When You Were Young

As soon as Prudence rolled over, she could tell something was wrong. The effort needed to turn over and the dirt brushing against her cheek were sure signs of something amiss. Then a hand fell across an explosion of fat at her midsection. This can't be right, she thought. She patted the globular thighs, sagging breasts, and finally bulging cheeks to make sure they all belonged to her. I'm a whale, she thought.

In her last memory, she was a thin little girl being hurled by a man in black into a pit of red water. Now she lay here on a patch of dirt in a bloated grown-up's body. Then it was all a dream, she thought.

At last she opened her eyes to see a sheet of rough canvas forming a crude tent around her. Beneath her, as she suspected, was only dirt and patchy grass. With some effort, she sat up to take stock of the situation.

She put a hand to her head as she tried to think. The dream had seemed so real, full of colors, tastes, and smells as vivid as anything around her at the moment. To make certain this wasn't the dream, she pinched a flabby wrist and winced. This is real, she thought. But where am I?

"Mrs. Gooddell, you're awake! I was afraid you would sleep forever and ever but now here you are, wide-awake. It's a miracle. Absolutely astonishing! How do you feel? I know sometimes when I fall asleep for a long time I feel more tired than before I went to bed and then I wonder what was the point in the first place?" said a little girl with red hair tied into long braids and wearing a dirty white dress. As she prattled, the girl brushed dust off Prudence's gray frock.

"I feel fine," Prudence said. "Where am I?"

"I'm not sure. No one is quite yet. I've heard mention we could have landed in Virginia or Massachusetts or perhaps all the way up in Newfoundland. Mrs. Bloom said she hoped we landed in the Indies, but Mr. Pryde said we can't be in the Indies because he's been there before and these trees are all wrong. I would have liked to land in the Indies. It's so much warmer there. Are you feeling a chill? I can find you a blanket."

"No, that's all right." Prudence studied the annoying girl for a moment, trying to place her pale, freckled face. "Have we met before?" she asked.

"Of course we've met before. I've been in your employ for five years now, since I was a tiny little girl. My Aunt Clara sent me over. She was always a spiteful old woman and she told me if I had to stay with her on account of my parents dying of fever then I might as well make myself useful and earn a little money. Don't you remember, Mrs. Gooddell?"