wildflower

[bulrushes]

On the doorstep of a little house in Forks, Washington, a basket is placed.

The doorbell rings.

There are footsteps, and then there are not.

Comments

[bulrushes]

"What if I don't do either kind of remembering?"

[asmyown]

"Then you'd make memories from the time when you woke up, onwards."

[bulrushes]

"Here?" asks the child.

[asmyown]

"If we can't find your parents and you want to stay here, with me - yes."

[bulrushes]

"You seem nice."

[asmyown]

"Thank you, I try."

With kids. Adults, it varies, but kids she will always be nice to.

[bulrushes]

"I don't know if my parents are nice."

[asmyown]

"If they aren't, and I knew it, I would not return you to them."

[bulrushes]

The child nods.

"I'm not sure if I'm supposed to have parents but I think I'm supposed to have a name. I can't remember it," she says.

[asmyown]

"Well, you could wait and not have a name for a while and see if the police can find it out for you, or you could pick a name. That could be confusing if they did find it, though."

[bulrushes]

"I don't remember any names that are except yours."

[asmyown]

"I would help," says Lynn, amused. "Either by getting you a book with lots of names in it, or by naming as many names as I know, or by picking a name that I like and seeing if you like it, too."

[bulrushes]

"What ones do you like?"

[asmyown]

"Irene, Jasmine, Astrid, Danielle, and Phoebe. Of names that I can think of at the top of my head for girls, anyway."

[bulrushes]

"I don't think I like Jasmine. The others are okay."

[asmyown]

Lynn snorts. "Okay, then - Astrid? Would you like me to call you that until we figure out your given name?"

[bulrushes]

"Okay."

[asmyown]

"I'm going to go make a phone call, all right? I'm calling the police, if you have parents and they are nice, I don't want to worry them."

[bulrushes]

"What's police?"

[asmyown]

"They are people whose job is to make sure other people are safe and that various laws are being followed."

She personally thinks it's a bit debatable if they actually manage to do that first part sometimes, but there's no reason to bring up that sort of thing to a child. Police in Forks are reasonably nice, anyway.

[bulrushes]

"Oh, okay. Do you have things to read?"

[asmyown]

"I do! I think some of them might be very difficult for you to read, but I do have a few children's books for someone your age."

Because she is a masochist and couldn't bear to throw them away, even when she stopped having a child.

[bulrushes]

"Can I see?"

[asmyown]

"Of course."

She leads Astrid to her study.

There are bookshelves on almost every wall, and there are a lot of books. Mostly novels, though there are a set of encyclopedias and a few dictionaries, too. The shelves contain Chaucer to Shakespeare to Mark Twain to J.R.R. Tolkien, and beyond - and there, on the shelf, looking rather out of place are brightly colored children's books.

"Later, when I'm not about to go call the police, I will read you some of the others if you'd like me to. Or you can try to read them yourself, though I warn that it might be a bit frustrating."

[bulrushes]

"Thank you," says Astrid, and she starts browsing titles.