I stood just inside the doorway in absolute awe. The living room was painted gray and had black leather furniture. Hanging on one wall was the largest television I had ever seen. Posters of motorcycles and street signs covered the walls.
Just beyond the living room was the kitchen, walls painted blood red with everything else, including the cabinets, countertops, and appliances in black. Even the sink was black. I had never seen such a thing. I couldn’t stop turning in circles trying to take it all in.
I heard Reese giggle behind me, “I’m guessing your house was nothing like this.”
I turned to face her, my eyes wide as saucers, “Nothing at all. Everything in my house is white or wood. And black, well that’s just absolutely forbidden.” I turned a full circle once more, “This place is amazing.”
Reese smiled, “Let’s go upstairs and see what you think of my room.”
She opened the door to her bedroom and my eyes were filled with bright pink, black, and zebra patterns. She had a large bed with a wrought iron frame and several pieces of furniture placed around her bedroom, which was far bigger than the one I had just left. But the thing that seemed strange to me was that her room had two doors, in addition to the one we had just walked through. I turned my curious eyes to her, “Why are there more doors in here?”
She furrowed her brow and looked confused for a brief moment, before the blank expression she always wore on her face returned. She cleared her throat and explained, “The door on the left goes to my private bathroom and the door on the other side of the room leads to my closet. Go ahead and have a look.”
I walked to the door she indicated led to her closet and pulled it open. I looked at her over my shoulder and remarked, “This is your closet? This is the size of my bedroom.”
She tried to hide it but she didn’t do a very good job of it. Pity. She was looking at me with pity. That’s okay. I would have pitied me, too, but not anymore. I had managed to get out of there and I would rather die than go back. After the things I had learned or figured out over the last few months, Octavius and his men would just have to kill me if they found me because there was no way I was going to live the rest of my life on that farm or with the man who had “selected me.”
Changing the subject, I plastered a smile on my face and said, “Let’s see the bathroom.” She led me across the room and opened the door to another room that was bigger than my old bedroom. It had a large mirror with two sinks in front of it, a toilet that was almost in a room by itself, a shower stall, and a deep bathtub that had holes in the side of it. “Why does your tub have holes in it?”
Reese smiled and said, “That’s a whirlpool tub. I’ll show you how it works later. Let’s get something to eat and then get started on your hair.”
I readily agreed. I had been so nervous all day, I hadn’t been able to eat much of anything. Now that my actual escape from the farm was over, the mention of food made me realize I was starving. She pulled out her phone and used it to order a pizza. I knew a lot of kids had cell phones and they could do a lot of things with them, but I still thought it was cool that she could order food and pay for it from the little phone in her hand. Hopefully, one day soon, I would be able to do that, too.
After we ate and cleaned up, we went back to her room to start my transformation. Part of my plan to get away included changing my appearance. This was actually Reese’s suggestion and a good one at that. I hadn’t thought of changing how I looked to make it harder to find me. She had told me not to worry about any of that because she would take care of everything. Now it was time to see what she had come up with.
I sat on a stool in her bathroom facing the mirror. She stood behind me brushing my hair and explaining her plan, “First, I think we need to cut this hair. At school, you were the only girl who had hair this long. It’s a dead giveaway. How much would you be comfortable taking off?”
I had never had anything done to my hair besides a trim, but that wasn’t my choice. I thought about it for a few minutes and said, “Maybe a few inches below my shoulders. What do you think?”
She smiled at me and nodded her head, “I think that would look great. We also need to color your hair. I picked up a few different shades I thought would look good. I’ll go get them and you can pick which one you want to try.”
She left the room and I began rubbing my palms together, a nervous habit I had been trying, unsuccessfully, to break since I was a preteen. It was an obvious tell and everyone on the farm knew when I was nervous or frightened by something the second I started rubbing my palms together. I immediately slipped my hands under my thighs on the stool to prevent any further rubbing.
Reese returned to the room with six or seven boxes of hair color. She showed each one to me, but she wouldn’t tell me which one she liked best or what she thought of any of them. “I’ll tell you what I think after you pick. I don’t want to influence the first big decision you get to make for yourself.”
This was part of why I loved Reese. She appeared emotionless and distant most of the time, but she was a very thoughtful person and every once in a while, she showed it.
“Okay, um, I’ll try this one.” I held up a box of something called highlights.
“Good choice. That is the one I would have picked. Ready?”
The next several hours were spent cutting and highlighting my hair. I still wasn’t sure what exactly that meant, but Reese seemed to know what she was doing so I went along with it. I didn’t really care what I looked like when she was done as long as I looked different. I was going for unrecognizable, no more, no less.
After washing the smelly stuff out of my hair, she forbid me from looking in the mirror while she finished cutting my hair and adding what she called layers. I sat quietly going over the things I had done the last few months, the things I had learned, and the things I still had to accomplish to finally be free and clear of the farm. She must have noticed that I was losing myself to my thoughts because she started talking to me and asking questions again.
I couldn’t help but think how superficial we both were at times. She didn’t want to talk about clothes and makeup and neither did I, but we did, because both of us wanted to talk about our real issues even less. I had told her very little about the farm and she didn’t ask many questions. I wasn’t sure, but I guessed it was because she didn’t want to talk about whatever put the blank look on her face and kept it there.
I heard my name and blinked up at Reese. Judging by the expression on her face and her posture, she must have said my name more than once. “Sorry. Guess I spaced out for a minute.”
She pursed her lips and gave me a scrutinizing once over before continuing, “I said I wanted to get your makeup done and have you put on a new outfit before you look in the mirror. Is that okay with you?”
“Yeah, that’s fine, but, um, I’ve never been allowed to wear makeup before, so can you kind of teach me as you go along?” I don’t know why asking her to teach me to put on makeup bothered me, especially considering all of the other things I had asked of her, but it did. I felt unsure about it for some reason.
Reese placed her hand on my shoulder, “Relax, Ember. I planned on teaching you. I didn’t expect you to know anything about makeup. Sit right there on the floor by my bed and don’t look in any mirrors. I’ll be right back.” She returned carrying a plastic bag which she immediately upended and dumped the contents on the floor. “I bought you a makeup case and all the essentials you will need to get started. I had to guess on your foundation color, but our skin color seemed pretty close, hopefully, I got it right.”
Emotion clogged my throat, making it hard to swallow. Finally, I managed to rasp out, “Thank you, Reese.” I cleared my throat, “No one has ever done anything like this for me.”
“No one has ever helped you escape from a crazy farm? I’m shocked,” she held her hand to her chest, feigning surprise. Without missing a beat, she launched right into my makeup lesson. Thirty minutes later she had me trying on skinny jeans with a long, flowing top. She finished the outfit with ankle boots, a necklace, and then she handed a pair of earrings to me. I looked from the earrings to her and back to the earrings. I quietly said, “My ears aren’t pierced.”
