"It scares me," Alice admitted quietly, voice little more than a whisper, as she allowed him to help her to her feet. Her clothing - a long skirt that was still covered in the dirt-crusted sand from the place she'd been calling home the past few years - and a blouse that was a little too big for her - made her feel somewhat embarrassed now that she had calmed down enough to realize what she was wearing. She had shoes on, thank goodness, and of course no socks, but out of the entire ensemble the shoes were the only thing that looked halfway decent. And that was only because Alice had been given them by a kind old woman who hailed from a nearby town. She had gotten lost in a random storm that wasn't Alice's fault, and Alice had helped her find the road again. As thanks, she'd been given shoes that actually fit properly.
Her thoughts flickered from her appearance, to what the man beside her was saying, with a bit of a start as his words finally registered. "That's..." She wanted to say impossible, but she knew that very little was truly impossible. Improbable, yes. But not really impossible.
So instead she did the math as best she could in her head and murmured, "It's been over forty years. I-"
There was a gust of wind that picked up, causing her skirt to twist around her legs, and the teenager wrapped her arms around her midsection as she dropped her gaze to the ground and her thoughts inward rather than burden the veritable stranger beside her with them.