Disclaimer as usual.


They say nothing is ever forgotten. That it's all stored away somewhere in the back of conscious and sub-conscious mind. And maybe they're right. But it doesn't matter. For as Sora's adventures took him deeper into those recesses, the unthinkable happened.

They began to forget things.

First they couldn't remember what they had done with that box of postcards. Then they forget there had ever been a box of postcards.

Before long they forgot they even had a son.

Occasionally, Sora's mother would set out an extra plate at the dinner table and then wonder why. His father would look up from the yard work, expecting to see someone coming down the lane, but no one was ever there. For some reason, the wait for the postman was always the longest part of the day. Even so, the strange case of amnesia could be temporarily brushed aside for a little while, and generally didn't interfere with their lives.

. . . Until an oddly familiar looking dog made his way to their back door. Something inside his intelligent black eyes spoke of memories beyond their reach, misfired synapses that never quite reached their destination. And as painful as it was to know they had forgotten something (someone?) important, they couldn't bear to send the dog away. It would paw at their feet for food, fetch the paper out of the petunia bushes, and occasionally chase the neighbor's cat, much as any dog would. So they kept it. And about a week later, on a walk to the beach, Sora's mother decided the dog needed a name.

"Sora."

"What?"

"That's what we should call him. It feels . . . right."

"Sora. Yes, I think that's a good name."

And as the waves tickled their feet, a lonely couple with a perpetually joyful dog watched the sun go down from their seat on an old abandoned raft.


And this story is finished. Yay!

A huge thanks go out to all the fabulous readers who have been keeping up with this story and left some great comments that encouraged the continuation of this idea. This began as a one-shot, but the first chapter got a great positive respone, and I'm glad the theme was something you guys wanted to hear about. Thanks for all the feedback!

And I've said it in several chapters, but a special thanks go to my collaborator Ajac, who inspired this story, and who is one of the greatest friends I could have ever hoped to meet.

Thank you all so much for reading. See ya next time!

-SilverInkblot