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]

The girl naps for a good twenty minutes after being moved indoors, and then she blinks sleepily and sits up, trying to paw her way out of the blanket.

[asmyown]

The English teacher helps her, gently.

"Hey there," she says, voice just as gentle.

[bulrushes]

"Where am I?" wonders the basket child.

She has a funny, not-American accent - it's close to Scottish, but not very.

[asmyown]

"In my house -" she rattles off an address. "Forks, Washington. Where are you from?"

[bulrushes]

"I don't remember."

[asmyown]

Well, that's a bad sign, but not terrible - she's little, she can't be expected to have memorized where she's from, yet.

"That's okay. What's your name? I'm going to see if I can find your parents."

[bulrushes]

"I - I don't know."

[asmyown]

"I'm Lynn Adams," she volunteers. "You're safe here, it's okay. Is there anything you can tell me about your parents?"

[bulrushes]

"I don't remember having those."

[asmyown]

"Okay. That's all right - can you tell me anything you remember? Is it just you?"

She doubts it, because there isn't a way that a little girl can live alone at this young age. But, she is focusing on keeping calm and not panicking the poor girl.

[bulrushes]

"I don't remember anything."

[asmyown]

That throws Lynn for a loop. Nothing? Nothing at all?

"That's all right, it's okay," she soothes. Because even small children would be very frightened by - not remembering anything. "Are you hungry? Or thirsty?"

[bulrushes]

The child shrugs. "Not much."

[asmyown]

"Okay, well. Let me know if that changes, all right?"

She considers, briefly, what her next course of action's going to be.

"I'm going to be on the phone for a little while, and then some people might come by to ask you some questions. Do you want me to answer questions for you, so you don't have to?"

[bulrushes]

"What kind of questions?"

[asmyown]

"Like - where you come from, if you remember anything, if there's any sorts of places that you remember - that sort of thing. The people will want to get you back to your parents if a bad person stole you, or away from them if they left you on a doorstep."

[bulrushes]

"Are you sure I have those?"

[asmyown]

"Well, everyone starts out having two parents, but sometimes things happen. So sometimes people only have one or they end up not having any. Do you remember having no parents?"

[bulrushes]

"I don't remember anything before I just woke up," says the child.

[asmyown]

"Okay. But you remember things from after just fine?"

[bulrushes]

"Yeah. You helped me get out of the blanket and you have a name and it's Lynn." She attempts to get out of her basket. The basket tips over on top of her.

[asmyown]

Lynn smiles, just a bit at this. She picks up the basket, revealing the mysterious child.

"That's good, if you couldn't remember that it'd mean you were hurt."

[bulrushes]

"I feel okay except not remembering before."

[asmyown]

She nods. "Okay, that's promising. Maybe you'll start remembering after a while."

[bulrushes]

"That sounds like it would be weird, to start all of a sudden."