Why does life come with so many different possible answers to the same question? Which answer is the correct one and how do you know for sure?
Finding your true self, amid all the decisions you're forced to make in growing up, is quite a battle, is...
"What are you two like!" Kla yelled as he struggled to sit up. "If you had stripped me, Korn, I would be punching you right now, and as for you Karn! I was warm enough, but you were squeezing me so hard I could hardly breathe. If P'Earth hadn't told you to ease up I could have suffocated."
He then flung his arms around Karn and kissed him on the cheek, and then did the same to Korn. "I was fine. Everything happened as P'Pond told me it would."
"Do you feel anything?" Karn asked, as he hugged him again.
"Not now," Kla answered as he stood up. "I felt hot when the last people kissed me. P'Pond said I would. You made me even hotter by hugging me so close. There's no chance I've caught a cold and am going to be ill. Mum's not going to be worried or anything."
Korn hugged his younger brother again. "We were just thinking of you, that's all. We've never done anything like this and we were scared for you."
"You were scared?" Kla retaliated, as he started to dry himself off. "Think about how scared I was...., being made to do all that blindfolded was really scary but quite exciting at the same time."
"If you weren't blindfolded you would have shit yourself before you went into the water," Korn fired back as he tousled Kla's hair, "so don't come the big brave boy with us."
Kla turned to Pond. "Is Klaew really in me?"
"His spirit is .... yes! When I touched lips with you to wake you he was laughing. When you sleep tonight he will talk to you. You must not tell anyone, other than us, your brothers, Earth and Ming, what has happened or what Klaew tells you. If you do then he will want to leave your body and stop talking to you. I saw in your heart that you can be trusted, just like I saw in your two brothers."
"Are you sure that you're not an alien from outer space?" Kla asked, sounding rather expectant, or at least hoping, that he would be.
"Yes Kla, I am quite sure. Although I am not fully human, I am from a place far closer to home."
"That's wicked!" Kla replied, with a big smile on his face, and immediately hugged Pond. "Thank you for whatever you have done. I will do as you say and not say anything to anyone. I feel so happy again. Thank you."
Pond broke out of the hug Kla was still giving him.
"It is doubtful if you and I will meet again, but if we do, you will not say anything to me, or to my friends here, unless we speak to you first. Our lives depend on secrecy and we rely on our trusted friends to maintain that. You are now a trusted person and if we need you to help us when you are a little older, then I hope you will be like your brothers, and their friends, and say yes. Once you talk with Klaew you will understand more and will know why we had to do everything so secretly. P'Book and P'Best will take you ashore in the dinghy now and P'Best will accompany you back to the hotel. You must go straight home and rest. P'Book will meet you tomorrow morning on your way to school to answer any questions you may have after Klaew has spoken with you. After that, you must ask your brothers or P'Ming or P'Earth. Do you understand the importance of what I have said?"
Kla nodded and hugged him again, and then he hugged Book and the others. He wiped the tears from his eyes before we helped him down the ladder into the dinghy. Karn and Korn too were crying as Book hit the engine and sped away with Kla waving frantically.
As the twins got dressed, Ming and I said our goodbyes to Good, and once Book returned we climbed down into the dinghy to be taken ashore.
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