Chapter 22: Guardian Angel

"You jumped off the train?" Peter asked with the greatest of surprise, almost spilling his drink.

"Yes, I did. I had to," Sharon answered.

"But, weren't you worried that you might die from the impact of the fall?" Peter asked.

"Of course, I was, but l knew I had a better chance with the ground than with Addicus' men. I wasn't going to go with them quietly which meant that would have had to kill me," she added.

"I really want to ask you if you died from that but you clearly didn't so instead I'll ask. How did you survive?" Peter wondered.

"I barely did. But it seemed I had a guardian angel watching over me."

**BACK TO THREE YEARS AGO...

Sharon jumped off the train and with heavy impact, crashed into the hard ground.

She rolled up and over, spinning and crashing into plants and rocks. Unfortunately for her, she didn't land on sand or a flat and even terrain but on the slope of a small hill.

She finally came to a stop at the expense of a hard blow to the head by a rock that lay on the field.

She was down and out. She lay still on the grass with bruises all over her body and a huge wound on her head. She was slowly bleeding to her death and only a miracle could save her.

That miracle came in the form of a young Greyhound. The dog ran up to Sharon, licked her, and let out a bark to signify to its owner that it had found something. A man and a little boy walked up to the dog.

"What is it, girl? Did you find something?" The man asked the dog who only barked towards Sharon's direction.

"Daddy, it's a person," The little boy said and pointed to her.

The man moved closer to her and assessed her wounds, "She's in a very critical state. We have to get her home and take care of her if she's to survive this," he said.

The two **"Good Samaritans"** took Sharon to their home and began nursing her.

The man's wife was shocked when she saw her husband carrying what seemed to her was a dead body but was relieved when he mentioned that she was still alive.

Sharon was unconscious for more than three days while the kind family nursed her back to health.

Her fever was finally gone and her temperature was more stable. She started to open her eyes and when she did, was disoriented and her sight was blurry.

"Dad! Mom! She's waking up," The little boy yelled out to his parents who ran into the room.

The woman walked over to her side and placed a hand on her head to check her temperature and smiled in relief.

"Where...where am I? And who are you people?" Sharon managed to ask.

"Hello, my dear. My name's Roseline and this is my husband, Bright and this is our son, Jeffery," she said and pointed to her family to show who was whom.

"How did I get here?"

"My son and husband found you wounded in the fields and brought you here where we treated you," Roseline said.

"Actually, Vikky found you!" The little boy, Jeffery suddenly said.

"Who's Vikky?" Sharon asked, feeling confused because there wasn't a fourth person in the room.

"Vikky's our dog," The man, Bright said.

"What happened to you, my dear? How did you get on that field and in that condition?" Roseline asked.

She seemed like a kind, decent, and hard-working woman who cared not just for her family but for anyone

who needed her help.

Sharon felt safe with her close by because Roseline reminded her a lot of her mum.

"It's a long story. I was being chased so I jumped off the train to get away," She said tiredly.

"You jumped off a train? You must have been desperate to escape your pursuers," Roseline said.

"Yes, I was. They would have killed me," she was starting to fall back asleep.

"It's okay, my dear. You're safe here. Rest now and we'll talk when you're feeling better,"

Sharon went back to sleep and the family left her in the room and went outside.

"Jeffrey, go and get the chickens back in their sheds," his father instructed.

"Ok, Dad. Come on Vikky," The boy called out to the dog and they ran off to round up the chickens.

After he was far enough, Bright turned to his wife and Roseline, knowing her husband so well, already knew what he was going to say.

"We can't make her leave in her current condition. She needs to get better before she can go anywhere," she said to him before he even spoke.

"You heard her, Rose. She's being chased by God knows who and they want to kill her and she was desperate enough to jump off a moving train to get away from them which means they'll probably still be looking for her and it's only a matter of time before they track her here," Bright said in almost a whisper.

*He was a cautious and simple man. He had simple problems and every day tried to find simple solutions.*

This problem on the other hand, in the shape of Sharon, wasn't simple. After listening to her, he only deduced that her presence here might put his family in danger.

"So, you just want to send her away, in her condition?" Roseline was appalled by her husband's suggestion.

"We don't have a choice," he said.

Just then, Jeffery and the dog were returning. They had rounded up all of the chickens.

"We'll finish this conversation later," Bright said to his wife and went into the house.

"Is everything okay, Mum? Dad seemed upset?" Jeffery asked his mother.

"Your dad's not upset dear. Everything is fine. Go to your room and get yourself ready for dinner," Roseline said.

"Yes, Mum," Jeffery replied and walked off.