Her

“So….How long have you worked here?” You ask, cringing inside at the awkward small talk, you are pretty far out of your comfort zone right now.

She doesn’t seem to notice though, as you grabs a hand full of paper from the beside the sink and starts to clean herself up.

“There isn’t much to tell really,”She replies. “I grew up out in the suburbs.”

You feel like you are on safer ground here so you begin to ask the usual questions about her life. You quickly find out that she has three sisters, one older and two younger, and a brother who lives overseas. She is studying at the local college to be a Systems Analysts and she has been thinking about maybe spending a gap year out in China.

As you talk you pay close attention to the little details of the world, she doesn’t talk much about the kinds of things you want to know. Namely why the world is the way it is or why there are so few men around but you do learn some interesting facts.

For one thing she mentions that it is hard for women to get a Visa to go to China, although she adds that it is apparently easier than getting into Russia. From what she says you make a guess that they must be places where the lack of men is felt more keenly.

The rest of what she says doesn’t really tell you all that much about why things are the way they are in this world. Really the main thing you learn is just how similar your worlds are in most respects. Aside from the obvious things it seems like the world is in much the same state as yours for better and worse.

After what feels like far far too little time she has to head back to work and you are left wondering what to do now. It seems like there is more you could learn about this world but part of you is also aware that the portal that brought you here may not stay open forever. Not to mention the fact that if the police stop you they will find you have no records what so ever, which could cause you some serious problems.

Standing out on the street again you recall that she had mentioned something about a museum nearby that you could visit to get some more info. Although right now you kind of want to just try and get back home.