Lost Then Found

We waited the ten minutes for what I asked for us and then after the guy left it was just me and her again. She looked at the bag in my hand and then back to me. “So…that’s it?” she said to me, her head tilted a little.

“Yup, this is the stuff. Now that I told you everything while we waited, we can just get right to it if you want” I replied to her calmly.

“Sure!” she said back to me before grabbing the bowl off the table and then grabbing the bag from me. I opened my mouth to protest, but she obviously was a really quick learner, because she was picking it apart and putting it into the bowl. After she was done she set the bag down and got the lighter and put the bowl up to her mouth and inhaled as she lit the plant on fire.

While she was busy with that there was a knock at the door. I got up and walked over to it and looked out the peep hole to see who it was. What was out there surprised me; there was a girl. She looked very pretty and well kept, and her beautiful maroon hair ran past her shoulders. She was wearing a dark green dress with black leggings and flip flops on her feet. She looked right at the peep hole and I could have sworn she saw me looking through because she smiled wider and her face lit up with joy for some reason.

I opened the door and she ran in and hugged me tightly, burying her face into my chest and rubbing it back and forth. “Ezekiel…Ezekiel…I finally found you. I…finally found you Kiel” she said to me over and over as she pressed herself closer and closer to me.

I pulled her away for a moment. I don’t ever recall seeing this girl before, but yet she knows my name and says that she finally found me. Did I know her from somewhere? “Yes, you found me. Umm, how do you know who I am anyways?” I asked her as I led her inside; she had piqued my curiosity.

“You…you mean you don’t remember? It was 12 years ago, when we were both 8” she said to me before she sighed and looked out the window of the balcony. She looked really sad then, and what she said to me made me start thinking.

Past

As I thought, pieces began to come back. The only thing major that happened that year to me was…my mother and father’s passing away from a car accident. Neither group was to blame; it was the weather conditions that played the fatal role. I remember the impact, and after everything was over and seeing my father’s hand holding my mother’s as they sat forward on the dashboard of the car, then I remembered something else, hearing crying.

I remembered unbuckling my seatbelt and falling sideways onto the broken glass and shell of the car and pulling myself out of the smashed window to the outside. I looked around and tried to figure out where the crying was coming from. I saw the damage done by both cars, and I looked at the other car and saw a woman lying halfway out of the windshield. Then I heard the crying again, and I knew it was coming from the other car.

I slowly walked over to the other car, and when I got there… I looked to the girl with a soft smile. “Come on; let’s get you out of there. It’s not safe, let’s wait for help to come over there on that picnic bench” I said to her before I unbuckled her seatbelt and took her gently out of the car and walked her over to the bench.

Present

“Oh Lurina, I never thought I’d see you again. I missed you so much” I said to Lura with a soft smile.

“Oh Kiel, I finally found you after all this time…I…I missed you so much. When my father took me away to move on, I never forgot you, and I made a vow to myself that I would find you again one day and repay you for all the kindness you gave me. I…I really found you Kiel” she said to me before she reached over and wrapped her arms around me and buried her face in my chest again. “I finally found you…I found you.”

I was dumbstruck as she hugged me. How did she find me? Where is her father now? Why does she keep reinforcing that she found me finally? I didn’t know what else to really do, so I put one hand on her long, beautiful hair and rubbed back and forth slowly. “Everything will be ok now” I said to her before hugging her tightly.

RD was looking at us through the doorway. After a moment she walked up to us and looked Lura over. Then she looked back to me, her face looking off. “Eze, I never knew that you had another girl who likes you…should I leave…” she said to me softly, her face turning a little redder and tears welling up in the corner of her eyes.

“NO! I don’t want you to leave, why would you say such a thing?” I retorted back, she eased up her tension a little and then even smiled briefly. “Dash, this is Lurina or Lura for short as I called her way back in our childhood before things changed. You have nothing to worry about Dash.” I took a breath and turned to Lura, who was just gripping my shirt harder and burying her face deeper into my chest, she would look over at Rainbow Dash, and then hide using me as cover. “Lurina, if you don’t mind, I have a few questions for you” I said to her softly.

“Ok…Eze” Lura replied, her voice very small and shy.

“Lura, where is your father? I would think he’d be worried sick about you” I asked her first. She looked a little brighter for a moment, and even flashed me the tiniest grin. I could feel my heart starting to melt in my chest as she looked up at me with the tiny smile.

“I…I…I needed you, so I followed my dream of one day seeing you again, and with that dream, I found confidence. I told my father I was leaving to go out and experience the world. He didn’t look to be buying it, so I had to ask if he really knew what was going on, but he beat me and answered before I could even ask” she replied, her voice still soft-spoken. She took a breath “He knew what I was doing, and it didn’t help that I kept telling him one day when I was older I would leave to find you. So he knew right when I was leaving. He seemed happy, and didn’t object to me leaving.”

“Ok, as long as you didn’t make him worry about you” I said to Lura before I pulled away from her embrace. She didn’t object, and then she looked over to Rainbow Dash, who was looking at her with a soft smile. “Lurina, meet Rainbow Dash, she isn’t from around here, and she’s staying with me seeing as she has nowhere else to go.”

Lura smiled a little “It’s…nice to meet you Rainbow Dash; I hope that we can be friends too; if that’s ok with you I mean…” Lura said softly, but her blue eyes shining bright.

“I hope we can be friends too Lura, I’d like that” RD replied to the girl. ‘She better not try to make a competition out of this, because I’ll make sure she loses’ Dash thought as she smiled widely. Dash thought about how much her and Eze have been through, and knew that he still loved her, she knew it.

“Well Lura, we need to decide what we’re going to do with you till you get on your feet. You can stay here with us until you find a place if you want. Do you have any sort of income?”  I said to her quizzically.

“…Yes, I will be getting money in the mail tomorrow. I don’t know how much, but I know it will allow me to sustain myself till I get a job” she replied, the little smile of hers returning for a few moments.

“Ok, that’s good. So, we have room for one more here on the fold out bed on the couch, would you like that? It’s only for a day then Dash and I are going to be leaving tomorrow for Laguna Beach, California tomorrow afternoon. You could always buy a ticket when you get the money and come out and start fresh with us. Dash has to live with me, but I wouldn’t mind having you in the condo next to me if you want. We could all get to know each other a lot better and catch up” I said to practically both of them as Lura walked over to Rainbow and smiled at her.

Dash looked first to me, then to Lurina “I wouldn’t mind it honestly, it will be fun! 3 best friends together sounds awesome” RD said to me before putting her arm around Lura’s shoulders and smiling at her. “I’ll help you out whenever you need it ok Lura? Any friend of Ezekiel is a friend of mine” she said to her lastly.

“…Thanks for showing me so much kindness. And thank you Rainbow Dash for being here for me, you really are nice. I can see why Eze likes you a lot” Lurina said to RD. She turned back to me “Kiel, I must let you know this; you remember my daddy being in the government right? Well, he told me before I left to just be on the watch for any information on an escaped experiment. He barely gave me any information on what the experiment was, all I know is that it is half human and half machine, both housed in one vessel. I know that is was somewhere on the west coast that it escaped from” she said to me. Dash looked amazed that something like that could even be possible, and I was just dumbstruck at what she was telling me.

I regained my thoughts a little and brushed the unease off my shoulder “Lura, we don’t even know anything about it other than it looks human. We will probably never meet it or even see it. So I take it you’re coming along for the ride and going to stay out there with us?”

“Yes” she replied, her eyes looking distant. She shook her head a little and then smiled and gave out a little laugh. “Sorry, it’s just so many things are happening so fast. I missed you so much Eze, I never thought I’d see you again…I…” she choked up and then wiped her eyes and smiled, but never finished her sentence.

I wondered why she got so worked up at the end of that, but I realized that I had something to do now. I walked over to the couch located on the far side of the room and pulled a lever on the back of it, releasing the bed out of the couch so Lura has a place to sleep. I got her a sheet and comforter out of the closet near the bathroom and made her bed for her as well, then smiled when my work was done “There, now you have a place to sleep till tomorrow Lura.” I walked over to them as they stood side by side “Now listen, I am not dumb and I know what everything will turn into eventually, so I will get this out in the open right now. I know you both love me, to the point of wanting to be with me forever and having me for yourself. I know how you two feel a little conflicted and may end up getting angry with each other, and I do not want that to happen alright?” I said to them sternly, striking a little worry out of Lura and RD, since they never seen me act like this before.

“Now, I Will say this, I do have feelings for both of you as well, but I do not want this to become a competition. I want to make you both happy, but what you both probably want out of me is too much right now. So I have come up with this, we will all just be friends, and that includes anyone else we end up possibly meeting. From there, it will be what grows from the friendships we have with each other that will in the end decide what may happen dating wise. No competitions, we act like friends and what builds from that is how we go ok? No special treatment either, I will treat you all the same until my own feelings show. I know both of yours, but I am still unsure of my own yet, I do not want to hurt either of you, so I feel this is best and will matter most in the end” I said to both of them before putting my hands on both of their heads and rubbing them gently.

They looked at each other and smiled, then looked back to me. Lurina spoke first “Yes…I like that idea…I don’t want to hurt someone else that loves you. Its better if everyone knew this, so now feelings won’t be as hurt at the end, and dating doesn’t necessarily mean forever right? Life is long and full of surprises, so no one knows what will happen. I will abide by these rules and be happy with that, because at least I’m with you again.” She stepped back and let dash speak then “I agree; it’s totally not cool to treat friends like that. I don’t want to ever feel like that, so I don’t want to make Lura feel like that either. I will follow the rules too, so we all can be happy in the end, and as she said, no one knows what will happen in the end” Dash finished, smiling brightly with her magenta eyes shining.

I reached out with both arms and pulled them into a hug “You two are awesome. I’m glad you don’t think that’s wrong or bad of what I feel is right. I do not want friendships torn at the end of this and sad feelings. And you both are right, even I don’t know how this will end, so for now let’s just live like young adults….by partying and living like we want!” I said before I laughed and brought both of them down on the bed with me, holding them close.

We just laid there on the bed and talked, Lura told us about how she found us, which was her going to my apartment that was under repair and asking everyone where I was at. I guess it was kind of easy to find me because I never left my home town, so she found me really easily. Dash and I told Lura about how she found me, how she had to save me, take me to the hospital, and keep an eye on me as I recovered. My sides still hurt, but I was happy. Then I told Lurina about where Rainbow was from and she understood completely. As we laid there Lura had her head resting on my arm as she lay next to me and Dash had her head on my chest. They both were talking to each other now and they were both laughing and having a nice time, and it even looked like Lura was coming out of her shell a little, which was a bonus, because she was so shy when I met her.

Lura looked up to me “Kiel, I have something kind of important I need to talk to you about. It’s nothing too bad, but it involves you and only you, so I think you should hear it. Can we talk out on the balcony for just a few moments?”

Dash moved off of my chest and let me sit up “Sure Lurina, I don’t mind.”

She led me over to the balcony doors and let me out before shutting it behind us. She turned to me and her face was red and tears were streaming down her cheeks. She looked terrified of something, and I had to try and reassure her. “Lura, what’s wrong dear? Please, tell me so I can try to make it easier for you.”

“Kiel, I had a dream last night. It was so real, like a vision. I saw you, but I saw 4 others hidden in shadow. I don’t know what that meant, but then the vision changed from you to a beating heart that slowly stopped beating until it gave one final pump, and then I saw blood on a white shirt, and then I woke up. Kiel, I think I had a vision about you, please be careful. I don’t want to lose you again. I need to be around you, just like she needs you too” she said to me before pointing to Dash through the window. I don’t know what the shadows mean behind you, but I know it probably isn’t good” she finished saying before she broke down and walked over and buried her face in my shirt again, she was gripping it so tightly I thought it resembled a vice grip. She was rubbing her face back and forth repeating ‘don’t leave me or her ever again please’ over and over again.

I pulled her away from me and smiled softly “I swear on my life I won’t be leaving anyone again for a long time. I never wanted to leave you that day, but we were too young, I wanted to help you through everything so bad, I felt terrible that I couldn’t. I had nightmares for a year about it, and in every one of them I ended up meeting you and you hated me and told me it was me going to baseball practice and my parents fault your mother died. I never want to allow anything bad to happen again while I’m around, so now I have a full time job, taking care of you and Dash. Don’t worry about anything anymore, I’m here, and I don’t plan on leaving anyone anytime soon.”

“…Ok Ezekiel” she said finally before she let go and wiped her eyes. She smiled again and that made me feel better. “Thanks Kiel, you are too sweet. I’m so happy you value me and her so much” she said happily.

We walked back in the room and resumed lying down on the bed together with Dash. We turned on the TV and heard a report about a problem at a research facility in Spokane, Washington and that made me think of what Lura told us about the experiment that very well could have escaped from that facility on the TV. Laguna Beach was hundreds of miles away from there, so they were going to be safe I thought as the news turned to the trial coverage of the Boston Marathon Bombers.

We continued talking till late in the night and I remember hearing the clock chime 12 times and then I couldn’t recall anything after that.