Lost and Found

THE FINAL CHAPTER

                                                                           8 YEARS LATER

Yasmine stroked the rough canvas of her beautifully painted scene. It was of a beach, with seagulls flying high in the deep blue sky, and several boats just coming in to a harbour. Children played on the beach with sands and spades and surrounding it were several multicoloured buildings. It was magnificent. The way the strokes had been applied to the canvas, the way that feelings and emotions had been locked within. 

She was awoken from her trance when a formal, stern looking man entered the room. The room was almost symmetrical. There were 5 rows of 4 chairs on the left and right side of the room, an aisle left in the gap between. Around the wall behind Yasmine were different artists paintings hung upon the wall, like jewels.

The man cleared his throat before starting, "They are ready." He informed her. She nodded and covered her painting with a velvet, soft fabric. 

Suddenly a majority of men and women entered the room, seating themselves in specific seats. They all stared at Yasmine, the focus of the room. She was wearing a pencil skirt, which she hated, and a black blazer. Her hair was down and she had a full fringe that covered her forehead. 

"Hello everyone," she smiled, showing her gleaming white teeth. Her husband was sat within the audience, she had been married to him for 2 years. Within these two years, they had had a boy, whom was born with incredibly long hair. They called him Callum. 

"I'm here today, to present the one and only canvas that I had perfected only yesterday. The bidding will start quite high, but I hope you will all be able to understand." She used her hand to reveal the glorious piece of work she had implemented.

The room was filled with gasps of amazement. Yasmine had done something with her life, despite everything that had happened.

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Emma's hair was pulled back into a pony tail, and her face was as serious as ever. She wore a black vest top and white shorts, and was standing in a 'ON YOUR MARKS, SET, GO' position. On the leg that had been removed, she had a white bendy contraption that people used in the paralympics, what she was training for. 

"C'mon babe!" Shouted her fiance, who was standing beside her. He had engaged to her whilst they were in a hot air balloon ride. Cheesy yes, but gosh was it romantic. Rose petals, the sweet smell of grass and a sun setting behind them. They were getting married in a fort night, but she also needed to train for her paralympic event.

Not only were they about to get married, but they were also trying for a baby. They had decided to try a couple of months after he had proposed to her. 

"GO!" Emma's father shouted, and she sped off down the 800 metre track in the park, speeding past the passerbys, wiping astonished looks among there faces. Finally, she ended her breath-taking run with a big pant and lunge. Charlie, her fiance, took her into a big embrace and hug, before she hugged her parents.

What she didn't know was that her little miracle was lying in the bed of her body, waiting to come out, no matter how long it took.

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The sun set was astounding. I looked out past the sea, the sun casted an orange glow on the whole island. You may be confused as to why I was on an island. Well, this is what happened.

Me and Robert had decided that this island was a part of all of us now and, even though we didn't experience great times on it, we experienced times together. Our last times together. When I had decided to make a living from selling the trilogy of our adventures, we agreed to buy this island together and eventually I payed to by a holiday home on it. 

Robert pounced happily in the sea, along with Joseph. 

"Dad, dad, no!" Joseph squealed happily as Robert cupped his hand together, splashing him with the cold water. I was sat on the sand, smiling at the pair of them. 

"Daddy!" My twin daughters ran from the house and hugged me tightly, just as my wife disapeared from the doorway. 

"What?" I asked, smiling. 

"We want an ice cream! Mummy told us to ask you!" Darby informed me. She was the oldest of the twins. Me and my wife married quite early, 21 years old, to be exact and the next years she had delighted me with these two lovely daughters. 

Darby and Holly were 5 years old and very intelligent for their ages. During the school holidays, we'd come to spend time here on the island with 'Uncle Rob' as they called him and 'Joe' their 'apposed' cousin. 

"Okay," I nodded smiling. Joe cam running up to me suddenly, and pounced upon me, soaking wet.

"Save me!" He shouted, as Robert came along with a bucket full of water. Suddenly, I felt the water sprinkle me like a freezing cold shower. These were the good times.

"Robert!" I laughed standing up. 

I left Robert and Joe to trail behind me as I entered the house.

"Don't have too much ice cream, its nearly time for bed," I shouted to the girls who were sitting in the kitchen, watching their mother placing vanilla and strawberry ice cream into white polished bowls.

I waltzed into the bathroom and dried myself down with a towel, before running to my bedroom and dressing myself in my pyjamas. 

After a couple of hours of watching TV with everybody, we decided it was time to put them to bed. 

I placed Holly and Darby into bed, Joe watching me closely. "Bedtime story!" They insisted. 

"Really?" I asked. 

They both nodded, their faces looking innocent. 

"You too Joe?" I asked him, his blond hair a little bit wet from the shower he'd had before.

"Yeah," his face lit up and he seated himself at the end of Darby's bed. 

"Which one?" I asked.

"Lost!" Joe shouted, happily. 

"Yeah, lost!" The girls echoed. 

I nodded and turned, opening the drawer in which were my three books that I had written: 'Lost', 'Lost at Sea' and 'Lost and Found'. I picked 'Lost' from its place in the drawer and looked at it intently. 

My whole early life felt like it had been crammed into this one book. Like my feelings and thoughts had been wrapped within this one book. 

I turned around and sat on the end of Holly's bed, beginning to read the book:

"For god sake Megan, just give it back, I moaned, my left hand was placed where my clip on tie should be and one of my bestfriends - Megan - was racing around with it in her hand. Rob! Catch! She shouted. She lunged her arm forward and the tie soared through the air."

The red box went everywhere with me now, because it was like a token of what happened in the past days. How Emily had been so nice and helpful. How I had found Paul and handed him the box, being loyal. How Darby had been such a big part of my life, that I'd actually named my child after her. How Megan had slowly died, forced to die a painful death, feeling guilty until the last moment. How Jessica had died whilst giving birth to her young one, she died because she loved her child. 

My whole life had been affected by these certain events and I knew I'd never forget them. But I didn't get the word 'Lost' because we are always lost, right? Lost means you don't know where you are and our earth sits in this solar system, in this galaxy, in this universe and we don't know where we were. I actually don't think we were ever found, because ever since them events, we had become independent. We were always lost really. Never found. 

Lost. 

Lost forever.