Daniela

“Roaming the streets yet again, I just wonder where did we all go wrong? Why couldn't we just get along? Why couldn’t we just put humanity first? Everyone wants to laugh, everyone wants to really be liked and accepted for who they are.” These were Daniela’s naïve thoughts on day number 674 since she was left alone. As far as she knew, everyone had disappeared. She just woke up one morning and everyone was gone, nobody and no body was left behind, just her.

Her days would consist of moving from house to house. It felt like she was doing something naughty but was it naughty if there was no one left to judge?

Today she was in London, Kensington, house number 744 “I started from the bottom and now I’m here”, she said laughing. She admired all the carving and the marble around and then all of a sudden she went sad yet again.

“When did people start confusing to have with to be? The wise question is not to have or not to have. Why did we forget that? And why did we ever believe that in order to be, one must own. Thinking that someone is less just because they don’t own more. For someone to own more that means for others to own less. It was so stupid, I wish we could do it all again.” Out of the blue she then started giggling, “I think I am a fine philosopher, darn what am saying I am the best philosopher alive.”

As she was walking around the house she reached the basement, there she found a small black notebook. She thought it was a journal and she was hoping to read someone else’s thoughts for a change, someone real. She opened the small black notebook and saw no name, it was actually carved inside and there were a lot of money, she took the money out. There was something written in Latin “Omnes In Flammis - now what is this supposed to mean?” she said to herself.

Daniela started counting the money, there were $20,000. She did not really care about the money, there was nothing to do with them at this point, she cared about the Latin message though.

“This is a big house, they must have a Latin dictionary somewhere!”, she put back the money and took the small black notebook. She went upstairs but could not find a library. She ran into the next house and the next house and the next. “Finally, one might think that when you have a house this big you are doing some reading, just sayin’… They are all gone but somehow I am still jealous…” she reached the book that had the title Latin-English Dictionary, 15 minutes later she had the translation “All In Flames – what is that supposed to mean, maybe I need an English-English Dictionary… well this was fun, for a minute.”, she put the book in her backpack and started walking around in the house she was currently in. She suddenly reached the garden.

“This is the most beautiful garden, I bet they have snowdrops when the winter is ending… no one will ever know that snowdrops are my favourite flowers” … she took a sit on a bench, “Just for a moment, I need to rest” … she fell asleep.

She wasn’t afraid anymore, the first year was difficult but now she felt safe all the time. When she woke up it was already midnight.

“Oh wow, the moon is so bright tonight it woke me up. I need to get inside to get a little warmer”, talking to herself always made her feel less alone. As she was walking towards the door she saw a fire pit, she remembered how her father always built these fires for her when they went camping, tears came down her cheeks.

“Tonight, I am going to build you a fire, father. The biggest one you’ve ever seen.”, she rushed to the fire pit, looked for matches impatiently and took the small black notebook from her backpack. She then took out the money and started scattering them, she then lit up a match and started the fire. “This is for you father, you deserve more, you all deserve more”, more tears starting flooding her eyes. “I deserve to at least not be alone”, she started crying frantically.

“Wait, what is this…” Daniela wiped her tears, she was able to see on some of the bills some yellow iridescent colour. “Omnes In Flammis, of course, All in flames – oh my God”, as she remembered the message, she was looking closer to the bills, there were letters forming. Quickly on the small black notebook she started writing down all the letters she could see, she started going through the fire, trying to put out some of the bills, she rushed through as many as she could, she realised she could not do it as the money were burning really fast, she then tried to put out as many bills as she could. She saved some, she wrote some down, she wasn’t sure how much she managed to interpret.

“OK, I need a plan, so if I have $20,000 all in $100 bills that means I should have 200 letters. Maybe the bills were in a particular order… I am so stupid. I’ll just arrange them somehow and go one at a time with what I have.”

It was almost daylight when she finished. Daniela had 183 letters in no particular order. She felt that this was a message about what has happened. “Hope”, she mumbled to herself, “Hope is all we really have anyway … as long as I have hope, not all is lost.”