The Mayor's Residence
Summer 3, 4:30 PM

Mayor Theodore paced back and forth across the living room of his house, trying his hardest not to look out the window and into the fierce storm. He looked at the hanging clock on the wall. Four-thirty in the afternoon. It had been hours since Maria had left, and in the back of his mind, Theodore was beginning to wonder if she was ever going to return.

He had sent Lyla after her about a half-hour ago. Dear, dear Lyla. She was the most mature of the young women in the village and had always seemed to know Maria inside-out. If there was one person who could persuade Theodore's daughter to return home, it was Lyla.

Both of them had been gone for what seemed like eternity. Theodore tried to calm himself, thinking: She's probably fine. Lyla will find her, she'll talk to her, she'll bring her back.

Nothing seemed to work. As a single father, Theodore worried himself sick over nearly everything his daughter did. He'd known that her relationship with Ray would turn sour, but had he said anything? No. Theodore thought of his departed wife; stared at their wedding picture that hung on the wall.

You would know what to do, he thought, shaking his head.

At that instant, the telephone gave a loud ring, startling Theodore out of his thoughts. He found himself rushing toward it. As he gazed at the caller display, his heart nearly stopped.

The Clinic. He tried to breathe, tried to calm himself, but the nagging thoughts still pursued him: Something's happened to Maria.

Theodore lifted the phone from the receiver and whispered a quick "Hello?" into it.

"Dad?" the voice on the other end came, sounding shaky and worried.

"Maria!" Theodore gasped, heart pounding fast in his chest. "Maria, you're all right!"

"Dad, you might want to come over here," Maria's voice continued to speak, barely acknowledging her father's reply. "Something's happened-"

Click. The phone went dead.

Theodore did not try to redial the Clinic's number. Instead, he took his raincoat from its hook on the wall and departed without any hesitation, barely heeding the danger of the lightning that blazed across the stormy sky.

-----

Flower Bud Village Sanatorium
Summer 3, 4:31 PM

Gina could only stare.

She paid no attention to the new patient who Alex and Lyla had recently brought into the Sanatorium; she paid no attention to Martha's worried expression or Maria's rushing out the door to phone her father from the Clinic.

She had tried to speak, but the words were muddled in Gina's mind before they could be formed and spoken. All of a sudden the world became warped and twisted in a cyclone of emotion and flood of memories.

That face. Cold and lifeless, it was so unlike what Gina had known... and although Gina wished she could tear her eyes away from it, she could not. She was frozen in place, as if her entire body had been paralyzed.

"Gina, dear," Martha said softly, laying a hand on the young nurse's shoulder. "Do you... do you know this girl?"

Gina gulped and nodded, as a tear slipped unnoticed out of her eye and rolled down her cheek.

And in a choked, barely audible whisper, Gina spoke.

"Yes," she said, her voice sounding almost alien to both herself and Martha. "She was my best friend."

-----

Flashback: The City, Gina's House
Fall 20, 3:18 PM

The girl gazed out the window, a grin as wide as the ocean spread across her positively glowing face. Her pale blue hair was tied into a ponytail, and her golden eyes gleamed with anticipation behind her glasses.

"Mommy, Dia's here!" she exclaimed as a jet-black car pulled up in front of her house.

"Get the door, honey," came the reply. "I'm going to order pizza."

"Make sure to get a veggie one, Mommy! With peppers and onions and stuff!" the girl shouted as she ran to open the door.

The girl opened the door to meet another girl her age. This girl's shoulder-length black hair was tied back with a thick green ribbon, and she wore a dress that matched both the ribbon and her sparkling emerald eyes in colour. Her smile was small, but shone with happiness all the same.

"Hi, Gina," said the girl at the door. "Happy birthday!"

Gina gasped as she was handed a beautifully wrapped gift. "Thanks, Dia!"

"Am I the first one here?" asked Dia hopefully.

"Yep!" Gina replied. "Rebecca, Kim and Julie are coming later."

"Why don't you open the present?" Dia suggested. "Come on."

Gina shrugged. "Well, okay," she said, untying the ribbon on the small box and tearing the wrapping paper eagerly.

Suddenly her eyes lit up as she lifted out of the box a beautiful golden ring. Set in the ring was a polished piece of coral, perfect in every way.

"Dia!" she gasped, staring at the gift with disbelief. "You didn't have to get me this!"

"Yes, I did," Dia nodded. "You're my best friend, and you've always wanted a coral ring."

Gina grinned from ear to ear as she slid the ring onto her finger. "Oh, thank you, Dia! It's the best present ever!"

-----

Flower Bud Village Sanatorium
Summer 3, 4:34 PM

She remembered it like it was yesterday. When the two of them were children, Gina and Dia had been utterly inseperable. But when Dia's parents began to have conflicts, Dia became more and more withdrawn and cold to the world. Gina, too, had grown increasingly shy. By the time that Gina moved to Flower Bud Village, she had all but forgotten Dia and their friendship.

But she remembered now.

Gina looked down at her hands, and realized that all through her reverie, she had been twisting her ring around her now-reddened finger.

It was a beautiful golden ring. Set in the ring was a polished piece of coral, perfect in every way.

The best present ever.