ALONE WITH ME

Mina Lang stood up from her bed and shook her head. ''What was that about? What a strange dream...''

She slowly opened her eyes and saw few inklings of the sunshine passing through a few holes in the shutters and making beautiful lines all over the opposite wall. ''Ah, finally sunshine.''

It rained for days and she already thought something bad will happen to the place she lived now.

After she fought with her parents as she refused to marry one of their business partners they denounced her as their daughter and chose even to erase her from their family book. They kicked her without even thinking twice out their house with just a small bundle of clothes and her savings were hidden inside her bag under the clothes she wore.

Luckily she was not a person who liked to spend money so much so she saved quite a sum, but she was clear that she wouldn't be able to survive from only that much. Her family had so many children that they just chose her younger sister to marry that man and she happily accepted.

Mina Lang just travelled far away and changed her name from Nam to Lang. It was easier like that. As she joined the whole line of people that travelled south trough their words she found out that on the north of country lots of lands were sold for small money and so she chose to change direction and go far north.

Luckily she was not the only one that had the same idea, so she travelled with three families. One was Liu family from far away. The mixed marriages were rare so many people looked down at the man and woman that happily held hand as they pulled the carriage with all they owned and two children.

The other two families were Park and Yang but they had something against the mixed pair and girl without a family. So even tho they travelled together they just chose to be among themselves and not talk with them.

Mina didn't mind at all. She happily went to the Liu family and teased the children as they travelled. ''Look how big you two are, come down and walk a little bit so your parents can have it easier. Don't you feel sorry?''

Of course, the children would then start complaining to get off and as they were properly educated by their parents they held hands with Mina and asked her million questions.

When they arrived at one village Park and Yang family chose to give them money only not to stay nearby and Mina made Liu family accept. ''Don't be foolish. Pride won't feed your children. We do not have to be here, we can just walk more and find other villages.''

But after that, it's as hard to find any other villages. The next village they found was two days walk away from the village Park and Yang family was and with a sigh of relief they found out that teher is one house free.

Mina could see the tiered faces the children had and smile brightly. ''Uncle Liu, aunt Liu you stay here. I will find a place in the next village. The uncle over there said there is a small house in the end of the village and the village chief will give it to me for small money. He will take me with him so I won't be alone. This place is after all too big for me alone and too small for all of us.''

''Mina, take some rice with you, child. I know you fear that we won't have anything to eat, but you are even in a worse situation than we are. We bought enough rice before leaving to the north. Please take this little bit. It won't hurt us.'' Miss Liu gave her a big bag of rice and with the help of her husband transported to the carriage. She saw Mina fumbling with her purse and got angry. ''Mina, stop right now or I will get seriously angry. You were a huge help to us all the time trough travel.''

They pulled all the carriage that would be heavy even for one donkey by themselves and it was sometimes hard even to concentrate on the carriage so Mina was a great help as she helped children as they travelled. Sometimes she would hold them in hands or on back sometime she would hug them while they slept so children listened to Mina's words quite well.

She hugged the two children tightly and smiled at their crying faces. ''Ying, Rong... you two rascals. Be good to your parents, promise?''

The two boys bawled while they nodded and as their parents took them into their arms they could only see Mina sitting on the donkey carriage as she waved at them with huge smiles. ''See you soon. Be good and grow up well. If you ever need me, come to the next village!''

The boys waved their hands until carriage didn't disappear between the tall trees. Only their cries could be heard a bit longer and then sounds of river silenced all the sounds and made Mina look at it in wonder.

''Uncle, what is the name of this river?'' She stared at the loud stream of water of not so big river but crystal clear water.

He smiled as he stared at the river. ''We call her Unpredictable.''

''Unpredictable?'' Mina wondered why.

''Actually, she would just appear and disappear as it wishes. This year is here, next year its two li far away and the year after that she doesn't appear at all. It's wonder of nature. Many people drink its water as it is said it has healing properties.'' He stopped the donkey carriage and took one empty pot from behind to fill it with clean water.

Mina jumped off the carriage as well and grabbed with both hands the ice-cold water and shook. ''So cold.''

He chuckled. ''Yes. That is a strange thing about her. From summer to fall she is ice cold,in winter she becomes almost hot. Like I said unpredictable.''

She looked around and sighed. ''Uncle is it far to our village?'' She could already see the shadows becoming longer and started to worry.

He pointed at a certain direction. ''We will be soon there. This is the only spot where I can gather this water. And done.'' He was just waiting for the water to fill the pot and he took it up to the carriage and they moved.

In the village bunch of children looked at the young woman on old man's carriage in wonder. ''Is that his new wife?''

A boy hit the one who was saying stuff. ''Idiot. She is maybe one of his cousins. Lee family has many people.''

The children nodded and continued talking while Lee Yan brought Mina to village heads house. ''Elder Kang? Are you at home?''

An older woman came out and smiled at him. ''What is it?''

Lee Yan pointed at Mina. ''She wants to buy a house in our village. I remember the house that is empty for a while so I told her we have only that left.''

Elder Kang looked at the young woman with a smile and sighed. ''That house is empty for years. There must be done so many things to repair it. But luckily the summer is long and our villagers will help you, don't worry. Come in let's see about the contract.''

Mina luckily knew to read somewhat so she understood that she had a house at end of the village towards forest and had part of land attached to it. ''This land is now actually taken by one of the families so if you buy it they will pay you third of their win to you. This year is a good year, so they can afford that.''

Mina was not dumb to pretend to be openhanded and push back such offer. It was already too late for her to make own garden and she needs to survive as well. She smiled. ''I will do as Elder recommended. I am grateful for any help I can get.''

The Elder Kang was long time head of the village and could see that she was not dumb, was respectful and at the same time she could read so she didn't want to make trouble to themselves. ''The house and land will cost you Five silver bits and a half string of bronze coins.''

Mina nodded and took out six silver bit and got back the half string of silver coins and the contract. As they walked through the village few curious villagers peeked towards her and as they saw her with the village he's they hurried to escape under her curious gaze. ''Elder, am I that scary?''

Elder Kang started chuckling. ''You not, but I am. This year everyone had win as the year was sumptuous so I asked them to pay their debts back. Now they are avoiding me, but how long can they do that?'' She turned her head to Mina and looked at her seriously now. ''The land you own is a good piece of land. Not big but for yourself is enough. In the nearby town is a market once every ten days so you can go there and supply yourself with things you need. Or sell things you have.''

Mina came from a family that owned silk shops so she knew how to embroider well so she asked. ''I know some embroidery. Is there a place that I could sell things like that?''

Elder Kang stopped and looked at the young woman closely and then with a sigh nodded. ''I should have known. You seem bit dark in face, probably because of travel, but looking at your hands...''

Mina looked at her soft hands and smiled. ''To do silk embroidery I can't have rough hands or I might pull the string and then the whole embroidery becomes low quality. I do need to survive so I might rent the land behind my house and have just some flowers in my garden. If I can sell my embodiment then I will be fine. But Elder, can you do me a favour? I don't want others to know about this. I fear...''

Elder Kang patted her hand and smiled. ''I am not foolish. People are greedy everywhere and you live alone. Fine. I will tell them you do some paperwork for me for a few coins to survive as you still need to learn about gardening first. Such jobs are usually taken by young scholars and children to earn few pennies so if I tell them you do that job they won't bother you much.''

Mina smiled brightly in relief. ''Thank you. I am grateful.''

Just then they saw the house and Elder Kang turned her head towards Mina that had a smile on her face. ''My new home. If there is at least one room livable, that would be nice.''

Luckily all rooms were still fine only roof and windows needed repair. She cleaned one room to sleep and Elder Kang sold her new set of covers that she had prepared for guests. After she cleaned everything and cooked herself plain rice porridge, Mina washed and fell asleep calmly for the first time in her life...