Anezza put on the strange dress, feeling... well... not comfortable in it exactly, though certainly a little more at ease. She returned to her home, slipping in through the small bed room window, with a gentle push of her legs. For a moment, she thought of Peter Pan, doing the same- though there was nobody in this room to greet her, just her shadow.
As a child, she used to like that story. Not that she ever read it recently or thought of it in her adult years, though maybe it had more parallel to her then she thought. She wasn't a child, but she had lost more then half her natural age...
She breezed through the hall way, so quietly it was quite a shock of her parents to see her sneak into the kitchen. They smiled, and said a few unintelligible words to her, and Anneza simply nodded gesturing to her re-claimed dress. At least she could guess what the first thing people asked.
After settling in to a little dinner, Anneza barely said a word to them much to the concern and confusion of her parents. Her mother was trying to gesture something to the newspapers, but Anneza couldn't read it. She gave her best angry expression she could to her mother and she let the topic- whatever it was, slide.
With dinner over, her father decided to watch the television with her mother. It was... kind of nice to see them together like that. So many years together, when all he had seen are people split apart after less then ten. She vowed to never fall in love. Though.. it also made her sad, when she though about it. Now that she was a young woman, she couldn't... well... it just could never happen. Even if she could talk their language again, she shared her life with nobody,
Still, that was what she wanted wasn't it? (was...) Her legacy was (was...) going to be her company...
Now... she had none. No legacy, and on her obituary it would read...
some girl.
Anezza cringed at that, clutching her fist. No! Never... she... wouldn't allow it! Damn it! She couldn't even get a job at a coffee shop like this!
She flew back to the living room which had been makeshift for her personal use. A bed-sofa had been laid out and a few of he small posessions. She took out a sheet of paper, and pen... and tried to think.
'Come on Anneza, you used to be great at business. This is... no different to a business crisis. What do we do when faced with a crisis?' She had to make a plan. No.. wait, she had to first work out what the situation was. Don't react, analyse... that's where many people fail. Planning a situation before taking a step back and just.. thinking. Otherwise one can plan their fall all the way down a cliff.
She started to note down how to best... well... interpret what has happened to her, from the perspective of a business transaction.
'Maybe treat it as someone investing in you, rather then punishing you?'
She might as well, she thought. It's a crazy thought.. but.. why not?
'Okay... so I've been put in charge of a new business by... something. I am my own employer... there is only one person in this business. Me. It is no different to how I started when I was this age last time.' She wrote a box at the top, with her name on it. 'Hm... maybe I could give the company a name?' She liked the idea of that. Indeed it could only be named after her.
So that was done... now, What service did she provide? How could she gain money? What were her strengths... weaknesses.. opportunity... and of course, what was the threat? Those were the pillars of business. She wrote: 5.^./\.@, in flowing, almost angular writing.
'My job is to be Anneza,' she said sadly.
She didn't want it to be... but maybe it was best to be 'a job' for now. It was too difficult to call it 'a life'... not yet. Maybe... maybe some day, but not yet. Being a space girl was a job. An extremely difficult job, that someone had to do (apparently). She noted this down too as she formed her 'company'.
'My strengths... I can fly to the stars. I can go physically, anywhere.' When she wrote that down, it certainly seemed like a damn big strength. She noted down that she was younger too.
'My weaknesses... I no longer understand human language, or even their culture. The way they keep time is alien to me as is their mathematics. I can not use their strange mechanical vehicles, and it takes effort to step on the ground. I require... special clothes.'
Urgh! Star-fall laments! This list was longer. There was also the fact that she was a girl, and once a month was going to be 'very' unproductive. All a weakness in her mind, horrible cruel weakness of her new biology. Just that alone made her sick to think about. Maybe there was some way to stop it. Pills or injections, anything! But she was getting ahead of herself.
Okay... well... no problem. It's all part of the process. 'Just keep going Anneza,' she said to herself.
Opportunity. She wrote the words in bold. She could... take pictures of other worlds? Wait no, of course not. Cameras were fragile in space. It wouldn't work. Besides there had to be something more 'down to earth', which is where the 'market' existed. What exactly did Anneza have that constituted an opportunity? What part of her nature could she embrace? She came back to the fact that she was younger and had 'time' now for many things. She also thought back to the children she nearly hurt- and wanted to in some way, make it up to them.
Maybe... she could be an entertainer? Maybe.. .eventually... be on the television in some way? It... it would be nice to make children smile, instead of being afraid of her. Children's television had become severely neglected of late, and if it is one thing Anneza could be it was... entertaining. Perhaps she could even use her language in it? It might look very surreal... the internet made it very easy to record a film for 'anyone'.
Slowly Anneza formed her business plan. She would create a few short films on a camera, of 'Anneza the space girl', 'doing things' on Earth. An alien visitor, that could bring a smile as she tried to learn about the human world. It wasn't that far from her real life, if truth was told. Still that was quite a long term thought. She would have to start small- maybe record making various foods in a cooking show? Then again, she had no idea how well her palette translated to Earth-people.
The analysis was almost complete... just the final phase.
Threats... what would destroy her business? Anneza sighed. No threats. Just... failure. Her tapes could be laughed out. She was certain she could communicate her intentions to any network... but if she failed, she would... try something else.
