Chapter 3: The Epic-sode
AUTHOR'S NOTES:
You know that this is going to be good, because I need to put the author's notes beforehand instead of at the end of the chapter, like I usually do.
Now, in all of Endgame and Arrival, I never got a chance to show you what I can do with poetry. Stories…you already know what I can do with stories, but it's time I showed what exactly I can do with poems. Basically, this entire chapter is a poem that tells a story. I've heard that long poems that tell stories are called "epics". Hence, the name of the chapter. It's long, so it might get boring after a while. And the quality isn't all it's cracked up to be, I should warn you.
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Sora needed to adjust to life
In the midst of chaos, strangeness and strife.
Only two weeks had passed in her timeline since the day
She'd fallen into the Digiworld to her great dismay.
But she knew that the situation called for action
And she knew she'd only get satisfaction
For the human desire to do one's work
If she asked what she could do from Izzy, the plant's clerk.
"Seek Patrol" was the answer she got,
"Which is looking for people before they are shot,
Or eaten, or starved, or frozen, or dead."
The notion these could happen worried Sora's head.
So she and Biyomon picked up a few knapsacks
Filled with blankets, ponchos, food, and clothes (like slacks)
And she walked outside into the unknown, strange world
Where everything was new, both to digimon and girl.
How strange it was that the weather turned bad
So quick the rain started and the cold had
Blown in very strangely from out of nowhere,
The notion that others were somewhere out there
Only pressed Sora forward to make her find
Anyone who, like her, felt out of their mind.
After a few minutes of walking through freezing rain,
Biyomon motioned for a stop and then seemed to strain
To hear a small noise that came from the park
But she couldn't see where it came from because it was dark.
They approached the fountain from where the noise came,
It sounded like crying, but out of fear, cold, or shame?
The girl in the fountain didn't have much for clothes,
Only a huge, wet t-shirt that only made her more froze.
Since she was wearing boots anyway, Sora entered the water
Whose depth wasn't much to make her cease her saunter. (Look it up in the dictionary!)
She looked at the child, who seemed very shy:
She cried the second that she met Sora's eye.
Sora knelt and felt that the water was warm,
The only heat to help the child in this strange, cold storm.
She picked up the child and held her tight to her chest,
But, in struggling away, the child did her best.
Sora whispered, "You'll die if you stay around here,
Where there's nothing but coldness, and wetness, and fear.
But I know a place where there are blankets and food,
And playmates, and dry beds where it is far more good."
The child was reluctant, at best, to comply.
(It was easy to tell this, since she still chose to cry)
But Sora toweled her off, and gave her an insulated slicker
And picked her up and ran home all the quicker.
She carried her back to the nuclear plant,
Gave her a hot shower (which seemed the best thing the girl'd had),
Fed her, and gave her new clothes to keep warm,
When it occurred to Sora that others could be in the storm.
She had to find somewhere for the child to stay,
But the kid was too shy, and she'd want to keep away
From the other young children who were in the reactor
Her coyness was certainly a complicating factor…
Sora would need to find someone to care for the kid
Who would be patient and would never flip his lid…
T.K. was the most patent guy anywhere around,
So she hoped he'd care for this child that she had found.
Unfortunately, what Sora hadn't really known
Is the fact that the girl had very quickly grown
Attached to Sora, as since she got her out of the pond,
The two had formed a very close, special bond:
The child thought of Sora as a big sister, or aunt
Or mother, or grandma, so the child thought she can't
Be separated from this one person she could trust;
She thought being with Sora at all times was a must.
When Sora tried to hand the child to T.K.,
She found that there was absolutely no way
That the child would let go of her or turn her face
To T.K. …It was a genuine disgrace.
T.K. shrugged. "She's just too shy for me to handle,
Apparently, to you, I just can't hold a candle.
I don't know why she won't let go of you,"
Sora began to worry and began to stew:
She couldn't babysit this kid forever!
There had to be some way that she could sever
The bond that held Sora and her so near
There had to be some who could help her get clear…
Yolei! Tina could not have been easy to raise;
It was a feat that deserved very high praise.
Considering how much experience the poor girl had had,
Yolei could take care of this child without going mad.
But Yolei wasn't in the plant at the time,
She'd left on Seek Patrol, repulsed by my rhyme.
(I'm doing the best that I can, you see,
Just be glad that, for reading this, I'm charging no fee.)
Hmm…Kari had been trained in dealing with kids of this kind,
So maybe it was possible that she wouldn't mind
Caring for the girl Sora had found,
Sora just hoped that Kari was somewhere around.
Unfortunately, Kari was in the orphanage reactor
And the girl's shyness was definitely a hindering factor.
When Sora walked in with the girl in her arms,
The girl acted like only looks could do her great harms.
She covered her head with the blanket Sora had offered
So it was all too clear that the child greatly suffered.
Sora found Kari and asked, "What is there to do?
This child is sticking to me like superglue!
Whenever someone so much as looks at the youngster,
She curls up and cries! All she does is look somber!
What is there to do to make this child feel comfy?
Should I show her tapes of Budgie or Mumfy?" (Those are British kid's shows, by the way.)
Kari shook her head. "Just give her some time."
(She wanted to get away fast, to avoid hearing my rhyme.)
"But time is the one thing that I don't have, right now!
There must be a way to get away from her, but how?"
Kari didn't know, so Sora's final resort
Was to give her to Davis and hope for no retort.
Davis was sitting in front of the television set,
So, of course, his eyes and the girl's never met.
His eyes were not about to leave the screen,
And while some children would find that really mean,
This shy little four-year-old found it benign,
And Davis's vacant expression she found a good sign.
Sora asked, "Could you look after her, please?
If you could watch her a while, my life it would ease!"
"Sure," the one-word answer came back.
"Thanks," Sora answered, "This cuts me some slack."
The child was next to Davis, sitting on the couch,
And looked at Davis, in his disgraceful slouch.
Davis never returned her look for hours,
And Sora found the girl asleep, dreaming of flowers,
And cats, puppies, and other such things,
That lack thereof is what the present desolation brings.
"Thanks," Sora said. "Was she any trouble?"
"Nope," Davis said, still in his tiny bubble
Which was a state of mind where the brain solely ponders
On the television screen, and the mind never wanders.
The moral of the story does not really exist,
So…hey, why are you balling your fist?!
Don't punch the screen! It's done nothing to you!
This poem's my doing…and really, yours, too!
I warned you about the way this would turn out!
You don't have any good reason to shout!