IRIS

chapter twenty-eight

"Have you had any visitors, Iris?" Iris instantly perked up at Dr. Ruth's question, instinctually reaching up to touch the hawk necklace. 

"Yeah, um, his name is Eli. He's been my friend for 10 years." Iris smiled, happy that she could say she had a visitor, the woman smiled at her quickly writing something down. 

"Has seeing Eli, helped you remember anything?" Iris scrunched her eyebrows together in thought, trying her hardest for any memory to resurface. When nothing did the girl shook her head. "That's alright. It's only been two days." 

"Oh, I'm sorry I didn't know someone would be here." Iris looked over at the door, seeing Eli standing there. Iris felt herself smile as she saw the boy, Dr. Ruth seeing this as a positive sign.

"It's perfectly fine, Ms. Montague and I will pick this up tomorrow." The doctor nodded to the two teens before leaving the room. 

"Hey, Eli." Eli smiled over to the girl, shrugging off his backpack. He placed in on the bed, sighing before looking over to the girl. 

"Project: get your memory back, is a go." He unzipped his back pack and began tossing things out of it. Iris reached out and picked up a small stuffed elephant, smiling at Eli as he continued taking things out. 

He climbed onto the bed, sitting across from the girl. He placed the now empty back pack on the floor and turned to look at the big pile of things. 

"Okay, lets start with this." Iris watched him reach down and pick up a bag of salt and vinegar chips. Her eyebrows raised as the boy watched her expectantly. "Well?" 

"Am I supposed to eat them? Because salt and vinegar?" Iris looked up at Eli like he was crazy. "Doesn't sound like a good chip flavor."

"First of all, it's a very good chip flavor." Eli scoffed, tossing the bag of chips into the girl's lap. "Second of all, no you can't eat them these are your mementoes." 

"My what?" 

"They're like souvenirs for your memories. I'm hoping one of these will job some type of memory. And if we get one, the others might come back easier." Iris nodded along with Eli, looking over all of the mementoes. 

"Makes sense." 

"Right?" The girl chuckled at Eli's optimism as he looked over the pile. "How about you pick one?" Iris looked over the many items, reaching out for the elephant again. 

"What's this guy's name?" Eli smiled at the girl's question, remembering when she had first asked that question. 

"What do you think?" Iris looked down at the elephant, for some reason only one name was in her brain. 

"Dumbo." Eli felt like he could cry, right then and there but he didn't want to scare the girl. He felt like she was on the right tract, picking out the name he had chosen months back. "If it's not Dumbo, it is now." Eli let out an airy laugh, trying to hide the tears in his eyes from the girl. 

"What about this?" Iris looked down at the patch in Eli's hand, her eyes widening slightly as she noticed her name. It was a yellow circle with a black fist in the middle, her name written at the top in black. 

She stared at the patch, her mood decreasing as nothing appeared in her head. Unlike the elephant, she didn't have a clue what this patch could be. She passed it back to Eli, a frown on her face. 

"I don't know." Eli frowned before picking up something else, the girl deflating more and more as she couldn't recognize anything else in the pile.