Kasper, Eleazar and I talked for a few hours and figured things out. You see, Kasper and Eleazar had been fishing upstream when they saw me "fall" (I didn't want to tell them it was suicide) so Eleazar jumped in and saved me. They carried me back here and I've been sleeping ever since.
"So... how long have I been asleep exactly?" I asked uncomfortably.
Kasper and Eleazar glanced at eachother. Uh-oh, I thought. "Miel, you've been asleep for four days," Kasper confirmed.
My eyes widened. Four days? Eleazar shot Kasper a nervous look. I suddenly felt so dizzy.
And what about Carmen? And...and... Oh, I could recover one name. I have to remember another! And.... Annie? Is that her name? Or Aly? No....... Ashley!! The twins, Carmen and Ashley! I suddenly had a visualization in my mind, a picture of two very young girls chasing eachother across a lawn.
Kasper cleared his throat. "Well, you've told us what you remember. Now could you be bothered with our pasts?"
My head jerked up. I nodded firecely.
"Well, " Kasper began, "I was born in 1940 in New Mexico. My mother was from Mexico. But my father was from California, so they met in the middle. But when the war began, my mother grew anxious for our family's safety, while my father was avoiding a draft. So we moved back to my mother's homeland: Sonora, Mexico.
"Father learned Spanish, but he was never at ease in the village like Mother was. Though I must say that I enjoyed growing up in a Mexican village. There were many characters in the village. Like Pedro: the drummer that would tell ellaborate stories while he played the drums. Or Fernanda, the belly dancer dancer who danced so gracefully but sang like a donkey. Or Edgar, the sailor who always brought back candies for the children on trips. And then there was Ameranti, the fortune teller."
"Kasper, please," I heard Eleazar say, dragging me out of Kasper's childhood.
Kasper nodded. "Of course." He turneed back to me. "So Ameranti was a fortune teller who lived among the Sonora citizens. She was hard to miss, with bony hands and fingers, squinting reddish eyes, and garnet- colored skin. She always wore golden rings and jewels, and long dresses and scarves and head wraps. Whenever Senor Edgar was on a cargo trip, she would pay him extra to get her more ellaborate scarves."
"What kind of fortunes would Ameranti tell?" I asked.
Kasper tilted his head and answered, "Actually, her fortunes were rarely inaccurate. She gave advice as well. But mostly fortunes. Like when Senor Usilise was dying, his wife went to Ameranti. Ameranti told Senora Usilise to feed her husband nothing but beets for the next few weeks. And within the month, Senor Usilise was cured! Many people from other towns and villages came to Ameranti for advice. However, she was very mysterious. In fact, she lived longer than any recorded person from Sonora ever has."
"How long did she live?" I questioned.
"Well, she passed in... 2009. So she lived to be.........."- I could tell Kasper was doing the mental math in his head- "104 years old."
104 years? I then had a sudden flashback of a tall girl with pale brown hair and brown eyes yelling at a man and a woman-her parents?- I couldn't hear what she was saying, but I could read her lips. She was saying: "I'm seventeen! I'm so grown up! Let me go!" Not as grown up as Senorita Ameranti. For some reason, I felt an extreme spark of irritation toward this girl. Another flashback came to mind, and I saw a notebook, small, yet sizable, being stuffed into my pocket.....
"Miel?" Kasper tried to win back my attention.
"Just a moment," I asserted. I shoved my hands into my damp jean pockets, and felt something..... my journal! I opened it, and though it was so soggy and smeared, I could make out a few very familiar words.
"My name!" I exclaimed. Kasper and Eleazar hurried over to me. "What is it?" Eleazar asked.
"My name," I breathed, "It's-"
