Lost And Found

when reality hits

It wasn't a dream; it was so far from a dream. Clare brought me back to her house, she said we would figure things out, and until then I would stay in her guest room. She showed it to me and told me to take a nap that it would help with my head ache​. I wake up to a knock "hey Kai, you want to come meet my kids" Clare opens the door and leans on the door frame, giving me a sympathetic look.

"You have kids?" I say sounding more surprised than I am, not that I'm not surprised, the last time I saw Clare she was writing the answers of her algebra test on her convers, I can't imagine her as an responsible adult with children.

She laughs "yeah, come meet them" she leads the way down stairs to the living room where there's a little boy and girl sitting at a glass coffee table putting a puzzle together. They look at me when we come in, well the girl does, the boy looks at Clare "mommy she's cheating!"

She raises an eyebrow "Chase, you're putting a puzzle together, you can't cheat at that" she tells him making him frown and cross his arms in front of his chest, sticking his bottom lip out in that adorable little kid pout.

"Who're you?" The little girl asks, studying me, I shift a little, feeling uncomfortable.

Clare answers for me "this is Kaison​, she's going to be staying with us for a little bit okay" they both nod, and still none of this feels real.

She turns to me "this is K.C.," she gestures to the girl "she's eight."

"My turn, my turn" the little boy says jumping up and down before running up to his mother and jumping in her arms.

Clare laughs, picking him up "and this is Chase, he's five, and needs a bath. Pew wee, you smell" she says while tickling him. He giggles "mommy stop" he tells her.

She stops tickling him and looks back at me "I'm going to go give him a bath, you can finish the puzzle with K.C. though, I won't be long." She gives me a reassuring smile as she carries Chase away, towards the stairs.

I walk over to the coffee table and sit down "how old are you?" K.C. turns to look at me, no longer interested in the puzzle.

"Fifteen" I tell her, she looks so much like Clare at her age, Light brown hair, bright blue eyes, a button nose.

"You look like the girl from the pictures, are you her daughter" she asks me.

"What picture?" I look at her confused for a bit, my brows furrowed together, she stands up and runs to another room, I follow her in to what is most likely an in-home office.

On the desk there are some pictures, but one of them catches my eye. It's the picture of me and Clare at my fifteenth birthday which wasn't that long ago, just last week. Well it was last week to me, seventeen years ago to everyone else. "Not that one, these pictures" she tells me, opening a drawer she pulls out a scrap book and hands it to me.

There's a News Paper article on the front page, it reads "Missing Teen Still Not Found." The article is about how I've been missing for several months. I flip through the book and find similar newspaper articles. Articles about how I was assumed dead, and how my parents could finally move on. The News Paper using my story as a cautionary tell for parents to keep a better eye on their children. Some articles talk about remains found, and their doing test to see if their mine, the next one revealing that they weren't mine. Articles talking about memorials and so much more. It's all too much, I'm still trying to process things and this make it all too real, just like earlier tears start to fall down my face.

"K.C. I thought I told you not to go through my things," Clare says sharply and I look over at the door way, where she stands with a Stern look, her hands on her hips.

"Sorry mommy" K.C. looks down at her feet, guilt written all over her face.

Clare sighs, "Alright, go play with your brother," she watches K.C. leave before turning to me " Kaison-" I interrupt her.

"I'm sorry, I have to leave" I say before getting up and running out of the house, reminding me of what to me was just yesterday, but seventeen years ago in reality. I can't stay any longer, not with these constant reminders that everything in my entire life has changed.

"Kaison wait!" she yells after me, but I'm already gone.

~o~

I'm sitting in a park two blocks from where my house used to be. Me, Clare, and Mikey used to play here as kids, it seems to look almost the same as it did all those years ago, and I'm taking comfort in it. At the moment I'm sitting on a swing making circles in the dirt with my feet as I think about everything that's happened today. It's been about two and a half hours since I ran out of Clare's house, and the sun set around an hour and a half ago, making it a little cooler than it was earlier today.

I hear someone come up behind me and sit on one of the swings near me. "Had a bad day?" I look up to see a boy around my age, he has blond hair and green eyes, and he kind of looks familiar but I can't place him, he's giving me a sympathetic smile.

"What are you, a bar tender?" I reply sarcastically, going back to making circle's in the dirt, I really don't have time to entertain this creep.

He laughs "no it's just when I need to think I come here too" he explains to me, and I imagine he was shrugging when he said this, just from the nonchalance tone in his voice.

"Well you should probably break that habit, the older you get the more people will think you're a pedophile​" I look back up at him, a smile spreading across his face.

He laughs again "I'm going to take that answer to mean I was right about you being upset about something," he looks at me with actual interest and not the fake kind people use when they're being "polite." "What put you in a bad mode?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you" I mutter under my breath; I honestly don't even know if I believe it completely yet.

"What?" He says probably because he couldn't hear me.

"Ever have one of those days where your whole world flips upside down?" I ask him, trying to explain without sounding crazy, or having to go into detail.

"Yeah why?" this time he does shrug.

"Well I'm having one of those days" I push off from the ground so that I'm now swinging, the light from the street lamp obscuring the view of the night sky.

"That sucks, but you know what happens when the world turns upside down," he pauses for me to acknowledge his question "you get used to it being upside down, and after a while you don't notice anymore. Yeah sure the memory of how things used to be hurt's, but it gets better, I promise" he then kicks off too, making his swing go back and forth.

We swing for a little while, not saying anything just swinging next to each other, and oddly it doesn't feel weird. He stops his swing and turns to me, the chains of the swinging clacking as they hit each other before calming down "hey it's kind of late, aren't your parents concerned​ about where you are?"

I stop my swing too, "They were expecting me home a long time ago" I say, and he doesn't pick up the sad tone in my voice.

"Since it's dark outside I'll walk you home, where do you live?" his question brings back the pain from earlier, but I ignore it and give him an address. When we get there, he turns to me "you know what we forgot?"

"What?" I question, confused.

"To introduce ourselves, I'm Noah" He holds his hand out to me, I smile.

"Kaison" I shake his hand, which is really warm.

"Well it was nice meeting you Kaison, hope to see you again some time" he then waves good bye and begins walking away back in the direction we came from. I watch him leave before taking a deep breath and turning to the house, I walk up the steps and knock on the door.