Una Bonita Rio

[Mina Garciapara]

It was never too late to cut her wrist and jump overboard, Mina Garciapara had been contemplating that ever since this boat set sail on the Amazon River for a two day trip to the small town of Pangoas, a place where Mina had just learned of all but two weeks ago, prior to coming to South America. It had been a dream, sort of, to flock to South America to see Brazil and Peru, heck she had always wanted to see the Amazon, but two days on a small boat with ten people and just four bedrooms? Come on, ask her to crawl into a cave with a live bear, photograph snakes, jump off of mountains...but sleeping with a stranger? Never in her wildest dreams.

But still, that was not the problem at this exact moment on her trip to the small town. Matter of fact it was the people on the boat, ferry, thing. She had been on boats, small, canoe boats, but this was not quite small enough to be a boat, not big enough to be a ship. Ferry sounded about right. A flat bottomed ferry with three stacks of floors. She was enjoying herself, well was, on the deck, sitting on one of the built in benches, listening to the exotic birds, every now and again hearing the buzz of a bee or fly, or unidentified flying insect this place had to offer, and relaxing. But to her surprise, and her annoyance, someone had mistakenly gotten on the wrong ferry.

"Give it up." She stated to herself as she heard the yells escalate, actually yell considering the Captain never really had any true time to respond due to this persons annoyance and desire to get the hell off this boat. Which brought her back to the thought of cutting wrists and jumping overboard to be eaten alive by the parana fish.

Those little suckers had teeth sharper than any razor blade, at least the death would be painfully swift. A smile curled on her lips as she looked at the newspaper reading something on the fourth page about a wildlife animal preserve taking a few chosen creatures to San Francisco to breed, apparently it was helping not only the animals nearing extinction, but it was giving the town's economy a big boost due to the asking price they actually received from the place. Over 2.5 mill. Mina could only fathom what that would be like to have, something she knew she'd do with that kind of cash would not only roll around in it naked, but she'd give a lot to various animal shelters and other wildlife preserves.

A sigh of sadness escaped her as she flipped the page to read the last few lines about the animals, the money she made never in her life would she receive a million dollars. Ever, not even when she retired would she have made that much cash. She was a poor photographer, despite working for National Geographic, the money didn't go over well in New York style living.

[Carnival Auf]

Carnival was actaully not as spoiled as he came off being. He...was just used to everything going as planned. And getting on the wrong goddamn ferry was not how things were supposed to go. Not for Carnival Auf.

"Don't take that tone with me!" he hollered at the captain who, in his haste, was speaking in Spanish at him, telling him to stop yelling and just understand that he would have to get off at the next stop and get on a different ferry. So Carnival yelled back at him in Spanish, explaining that his job didn't allow him to do that. If he wasn't on time, he could lose this job opporuntity.

"Hello, Al?" he said into his Red Chocolate phone. His accountent helper was on the other line, trying to hear over the yelling. "Hey. Look, apparently, in this godforsaken place, I somehow managed onto the wrong ferry. If I'm late, those bloodthirsty wetbacks--" he paused to look at the captain, "No offense," he looked back down, "--will never give us that contract. We'll lose that million dollar agreement we had with them. I know my dad wouldn't be happy with that."

"I can't turn the ferry around from here, C," Al said, his voice sounding more amused than Carnival was feeling. Carnival sighed.

"Please don't be smart with me, Allen."

"Okay, okay, C. Don't get your T Hill's in a bundle. I'll call them and see what can go down if you aren't down there at exactly four o'clock. Just chill. Enjoy the boat ride, okay?" he said. Carnival smiled, rolling his eyes a little.

"Easier said than done, Al. Thanks. Bye," he said. He tucked the phone back into the pocket of his jeans. He glanced at the captain, who was steering and looking out like someone had just peed on his parade. Carnival ignored him, knocking some his unstyled hair out of the way and leabing the cabin. He walked back to where everyone else was seated, or standing, looking out at the scenery. Ah, hell with the scenery, Carnival had seen it all before. He sat down on one of the built in benches, crossing his legs and tapping his white sneakers. He was rather warm, his choice of a white Abercrombie polo not keeping him as cool as he wished.

He glanced at the other people around him, huffed, and pulled his phone out to check his voicemail.

[Mina Garciapara]

Mina, who barely spoke Spanish, could hear something was obviously amuck, but then again who couldn't hear it when he screamed like a banshee and then made such an entrance out onto the deck. She swore the whole boat shook when he flopped down on a bench and sighed out while calling someone, or something with his phone. Her eyes, although laid on the paper, slowly and secretively inched over to his perfected shoes that were so, well perfect, that he could be seen from space. His pants, perfect, shirt, even more perfect, his face, Mina looked back at the paper, raising an eyebrow like she did not just think of what she just thought. Attractive clothing and an even more attractive face meant nothing but trouble, and it was highly apparent that this man was considering his little tantrum.

Mina cleared her throat for no apparent reason, just because she felt she needed to, and flipped the paper back to the front page to look at the pretty smiling faces plastered in black and white. How she loved the people of Peru and Brazil, so friendly, so full of life. A smile crossed her face as she began to read about some developement happening soon, but curiosity had always a problem for her and she had to glance up at the man sitting right across from her, not even seven feet away he was apparently annoyed with something, ferry mess up aside, he just had that look of annoyance plastered on him, and the way he moved his hanging foot. Gay. She thought to herself as she pretened to read again.

Straight men don't dress like that. He has to be gay. Being a retired model, those clothes on straight men were few and far behind. This man just walked out of a vogue magazine! Mina came to her senses and frowned, no need to go hating on this man, although she wasn't fond of people who complained over their mistakes. Suddenly, seeing one of the faces in the picture, she definitely came to her senses. She pulled the paper up to her nose as if she couldn't really see and recognized the pixelated face. It was of the man sitting directly across from her. She let out a snicker of amusement at this find. This man, who was worth lots of money according to the paper and who had a familiar name, definitely did not need to be on a small ferry on the Amazon River in 87 degree heat, severe humidity, with mosquitos and insects buzzing around his pretty little head. Either way, as horrible as it was to think, Mina found it quite a funny coincidence.

[Carnival Auf]

Carnival heard the laughter from the woman across from him. He glanced up once, ignored her strange appearance, and figured she must not be right in the head. Giggling for no reason? Who did that, except someone who heard voices others could not. He had to smile to himself however. For as hot and muggy as it was out here, he couldn't deny it was pretty. But Carnival Auf had seen all this sort of thing before. He was all but dead to "prettiness" or "beauty" he'd seen the most beautiful things go to waste, and now, it meant nothing to him anymore.

Carnival's money marred his actual personality. Because he had money, everyone assumed he was a spoiled rich brat. Which, in some instances was not untrue. He was the first to admit that his comfort zone was quite demanding, and he always got annoyed at little things going wrong, driving him to be a little bitchy at times. And maybe he was a little more overbearing than he realized, but if half the people who judged him had to do the crap he did every day, they'd be a little bitchy now and then too.

Carnival tucked his phone away in his satchel, digging around in his other things to find his wallet. He didn't know if the next ferry would take American money--as the guy at the last ferry was rather grumbly about it--so he had to see if he had enough South American hard cash to get him another ferry out of this place. The sooner he left the sooner he could meet his new business partners, the sooner he could get back to Manhattan and continue his life there. Why his father sent him on these mission trips was beyond Carnival. Of course, he was the public face of Auf Contracting Company, but he certainly didn't make contracts. But he guessed he could do it, since his father was wanting to retire soon and leave the company.

It didn't mean he had to like it.

[Mina Garciapara]

Mina's face burned with a bit of embarassment, feeling the look the guy gave her was almost the equivalent to having the skin melt off her face. He apparently felt the need to look at what she was laughing at, if he saw the paper she was almost certain he knew she was laughing at him, if not...he probably thought she was off in her own little world. She raised an eyebrow and stood, she'd rather him think she was weird rather than knowing she was laughing at a really not so funny predicament for someone so prominent.

She leaned over the bench and grabbed her camera out of her bag, if she was going to enjoy the beauty of this trip she might as well take some photographs of her ride there, the Amazon was only one of the worlds largest! Not like one saw it everyday. She sighed out as she pulled off the lens cap and turned it on, looking at the sunrays peeking through the branches that hung low to the water, almost like a canopy. She sighed as she figured it would be hard to find animal life on a moving boat, but reptilian life was all around her, alligators lounging on the banks was something they had been warned about prior to setting sail. Not like this boat was going to be getting near them anyhow, but still feeding them was not really the smartest thing to do.

Mina pulled the camera to her left eye and took some pictures of the trees and the sun being cascaded through them, pretty scenery, but she couldn't help but wonder what migh lurk in the deep brown river. Her mind mentally asked anyone if they had seen <i>Anaconda</i>. Fifty foot snakes with a killer apetite for human was something she was definitely not wanting to see anytime soon on this little trip. Again she grinned, lowering her camera to look to the left to find two older men, probably in their forties, playing a game of chess on one of the breakfast tables. She had remembered speaking with one of them, they both were archeologists, like her mother, going on a historical dig at the small village to preserve history. She lifted the camera and manually zoomed in on them, taking pictures rapidly. She moved on to the other people, two members of her crew, a small group of people mingling, a few women and two men, whether they were together or just chatting unknown to her. She slowly found the camera lens focusing in on the young man from the paper looking into his snazzy satchel. Fortunately she had the ability to make it look like she was photographing something over his shoulder, when in reality she was zooming in slowly on the side of his oh-so-perfect face.

She liked his nose, really like it, it was very well shapen in proportion to his face, it was really cute. Strange, she had never really paid much attention to that part of the body before, but somehow his striked her as something very well shapen and really adorable. She let ot a small laugh again as she took the picture of him, her mind having breifly skimmed over the other things she like such as his adam's apple, his full pink lips, the small laugh lines that were soft and showed signs of being used well, nice shapen jaw...amongst many other things a brain might be able to say within a minute of focusing and admiration. She sighed out and glanced down at her camera seeing she had fifteen photographs left. She raised it to her eye again, focusing on the background and the small frown the man made, developing two soft creases inbetween his eyebrows that were nicely shapen, probably waxed.

<i>Click-whir-click-whir</i>. She caught him in motion of doing something and that made her happy, she always loved holding down the button and taking multiple pictures to catch the motions in people's actions, gave it a more dramatic effect. She wanted to see what they looked like, but sadly she didn't like digital camera's for fear of taking away the true art form of photography and all the hard work that was put into it.

[Carnival Auf]

Carnival had glanced up, seeing that the woman seemed to be a photographer, due to the make and model of her camera. His best friend was a photographer, and he suddenly had more respect for this perfect stranger. He looked back down in his bag, not looking for anything in particular, just trying to pass the time.

It was hot as a mother out here, he was sweating. He dropped his satchel to his feet and fanned his shirt a little, wiping the back of his hand over his furrowed brow, the sheen of sweat on his face beginning to make him feel sticky. He had never been an outdoors sort of person, as he had always been inside, studying, or learning, or being yelled at by his father. The thought gave him a sticky sour taste in his mouth. His father had good intentions, but no concept of what actual love was. At least not a love a father would give his son.

Carnival shook his head, leaning back against the the back of the bench and looking over the side of the boat. The trees above them, lush and green, like a living ceiling for their muddy, brown, ever-moving floor. His ex girlfriend had always loved the Amazon, having visited several times. The only other time he had visited had been with her, and the pleasant week had ended in a fight that made her go home early. He'd come back to New York to find her screwing one of his employees.

Needless to say, the Amazon held all his bad memories.

He glanced over again, seeing the woman snapping pictures and he couldn't help but smile. He wondered breifly if she was using colored film or black and white. Carnival himself knew nothing about photography, drawing, painting or anything that really had to do with art. He loved art musuems and could give you text book information on it, but he was not highly educated on art forms, and could certainly never hope to partake in them, much to his dismay. He was a math guy. Not an art guy.

[Mina Garciapara]

Mina dropped the camera after lifting it to her eye to take just one more little picture of him, but when she was faced with his eyes looking at her, she somehow couldn't push the button to take the photograph. For some reason Mina felt funny, like she was invading his privacy somehow, but she was sure this man's privacy was always being invaded if he were a rich business tycoon, or whatever it was the paper had said. She looked away and turned around to go back to her bench putting her camera up in the bag so her film wouldn't begin to melt or have the heat deform the rolls. She zipped it up and grinned, the man really had a nice face.

She glanced over her shoulder at him, not caring if he noticed, it was an observation like any other she figured, to not seem like a stalker kind of person, a light hearted conversation would be at hand? Some reason, however, despite being miss Chatty Kathy, she felt there was this wall between the two before anything had even been shared, not that she was the sharing type of person. She smiled softly at him, and looked back at her bag for a moment to fix a snag in the zipper then looked back at him. He was sweating profusely and judging by the way he plucked his shirt to get some air flow he needed to be wearing something a little lighter.

"Not partial to heat, I see?" She smiled, it was an icebreaker to say the least, but she could have at least been more clever! She sighed and sat down on the bench and glanced at his shirt to see it was designer, nice, expensive, then back to his face. The money he had could just be seen on his face, this man should have owned his own boat.

[Carnival Auf]

Carnival was a little surprised when the woman spoke to him, he guessed he wasn't prepared to be spoken to, as it seemed not many people liked to be friendly to the guy with the designer clothes. Whatever, he loved people, any opportunity to talk to a new person was an opportunity he would take.

"No," he said, smiling warmly. "I'm usually stuck in an air conditioned office. But I'd say it's good to get out every now and then, especially somewhere as beautiful as this. It's not like you get to go to the Amazon every day, right?" he asked, chuckling good-naturedly, his natural talkative nature beginning to come out now that someone was talking to him. He paused a moment to lean forward and lean his elbows on his knees. He eyed her camera case, trying to see the label. He couldn't however, not without his glasses on. He glanced back up at her.

"You're a photographer, I see," he said. "I'm no good with the stuff, but my best friend is. What kind of camera do you use?"

[Mina Garciapara]

Well! That was a sure surprise for Mina, she was half expecting him to snub her, not talk to her, or be slightly rude, but he exuded warmth and she liked that. She smiled, glancing at her camera bag.

"Uh, it's a Canon EOS. 35 mil, it allows great speed and silence as well as high quality photographs." She laughed lightly as she recalled all the scratches, dents, a small pieces of plastic missing from the corners all due to hard usage. The times she had run away from wild animals and jumped onto her camera to get away alive were all shown on the hardware of the camera and as silly as it sounded, to Mina, that camera was sentimental.

"Need a new one though." She began to unzip the bag and pulled out her camera, immediately investigating and putting out all the signs of apparent damage. She looked up at him, leaning forward on his knees her eyes catching a small bead of sweat literally dripping down his neck in a small trail, this man was really attractive and his voice was nice, carried well.

"I am," She said responding to his observation of being a photographer. "I, uh, work for National Geographic Magazine taking pictures of the wildlife." She smiled and held out her dingy camera. "Wanna look?" She shrugged a shoulder as she held it out in front of her, mimicking his own stance. "I dunno how interested you are in photography, but if you wanna look at it..."

[Carnival Auf]

Carnival lit up. He nodded, taking the camera gingerly. It appeared to be a peice of equipment she used often, and it had been well loved. He observed it, enjoying the curves and the way it looked. He had always admired photographers for their skill. Give him a throwaway camera and he wobbled all over the place, he had chronic shaky hands and was doomed to a life of crooked pictures. So he loved watching photographers do their art.

"It's beautiful," he said, proferring it back to her. He nodded. "A photographer for National Geographic, huh? That sounds like a great job. I'll bet you get to go all kinds of places, for your pictures," he observed. He leaned back a little, extending his hand for hers.

"I'm Carnival Auf."

[Mina Garciapara]

Mina smiled as she took it back, not only was he pretty to look at, nice to photograph, but he was completely opposite of what she was expecting and that was absolutely wonderful! She figured the two would be killing each other within minutes of talking simply because she knew what people were like who wer rich. It was a nice change, although she wouldn't put it past him that this was just a little show to seem nice, rich people, she had learned, were perpetual butt kissers trying to get on everyone's good side until you did something wrong or something they didn't like or understand.

She zipped the bag up and heard him state his name and for a moment she almost laughed. <i>Carnival?</i> She smiled instead of publicly embarassing herself by laughing in his face. Mina reached out her hand and took it into her own and gave it a firm, yet not so death grippish, shake.

"Carnival," She repeated as she slit her eyes for a moment to let the word simmer in her brain, dropping his hand. "That is a very interesting name I must say! But, I like it." She paid him a compliment, although her mind was dishing out many the longer she stared and talked to him. "I'm Mina Garciapara."

She looked around at a few people because she could and it gave her something to do aside from stare at the man she met, afterall she had done it quite enough for her liking. Mina's eyes managed to travel back to Carnival and she softly frowned as she nodded her head slightly.

"Your name sounds familiar, really, then again..." She leaned back and turned slightly and grabbed the paper she had been reading and flipped the front towards him so he could see his own face. "According to this, you are quite the popular man!" She smiled.

[Carnival Auf]

Carnival furrowed his brow, taking the paper and looking at it. He sighed and grinned, nodding as he handed it back to her. He leaned back again, wiping off his brow once more. The heat was a little much for him.

"Yes, unfortunately my job has made me so," he said jokingly. He pointed to the paper. "My, uh, dad owns that business, I'm set to take over in two-thousand eight, so...everyone wants a peice of the new Auf kid," he said, shaking his head. He smiled. He paused a moment, his mind returning to their exchanging of names.

"Mina Garciapara?" he asked. "That's a beautiful name."

[Mina Garciapara]

Mina laughed light heartedly and leaned off her knees, dragging her palms across her thighs as she reclined on the boats wooden siding. She shrugged and downplayed his own compliment.

"It is a mouthful, that is certain." She smiled, the pleasantries being exchanged somehow boosting her morale for the 48 hour journey, she had been dreading sitting on a boat in such humidity and heat despite the amazing things she'd catch on camera. Although used to different weather patterns, it never failed to annoy her from place to place, but she kept it to herself figuring she'd have to pay some sort of price for wanting to do her job.

"I don't speak that much spanish," She stated after a moment of silence, save that of the traveling voices that mixed in with the nice sounds of the wildlife in the forest and the annoying chug of the ferry. She swore this thing had to be at least 20 years old. "I only could pick up few words that lead me to believe you were popular." She reclined more on the boat by putting both her arms on the railing behind her getting some air that she definitely wanted despite the dark green tank top and khaki pants.

"What are you doing on this boat? I figured a man of your stature and prestige, as well as the clothes you are wearing, you'd have your own private boat ride to the small village. Do you like taking the long drawn out ride?" Mina frowned softly, she knew he had missed his boat, but she was pretending not to be an eavesdropper, plus she would love to hear what he had to say about this two day trip cause he certainly did not look ready for such an event.

[Carnival Auf]

Carnival smiled. He ran his hand through his hair before answering, trying to think of the shortest answer.

"Well, long story short, I missed the boat I was supposed to be on and got confused, getting on this one. Now I'm gonna catch one in the next town," he paused a moment, glancing down at himself, nodding at her comment about his clothing. "I was actually set to meet a potential business partner later this evening, and the clothes were to at least be presentable. But when I missed the boat, they got kind of hot..." he smiled, rubbing his forehead. He shrugged. "I'm not much of a fashionista to begin with, and it's been three years since I'd been here, so...I couldn't exactly remember the kind of weather I'd be dealing with." He paused.

"So you're here on business? Anything in particular you are photographing?"

[Mina Garciapara]

Mina smiled at him. She liked him so far, and she was enjoying the moment of staring at him without seeming to be like a stalker. Her ability to size him up was something she was enjoying, however she figurd pretty soon she'd have to avoid him all together considering she was enjoying what her mind was making of him. She thought he was nice person, far more than she had ever expected, then again she always tried to find the beest in people and always thought they were all good at heart, but that sometimes ended up being wrong and she ended up looking like the dumb one.

"That I am," She finally responded while pushing back a strand of hair that was curling due to the horrible humidity. "I am taking pictures of the wildlife and natives in the small village." She nodded and looked to her right after a moment, staring up ahead at the river. The sun was blazing on the sparkling brown river without prejudice, pretty soon she figured the tycoon would have to go for some shelter as well as change into some different clothes, lighter clothes preferably, then again she wasn't his fashion consultant.

Mina turned her attention back to Carnival and grinned, busying her mind with sudden infatuations with his face. After a moment of enjoying the scenery, i.e Carnival, she slowly stood up grabbing the strap of her camera bag.

"I am going to go find my room," She stated. "You should do the same, when we hit that opening you'll end up having a heatstroke and believe me," Mina looked around and slightly leaned in to be more intimate with the man, "their so-called medical expert is also the cook, maid, and plumber." She let out a light laugh.

"I'll see you in a while."

[Carnival Auf]

And so, Mina Garciapara was right. When they hit that opening, Carnival went running for shelter in his room. Not that his room was any cooler. In fact, if it was 150 degrees on the top of the boat, in the bottom it was 200 degrees.

"I thought heat was supposed to rise..." he murmured to himself as he stripped down to nothing in his room and fanned himself for awhile before changing into something much lighter, shorts and a wifebeater, the sneakers staying. Although nothing was namebrand now, at least he was mildly comfortable and could contact the people he needed to contact in peace.

First he called Al, to see if they had been able to get a different time set up with Huna and his lackeys. Gladly, they had. Then it was calling his laywer to see how their business matters were going whilst he was gone. And then it was to call daddy and mommy dearest to see how they were holding up. His mother seemed well, she was horseback riding as she always seemed to be doing these days, and his father was working on some of the finances in his absence.

So far the Auf Company hadn't gone bankrupt yet while he was gone. He was sure it could hold up another day or so.

[Mina Garciapara]

Mina opened up her incredibly small window, the screen having holes from God knows what, dead moths in the very small closet and the bed was just a small sleeping bag filled with feathers, a stained pillow and an orange wool blanket with moth holes. She sighed out as she pulled her hair back into a better ponytail, allowing the back of her neck to have some air hit it, although the room's air supply felt incredibly thin and almost non existent.

Mina figured, though, she had slept in worse conditions. She yawned as she glanced out the window seeing an alligator sliding into the water. For a moment she thought about rushing to her camera bag and tkaing a photo, but she had seen alligator's before and figured that wasn't anything different. When was dinner, she wondered? Even better, what was for dinner? She moved away from the window and walked over to her bed and sat down, hearing the coils creak with age and rust as she glanced at the other two twin beds in the small room. Thankfully she only had two of her partners with her and they'd be sleeping with her, if it was anyone else she might die.

After a moment of relaxing in the small, cramped, hot room she walked to the door and pulled the door handle, but to her dismay the door wasn't opening. Mina frowned and looked at the handle, trying to see if she locked it, but no it was perfectly unlocked. She pulled again and shook the door, apparently this place wasn't as classy as she had thought, but the moment the door came open, a piece of the door jam did as well. Mina laughed lightly as she bent down and grabbed the termite infested wood and walked out of her room, tossing it overboard as she made her way down the walkway to find out what was for dinner.

[Carnival Auf]

Unfortunately, Carnival was stuck with two roommates who knew eachother. One was an older man, perhaps in his forties, not very talkative, and obviously a bit resenting of having to share a room with a complete stranger. The other was younger, at least seventeen, at most nineteen. He was quite obviously more familiar with this place than Carnival, as he spoke perfect Spanish and could have told their latitude and longitude exactly. He was kind however, and immediately took to Carnival, asking him a thousand questions, wanting to know how many times he's been to the Amazon, if he was married, and whether or not he had brothers and sisters.

As invasive as having the two rommies were, at least they didn't give Carnival the impression he was going to be molested in the middle of the night, and he quite liked the younger boy--Truth was his name, but he said everyone called him Tru--and the older man didn't seem unfriendly, just not talkative.

The informed him that dinner was sometimes around six, and would probably be something his palate would not like, considering Carnival did come from a place where he ate the best food. Or even if it wasn't the best, he was certain of the origins and knew it was well-cooked.

In this case...no one was really sure...

[Mina Garciapara]

Mina sauntered around the boat, not taking any pictures, but wishing she had after viewing certain events, one was when the cook got slapped in the face by a fish he was trying to reel in. Mina ended up chatting with him, but he hadn't been very good with english, but still, it was an enticing and interesting conversation. The only thing she had to complain about was his immense smell of body odor and alcohol. She had, at least, found out they were eating salted beef and biscuits, but she knew a guy who knew a guy and those two things were not going to be pleasant. The meat was smelly and tasted funny and the biscuits were hard, her friend said he lost a tooth when biting into it. Needless to say, Mina had no appetite.

Mina wandered around for about an hour, somehow not running into anyone in particular, realizing that it was nearing dusk and the mosquitos were ridiculously hungry this evening. She heard the boat making a loud grumble followed by a curse coming from the captain's den, she walked by it to find the glass encased room smokey from something. It left her a little disheartened on this trip all together. Mina figured she would be taking another boat back to where she came from.