AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is kind of a short chapter, but very important in the progression of this tale. Not really too much to say… I hope you enjoy! Please Read and review! Thanks!
~KD Williams
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"Sora, I heard you and your friends found someone on the beach today." Sora looked up at his mother who was sitting across the table from him and let out a slight sigh. His mother then continued saying "The authorities say don't know where she's from or who she is… Seems kind of strange to me. We're pretty isolated out here after all… I've never left the island even… except for visiting Destiny Island like you when I was a kid."
"I don't know mom, I've never really seen anything like it. Seeing her on the beach like that… It was kinda scary… I'm not saying I was scared or anything, but I can see how someone could have been scared seeing someone washed up on the beach like that…" Sora stated. He knew inside that his saying he was not scared was definitely a farce, but his mother didn't challenge him on it. Truthfully he had been quite scared. He had never seen someone like that before, and it was scary watching her wake up coughing uncontrollably. It sounded like she was choking really badly.
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"She's waking up again Doctor!" a nurse shouted towards the door. The girl submitted to yet another coughing spasm as if desperately trying to clear her aching lungs. "Poor thing, you're dreadfully ill… I wish there were more I could do to help you." The nurse said softly to the young girl who now sat up on her bed. The doctor then came in and began examining the young girl.
"Hello! I'm Dr. Takeshi. What's your name?" The young girl looked up to the Doctor's face. Her eyes held a blank expression and she didn't even have to say anything, Dr. Takeshi knew. The girl didn't know; she had amnesia. "Oh you poor thing!" Dr. Takeshi exclaimed. "Can you talk even? You have pneumonia. Hopefully it's not so bad you cannot talk." The girl let out a slight cough and cleared her throat; "I can talk…" she faintly whispered. "Where am I?" she asked, is desperate search for any form of enlightenment.
"You're in the town of Prospect Bay, on the Island of Providence. We don't know who you are or where you are from. We've even checked with a few of the other outlying communities on the Island; no one knows who you are."
"Do you know how I got here?" The girl asked.
"Some of the local kids found you on a nearby island they go to all the time… They said that you were washed up on the shore and that you wouldn't wake up. So they put you in one of their boats and rushed you here. They're good kids you know; and it's good that they found you and brought you to me when they did. If you had been left there overnight in your condition I doubt that you would have survived. The nights are cold here and that is the last thing you need."
The young girl began yet another coughing spasm and reached into her pocket pulling out a small white handkerchief. As she brought it up to her mouth the doctor's eyes widened at the sight of a name carefully embroidered on one of the corners.
"Kairi?" Dr. Takeshi whispered softly. After the girl's coughing fit subsided she looked at the doctor's astonished face; "Did you say something Doc?" Kairi asked. Dr. Takeshi then pointed to the handkerchief and said "Kairi." still caught by the surprise. The girl then asked, "Who's Kairi?" and began examining her handkerchief. When she saw the embroidered name her eyes lit up and she looked to the doctor earnestly, "Do you think that's my name?!" Dr. Takeshi then responded with "I don't see why it wouldn't be… We need something to call you by anyways."
"I like it!" Kairi exclaimed in pure excitement at the new discovery. She then began to have yet another coughing spasm this time more intense than the last few she had recently suffered from. Dr. Takeshi then coaxed the over-excited girl to lie back in her bed and administered medication to help her rest. She then noted the recent discovery of the girl's name on her charts crossing out the generic 'Jane Doe' name and put down the name Kairi in it's place. She still lacked a last name, but shaving a single first name was better than nothing.
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Riku lay in bed pondering the day's events. Usually the last day of school was a lazy yet exciting day; but he was not prepared for the excitement they had encountered that afternoon. He had already heard that no one on the island knew who the girl was, or where she had come from. Something in him kept asking where she could have come from. Maybe he would go and ask her in the morning. It was as if an overwhelming curiosity had overcome him. Just before he faded off to sleep, Riku turned on his alarm yet one more day before he would turn it off for the rest of the ensuing summer; he would be visiting the girl they found in the morning.