, fast asleep and purring. "What on earth did you do to my cat?" Fina's voice is raised as she suspects witchcraft, how else would the back stay on the ceiling like that?  "He was worrying me, so I gave him a reset stop." "I don't know who you are but you need to go back to where you came from. You can't just do that. Fina points to the docile cat  whose paws are poking through the netting.  "I sense you are fusing. Would you like me to reset you?" The woman says.   Fina sits at the table and stares hard at the woman, who shows no sign of her previous sentence being a joke.  "Look, 22, or whatever you call yourself, I can't help you unless you tell me a little more about yourself. I need to get you home. There must be people who are worried about you?" "What is worried?" "OK, that's enough, are you on something?" "This?" She points at the chair. "My husband will be back soon, he can take you somewhere. Get you home." "This is home." She looks at Fina then around the room and smiles.  "No, this is my home. You are a stranger and I'm trying to help you. Can you at least tell me if you have someone I can call? "This is my home then and your home now. It is our home. She pulls up the sleeve of her jumper on the other arm and there's another branding of an aerial map of Trap, with a raised spot where the farm is. Fina gasps in disbelief .  "Are you saying you actually think this is your home? Is this some kind of sick joke?" "What is joke?" "Ok that's quite enough, you have to leave, right now." Fina walks the woman to the front door and asks her to step outside. Once out Fina shuts the door and feels a little guilty as the sharp edges were softening with the beginning of darkness and if she was lost, it must be frightening but she also had a nagging feeling, a concern over the unnaturalness of her.  The woman looked confused and searched  all around her surroundings, scanning hedgerows and a never ending sky, before sitting on the steps and smiling at the sheep grazing in a nearby field, again c*****g her head to tune into their bleeding noise. Fina surmised she might be slightly deaf.  As night fell and the woman remained perfectly still on the concrete step, her eyes darting around at the small sounds of darkness she showed no sign of leaving but then where would she go in such a remote place.  Fina was relieved at the sight of her husband's truck headlights coming up the drive lighting up 22 with a celestial aura, like she was an angel. 22 stood rigidly, as he jumped  out of the truck and began walking toward her, a look of shock about him. Her stance changed. She positioned herself sideways with her fists out front. Her eyes narrow and black, her hair waving behind her as it were under water, caught in an angry tide. All traces of softness, gone. She did something with her neck again, pushing it back, it made her seem taller again and Fina's husband froze solid, as his eyes connected with 22's. He stood with his lips parted as if the words were stuck between them. Fina rushed outside and shouted at 22.  "Hey, hey, it's alright. He's my husband. It's OK." The minute she touched 22's arm her husband became animated once more but seemingly unaware he was muted for a while. He came rushing over and said.  "well… Who's this? With an unsure, yet polite look, like he wanted to say what the Hell is that? "This is 22, she turned up in the field beyond the paddock this afternoon. She wasn't wearing any clothes and can't remember where she came from, so we need to help her. Her husband licked lips before his eyes danced about, bewildered. He poked his fingers into his hair, something he did when he couldn't find the words to articulate his confusion. Fina raised her eyebrows in warning, like a code. Let's get inside and I'll explain. He nodded and looked 22 up and down as they entered the farm.