Lily's return

The other two fishermen also looked with disbelief. Victor then sighed and in a shaking voice uttered what seemed like something he was trying to hold back at all cost, "Lily...!??"

Victor could not believe his eyes, none of them could. They swore in their hearts that this could not be Lily. If Victor recalled well, Lily was a very little girl the last time he saw her but he just could not shake off the feeling that this was a little bit misplaced.

How could she be here, right now? How was that even possible? Victor was lost in his thoughts for a split second. He looked at Chris with panic in his eyes, "We need to get her to Tabitha right now.."

Chris was a little hesitant and spoke looking directly at the unconscious lady, "dad don't you think that might be a little unthoughtful, we don't know for sure if we are right about her. For all we know she might just be a random weird lady that none of us know, what if she is not Lily"

Victor thought about what Chris said but hastily rushed to the lady and tried to shake her to see if she would move at all. The rest of the group other than Chris moved back a little as though they were scared. The two men even seemed like they were ready to run if things went south.

After seeing that she was not responding, Chris stepped forward and signaled his father to move. He went ahead and gave her chest compressions for a while until she begun moving and abruptly coughed up the water in her lungs.

Chris moved back a little but made sure to help her sit up. And then he saw it. Those eyes, those blue eyes that resembled the calm blue ocean. Those eyes were sure familiar to him. And her hair, it was black just like he remembered it.

The lady seemed lost by the look in her eyes and the expression on her face, it was like she did not know where she was. She looked around helplessly without noticing the people around her first. It was like she couldn't see them or she completely ignored their presence.

She then looked further into the sea then shifted her gaze to herself.She looked at her hands and arms and the loose fitting white dress she wore. It was all dump and she touched her hair that was wet.

Chris was confused by her reaction and looked back at his father who was also as confused as he was.Chris then snapped his finger near her face and spoke, "hey lady, are you okay? Who are you? Where are you from and what happened to you?"

The lady then shifted her gaze at Chris and stared at him for a while as if studying him. She then gasped and spoke for the first time, "Christopher?" Everyone was shocked after hearing her speak. Christopher then hurriedly got up and helped her up but realized that she could not walk steadily and decided to carry her.

Victor did not know what his son was up to but he guessed that he was taking her to Tabitha, her grandmother. Victor tried to pace up with Chris who seemed to be moving a little bit faster. " Son are you sure of what you are doing, are you sure it is her?"

"Yes father, it is Lily I'm sure of it," he responded. They continued walking getting further from the ocean and near the houses close to the shore. Chris could not help but wonder how possible it was for Lily to be here at all.

He thought about where she could have been all that while and how she survived out there all by herself. Wasn't she supposed to be dead?? According to what he and every resident in their town knew, Lily was dead a very long time ago and people seeing her again would not believe it at all.

He himself could not believe that he was actually carrying her to her grandmother's house right now. He thought about the past years that they played together when they were kids.

They were actually best friends.

He remembered when he would go to her house and eat her mother's pastries with her because she was the best baker in town. He also remembered how she could come to their boat house and sneak with Chris into his mother's store and play with her ornaments.

They would hide and stay so quiet and laugh each and every time when they thought about how they always got away with it. They were hardly twelve years old at that time. They would wonder off by the shore of the ocean and pick tiny marbles and keep them in a jar and hide them away.

They always gave the marbles to each other to asure themselves of something like being truthful. They always stayed together and at some point even seemed like siblings since they would always be seen together a lot.

Lily's family house was not that far from Christopher's house. Lily was an only child just like Christopher, and their parents seemed close and that is how the became friends. Their mothers would go to the market together and they would always bring them along.

Too many incidents of those and that is how they begun being friends and finally best friends when Christopher realized that Lily didn't think he looked and sounded crazy when he talked about superstitious stuff.

We can say they shared the same beliefs. So he always loved and cared so much for his best friend.

Then the worst thing happened after a while. Lily's mother started going in and out of the town claiming to have found the best opportunity ever. She was constantly recommend and asked to take baking jobs in different places and events and since this was a one time opportunity, she decided to pursue it.

She was so happy and always seemed excited about her work but it also exhausted her and drifted her away from her family. This always made her feel sad and the fact that she always had to leave Lily constantly broke her heart until one time she took so long coming back and her family could not reach her well.

They all wondered what had happened to her and what could have been the reason why she never reached out or came back. Little Lily was so sad and got really affected by her mother's absence.

It got so difficult for her grandmother to keep her lively and if not for Chris who made a little impact on her moods everyday, then she would have been ever quiet and always sad.

Then a few months later, a woman came by to Lily's family house and claimed to know Lily's mother pretty well from another town. This news lit a little spark in Lily's eyes and even her grandmother. The woman claimed that she was sent by Lily's mother and even gave out details that only Lily's mother would know.

She said that Helen, Lily's mother, had sent her to fetch her daughter so that they could live together in the new town.She said that she was lonely and really missed her little girl and that Lily's grandmother would understand that it was better if Lily could grow up near her mother.

Tabitha, Lily's grandmother was very sad but she could not withhold her daughter's child from her. She only gave in after realizing that the woman had a letter from Helen and even a picture that she took together with the strange woman.

She said she worked with her at the bakery and shared an apartment with her and that they were very good friends. The woman was so friendly and motherly. Lily didn't get a bad first impression from her and even got excited after seeing her mother in the photo.

After a few more questions, Tabitha decided to pack Lily's essentials and let her say her goodbyes to her best friend Chris and his family. Chris was sad about it but had to accept it anyway and they promised to write to each other once in a while.

The woman then left with Lily and never gave any feedback to her grandmother Tabitha. Tabitha got so worried after a while then she finally got a letter from Helen who spoke about Lily being alright and adjusting to her new environment.

Tabitha felt so lonely being in that big house all by herself being that the only family she had left also left and moved to another town. Another sad person was Chris, he never really adjusted to the absence of his best friend.

This made him get scared of socializing with other kids and instead made him seek comfort in his mother which was very unlikely of him. This was because he did not want to seem like a Mama's boy and so he preferred hanging out with his best friend or alone.

And yes his father was around but the man was always busy since he was a fisherman and had to fend for his family and moreover, Chris did not want his father to drag him too soon to the fishing life since he knew he would still end up there, he just did not want to be there that soon.

Time went by any Tabitha heard less of Helen and her little granddaughter Lily. To cope with the sadness, Tabitha hanged up every picture of Lily and Helen that she had on the walls of her house. This made her always look at them and smile.

Suddenly, there came a time that Tabitha got a very dreadful news. She was informed that her daughter Helen was found dead a few months ago in the woods after going to look for Lily who seemed to have wandered off deep into the woods.

They said it seemed like Helen had sped up near a steep area and ended up rolling down and hitting her head on something. By the time she was found, she was already dead and there was nothing much that they could do.

After a long search for Lily that took almost two months, they presumed her dead since a little girl could not survive that long in those kind of woods. They were sure of the fact that she was actually dead. They said that perhaps her body was consumed by a wild animal or rot into the dirt in the ground.

Tabitha found it very hard to cope with the grief as well as Chris and his family. And that left a big scar in little Chris's heart.