Prologue
She looked through the white, wooden bars, each of her small hands grasping onto one, as she peered through the room. It was dark, but just enough light came through the open doorway so she could see.
There was a bed on the far side of the room that held a small figure curled up beneath some blankets. To her left was a large, three-paned window overlooking a field and some trees. Above the bars she was holding, just above the height of her head, was a crossbeam. Each of the bars ended there.
She looked at her immediate surroundings and realized she was in some kind of bed. Where am I? she thought to herself.
She looked down past the bars and realized she wasn't that far from the ground. Examining the crossbeam more thoroughly, she realized there were two wires, each coming from the sides to the center where there was a small loop on each of their ends.
She lifted her small hand up, feeling the smoothness of each loop, noticing they moved slightly as she did so. Ok. This might be something, she thought. When she noticed she could rotate them a little, her heart rate accelerated.
She pulled one of the loops closer to the center and the wall of bars dropped a little on that side. She smiled to herself. She did the same to other side and watched as the bars clanked down loudly.
They had stopped before falling all the way down, but were now low enough she could easily climb over the top.
She looked around the small room again. There was no movement, so she moved herself over the crossbeam. Lowering herself to the other side, she held on tightly as she tried to reach the floor. Her toes wouldn't quite reach!
I could have sworn the floor was closer! she thought in exasperation at her predicament. She realized that at this point she didn't have a choice. Taking a deep breath, she let go.
She felt herself fall the last few inches, then her legs buckled beneath her. This wasn't exactly going like she thought it would. She tried to use the bars to pull herself up to stand, but her legs felt wobbly beneath her.
As she sat on the carpetted floor, trying to figure out what to do, she heard the sound of voices coming from the other side of the doorway.
Her heart pounded in her chest once more as she realized she wasn't alone. She would find out what these others were like and what exactly this world had in store for her!
She rocked herself forward so that her hands were now against the soft carpet. She looked at the patterns of longer and shorter threads that looked like orange hills and valleys beneath her fingers.
Her new eyes watched as she curled and stretched her fingers against the carpet, taking in its textures.
One hand forward. She rocked backwards and forwards as she tried to lift her other hand against the weight of her body. Second hand forward.
Progress.
She rocked again, this time moving one of her knees forward, then again before moving her other knee. I'm getting the hang of this ...
When she finally made it to the doorway, she saw two beings. One had very dark, short hair. The other, with long, light-colored hair, was leaning over the shoulder of the first.
She rocked forward and backward before moving her hand again. The two beings caught the movement from the corner of their eyes and looked at her simultaneously, as their lips widened and turned up at the corners.
"Sarah!" the one with long hair called out as she walked over, reached down, and picked her up. "What are you doing up, and out of bed?" she chuckled. "Did you need to come out and see Mom and Dad, she laughed as she nuzzled her nose into the side of Sarah's cheek.
Sarah couldn't remember feeling anything like this, and a sound escaped her lips that made her mom smile wider. Then her mom laughed, again, too.
Dad stood up and hugged them both. "I think we have a little escape artist on our hands," he said with a bit of pride in his voice.
Mom cuffed him lightly on the shoulder. "Don't encourage her," she scolded him, a smile still warming her eyes.
Mom carried Sarah into the kitchen and warmed up a bottle for her. Sarah, looking in wonder at this new device, reaching out for it.
Noticing Sarah wasn't putting the bottle to her mouth, Mom took it from her, and placed the n****e in her mouth.
Sarah, unsure of how she should proceed, bit down on the foreign object. This caused an explosion of warmth and flavor in her mouth that was not displeasing. She bit down again, testing her theory, and was excited to find it had happened again. Only now, there was something rattling in the back of her throat, making it hard to breathe.
Panicking, she sputtered as she shook her head back and forth trying to shake the liquid from her airway.
"Oh, honey! Is it too hot for you?" Mom asked as she pulled the bottle away. She shook it over her arm, causing white droplets to spray out. "It doesn't feel too hot ..." Mom said passing Sarah and the bottle to Dad.
Dad looked lost for a moment. Then, holding the bottle close to his mouth, he puckered up his lips and made funny noises.
Sarah laughed, some of the milk from the mishap moments ago, dribbled down her chin. Dad smiled, put the bottle close to his lips, and did it again, which won him another round of giggles from his beautiful daughter.
Dad looked at her lovingly and said, "Would you like to try this again?"
Sarah looked at the man for a moment. Something inside her felt warm and safe when he held her. She reached her little hands out for the bottle and grabbed tightly.
She focused on making her little elbows bend to bring the bottle closer. She realized just how hard this simple act was, as the bottle first hit her in the eye.
Dad didn't take the bottle away like mom had. Instead, he slowly and carefully helped Sarah get it to her mouth.
Sarah bit the end again, but only once. She used her tongue to play with the warm liquid in her mouth, until it dribbled out the corner and down her chin. She smiled. Success! she thought as she giggled.
Dad smiled as he wiggled her nose. "Silly goose," he chuckled. "You're supposed to swallow it," he said affectionately.
Sarah giggled again as her father mimicked drinking from her bottle. This time he opened his mouth, showing her how his tongue moved up and down.
Sarah watched intently. She could do that! She carefully took the bottle again, this time getting it to her mouth. Once she had the n****e in place, she moved her tongue up and down the way her dad had showed her. This time she didn't choke and there was a warmth that spread through her insides.
Sarah pulled the bottle out and looked at it for a moment before putting it back in her mouth to drink some more.
Maybe this place wasn't going to be so bad, especially with Dad here to help guide her. Sarah still wasn't sure where she was, but knew without a doubt, she was not alone.
