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As she stared into the trees, she saw something – no, it was someone– standing at the edge of the woods. It was a woman. Agnes didn’t believe she’d ever seen her before, which was strange because she knew everyone in their small village. The woman was too far away for Agnes to know forsure if she was someone she knew or not, so she took a step toward the trees. The woman didn’t move. Agnes took a few more steps and watched the woman carefully to see if she’d move toward her or maybe even run away. With her next step, the woman took one toward Agnes, but she stopped there. Agnes kept walking, though, expecting the woman to either join her in the field or move back into the woods and disappear entirely.

Eventually, Agnes was at the edge of the field, where there was some tall grass before the trees grew in earnest. It was the line that separated their land from the woods that no one had cut down to make their own property yet. While her father had considered adding to his own, they didn’t have enough people to take care of it even if he did, so he hadn’t yet. Agnes suspected that once her brothers had wives and children who were old enough to work, he would expand his property, and they’d all work it together.

“Hello?” she asked more than said.

“Hello,” the woman, who looked to be a little older than her, said back.

She had dark hair and dark eyes, along with pale skin that told Agnes that she must not spend a lot of time outside, working in the sun.

“I’m Agnes,” she said after a moment of staring.

“Hi, Agnes.”

“What’s your name?” Agnes asked.

“Why did you walk over to me?”

“Pardon?”

“You walked over to me. Why?”

“I don’t know. You… I’ve never seen you here before. I wanted to know what you were doing on our property.”

“This isn’t your property. I’m very careful.”

“It’s close to it.”

“Yes, but I’m not on your property. This land is owned by no one.”

“Not yet. But it will be. Now that the sickness is gone, the village will continue to grow again. My brothers will soonneed houses for their wives and children. They could build them here.”

“I’ll be gone by then.”

There was something about this woman that confused Agnes. She thought about turning around and walking away, but she couldn’t. Her feet were frozen in place.

“Where will you go?”

“I don’t know. Wherever I end up.”

“Where your husband takes you, you mean?”

“I don’t have a husband.”

“Your father, then?”

“I don’t have a father.”

“We all have fathers.”

“Mine is dead.”

“Oh,” Agnes said. “Your mother?”

“Also gone. The sickness swept my village three years ago, too.”

“I’m sorry,” Agnes replied. “You survived?”

“I did. Just me. My brothers and sisters all perished as well.” The woman looked around the woods and back to Agnes. “I’m all alone.”