I wasn't completely sure when she first started appearing. A little girl, with painfully short red hair. Nothing too remarkable, at all. There were lots of little girls that came to the pool. But Kairi, Kairi was different. Ten.. or Eleven. That was how many years she had been alive. But she was much, much, older. Her eyes, large and blue and deep, belonged to a war veteran. Layers of pain and shattered hope mixed together with a kind of terrible understanding. She wasn't wise, but she saw things clearly. I guess that's what caught my attention. When teaching at a pool, you get a general idea of how to handle kids. Funny voices, funny faces. Giggles and roughhousing. While the other kids laughed, she just stared. Not confusedly, exactly. Kairi knew exactly why they enjoyed these sorts of things, and exactly why I was doing them. Just.. interested. As if she had never seen anything quite like me or my class. I didn't know whether to be afraid or flattered.
Two years later, she works here now. A lifeguard, like me. Her hair, still a vivid crimson, is in a messy high ponytail, and she seems completely unfazed by the spreading wet marks on the cuffs on her jeans as she makes her way through the kiddy pool. Normal. She still hasn't changed, much. Awkward questions and hushed laughter were her main form of communication. I see the scars and burns, but I don't ask. She doesn't tell. Life goes on. I feel like I know her sometimes, but not often. Watching her feet pick through the maze of floating toys and children, I realize I don't know her at all. As I catch my breath, she looks up. I don't know how she can be so peaceful in a room full of screaming toddlers. I also don't know why she wears makeup even though she doesn't like to. I can tell she doesn't. She's too different for something as trivial as cosmetics.
Eyes heavy, I glance at the clock. Nine forty two. Who the manager thinks would bother to swim at quarter to ten on a Tuesday is anyone's guess. With a bang, the glass door slams against the wall. Well, I suppose the mystery person is in quite a hurry. Looking up, I see her. Her fiery hair flying behind her and tears in her blue eyes, she sprints right up to the pool. Noticing me for what seems to be the first time, Kairi turns. "Cloud?"
My breath comes in a shallow gasp as I see her face properly. Her pale skin contrasts sharply with the rivers of blood running down her cheek, her nose, her forehead.. Parts of her hair, that wonderful, breathtaking hair, is matted down with gore. But she doesn't seem to notice. Her expression, with its sharp angles and those enormous deep eyes, is clear. In that instant, I realize that I know nothing of the creature looking at me, now with worry. She isn't human, she isn't animal. She isn't anything. She's Kairi.
"Cloud, can I stay with you?"
Her soft words snap me out of those thoughts. For the first time, I have no response. For what seems like forever, we just look at each other. I don't know if its the subtle resignation in the way she reties her hair, or the age and strength hidden in this thirteen year old girl, but I can't help myself. "Yes." She doesn't want to go home. "Let's get you cleaned up first, shortstack." Her smile, wider than ever before, breaks my heart. I don't know why, but somehow the idea that someone could ever bother to want her to be clean has stripped away all her layers. And I see her. A little girl after all.