Lost and Found Past Remains Jenn frantically ran through the forest, branches scratched at her face and arms as she tried to find the exit. She suddenly tripped over a root and fell to the ground, scrapping the palm of her hands and knees on the ground. The pain shocked her mind back into clarity. She sat up, staring down at the droplets of blood that had formed on her hands and the fragments of pebbles digging deep into her palms. She blinked a few times noticing that the bandages around her wrists were gone and quickly scanned around to find herself sitting in the middle of a strip of gravel that was a make shift road. All around her were mobile homes that she could faintly remember. She stared in a daze at the building when she heard footfalls upon the gravel road. "Are you alright?" A small timid voice asked from behind Jenn. Jenn turned around and was startled to see a very young Kimberly standing before her, dressed in a small pink dress and her hair pulled back in a ponytail, "Kim?" Jenn was dumbfounded, the girl could not be any older then ten or eleven and even at that age she looked as cute as ever. She stared in wonder at the little girl. "Ummm..." Kim seemed to get nervous by the way Jenn was staring at her, "How do you know my name?" She asked her eyes darting around like a cornered animal. Jenn stood to her feet and brushed the dirt off her knees to notice for the first time that she too was also younger, "Am I dreaming?" She stared down at her little jean overall dress that revealed her bare legs, which were scrapped up worse then her hands were. Suddenly she became well aware of the pain that her body was trying to tell her about and she winced in pain as she tried to move. "I always ask myself that." Kim said sadly, "We should get off the road." She worriedly added glancing up and down the street. "Yeah..." Jenn replied and started to hobble to the side of the street. It hurt to walk and Jenn found herself struggling to not cry in front of the girl for some reason. Kim offered her arm to the girl, Jenn took hold of it and Kim helped the girl to the side of the road. When they reached the lawn of one of the homes Jenn agonizingly sat down in the grass. Tears welled up in her eyes with the pain. Kim sat down next to Jenn, "Are you going to be alright?" She asked examining the girl's knees, a trickle of blood had run down the girl's leg and was being soaked up by her socks. "I don't know..." Jenn stifled back the urge to cry as she picked some of the rocks out of her flesh; "It just hurts... a lot..." she gave up, lay back on the grass and watched the clouds drift across the sky. The past couple of days felt more and more like a daze. She closed her eyes and let the sun wash over her. Kimberly lay next to the girl gazing up at the sky and Jenn turned her head too look at the girl she met not all that long ago, but now felt like an eternity away. Then that familiar feeling from the first time she met Kim entered her mind again. She pushed herself up onto her elbows and glanced around once more. She sensed that in some way she did know this place. The mobile homes held a familiarity to them, "Do you live around here?" Jenn suddenly heard herself ask. Kim sat up and pointed across the road, "I live over there." She said nodding at a blue building with a green fence, "We just moved out here a couple years ago. I'm kind of shy so..." She lowered her arm and gazed down at the grass. "What is wrong?" Jenn asked, feeling a sense of sorrow coming from the girl. Kim shook her head, "Nothing..." Jenn could clearly see that Kim was covering something up, but before she could open her mouth to ask she heard someone calling out her name. "Jennifer!!" A woman yelled out for her, “Jennifer, get your ass over here!" the woman was tall with long straight black hair surrounding a slightly Asian face. She was dressed in a long red dress and red high heels. "Mom?" Jenn got to her feet quickly and gave the woman a confused look. "I thought I told you to be back home by six." The woman angrily grabbed Jenn by the arm and pulled her to her feet. She stared at the red head for a moment before turning back to Jenn, "You told me that you would be home on time. I am late for my party because of you. Now get your butt home." She smacked Jenn across the butt causing the girl to jump forwards. "I'm sorry mom…" Jenn cried out, she took one last glance at Kim before running ahead of her mother. She noticed the red head give her a small, shy, wave goodbye. When Kim was out of sight Jenn's mother grabbed Jenn by the arm and spun her around, "What did you think you were doing with... with... that girl!!!" She yelled frantically. Jenn cringed at the sound of her mother's voice, "I... I... I fell..." She held her hands out to her hands to her mother, showing her the cuts, "She just helped me off the road." She explained. Jenn's mother let out a deep sigh, "Oh, Jennifer." she pulled out a handkerchief from her purse and dabbed at the wounds causing the girl to flinch, "You can be so clumsy. I don't know what I'm going to do with you at times." "I'm sorry..." Jenn repeated again wincing at how violently her mother pulled on her arms. Her mother stopped wiping the girl's hands and dropped the girl's arms. "I also told you to stay away from that girl or don't you remember?" Her mother warned and rubbed her temples, "I have no time for all of this. Get home. There is some food waiting for you on the table. I won't be back ‘til late so I hope you can remember to lock the doors for once." She stormed off to a small red Honda parked in front of a yellow mobile. She got into the car and started to pull out away from the house without even double-checking on her daughter. Jenn grudgingly walked towards the house. The pain in her knees replaced by a feeling of loneliness and gloom, memories of the past day still running through her head. Could it all have been some strange nightmare or was she given some kind of strange second chance. It all seemed hazy to her and she wasn't sure what to think. All she knew was the pain in her heart felt real and she mounted the stairs to her home to search for some bandages for her wounds. Upon entering the house she found a TV dinner awaiting her on the table, the plastic still intact. She touched the food and found it was still cold; her mother didn't even spare the time to heat up her dinner for her. Jenn picked up the meal and brought it over to the oven, she turned it on and shoved the dinner within, then ventured down the hall to the bathroom. She retrieved the first aide kit from inside the medicine cabinet and proceeded to pour some rubbing alcohol upon her hand, clenching her teeth against the pain and then pulled the remaining pebbles from her skin with a pair of tweezers before returning to the kitchen to retrieve her dinner and brought it to the table. ***** To be Continued...
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