Please Don’t Remember Me - Chapter 5 Part 1. A Short Trip

It was early morning, exactly three months after her arrival in Bajona. Clara packed a big bag, put on a big brim hat and went out the door.

“I’m going to go out for a bit,” she said.

“Yes, My Lady. Have a good day.”

The guard gave her the usual welcome.

‘Goodbye, sir. This is the last time we will see each other.’

Clara thought as she pulled the brim of her hat down to hide her face, then smiled.

She left a letter on the table in her bedroom. Melissa came in as usual and knocked on the bedroom door, but there was no answer. Melissa thought Clara must have overslept so she let her be. She ate her breakfast alone, drank her tea, then started cleaning. Clara was sure that if she didn’t come out of her room, Melissa would come and check on her again. However, she would be in town by then, no one would be able to catch up with her.

In the letter Clara wrote to the butler that she was going on a short trip, but she wasn’t planning to go back. And Melissa was instructed to go to Lady Aria’s. The last time she was in town, she made a note of some shops that were offering jobs. She wanted to try to be a shop assistant, so she mainly went to shops and eateries. However, she had no identification nor background, she knew it wasn’t easy to find a job.

If things went wrong, she could sell her jewellery and live for a while. She had enough to buy a small house if she had to. Clara kept the jewellery she had received from her mother in a tightly packed bag, which she tied around her body and hid under her clothes. This way, it would be safe from thieves.

The first thing she did was to go into the first shop she saw and got her hair cut shorter from waist length to below her shoulders. The owner was reluctant to cut her perfectly groomed hair, but when Clara lowered her eyes and said that she was heartbroken, and wanted a change. The hairdresser gave her a quick cut. It was her first haircut. She looked at herself in the mirror, she looked younger but felt a little embarrassed for some reason.

Next, she went to the cafeteria, which was her first choice. It was the same restaurant she had seen from the carriage when she first arrived in this country. A group of drunk men came out of the shop, dancing shoulder to shoulder. A good-looking woman, who must have been the shop owner, was laughing and seeing them off.

Clara wanted to be part of that circle.That’s what she thought.

At the entrance to the cafeteria, there was a sign “Silver Kawauso.” She wondered if that was the name of the restaurant. On the door there was another sign that said, “Workers urgently needed! Live-in available.”

She rang the bell and opened the door, but there was no one in the shop. When Clara peeked inside, a woman peeked out from the kitchen. It was the same good-looking woman from earlier.

“I saw you are hiring!”

Clara shouted cheerfully, and the woman smiled broadly over the counter.

“Come on in!”

The woman came out into the hall, wiping her hands on her apron.

“You’re a pretty girl, are you looking for a job?”

“Yes, I’m looking for a live-in job.”

“Well, have a seat.”

She pulled up a chair at the counter and had Clara seated, then she sat cross-legged next to her.

“Where do you come from? You’re not from around here, are you?”

“Well, I came all the way from the west, …… and I’ve arrived recently.”

If she remembered correctly Melissa was from the west, Clara smiled and pretended she was from around there somewhere.

“Alone? What about your family?”

“I’m alone. I don’t have a family.”

“Where have you been? What have you been doing?”

“Well…”

Clara kept saying “eh…eh…”, and before she could think of an answer, the woman spoke first.

“You don’t seem to have an answer. We don’t accept criminals.”

The woman gulped down a glass of water.

“I have no criminal record!”

“So you’re running from a man, then. A pretty girl like you either has a criminal record, or because of a man.”

“Yeah, well, something like that, I suppose.”

Certainly when it came to men’s business, her situation was a bit like that.

“Have you been cheated by a man? Did you get into debt?”

Clara thought if the woman said so then she would take that theory.

“I don’t have any debts, but yes, I was cheated. My husband actually has a wife,….”

“What? Your husband has a wife?”

“Oh, yes. But he is not yet my husband….We were supposed to be married.”

“There are men like that, you know. You’re so easy to fool, aren’t you? Poor thing!”

“Well, the people around me all in it together.”

“You were a sitting duck! That’s terrible!”

“He has mistresses too. All three of them.”

***