I knew I was forgetful, but I didn't know how forgetful I could be until looking at my calendar. Naomi and I were leaving today for the farm.

Truthfully, it was exciting to go try something new. I was bored of city life; I always tried my best to shine in the office but the unpaid overtime was really getting to me. Mimi had just graduated from college and had no plans for the future either. Our mother suggested that we begin anew on our grandfather's old farm. The two of us had some experience of farm life as we would spend a couple of summer vacations there to help out the old man. I certainly was excited to go but Mimi didn't seem like she was.

"Are you sure you want to go, Mimi?" I asked her before we headed out the door with our luggage in tow. "You can always back out if you need to."

"I am very sure that I wish to go with you to the farm," Mimi explained, gritting her teeth. "You asked me that ten times already today and we haven't even arrived at the train station yet."

"Sorry!" I twirled a loose strand of my bright blond hair around my finger. "I honestly forgot we were leaving today."

"I'm very sure you did. Hopefully, you don't forget where the farm is or what exactly it's even called." Mimi gave me a sly smile. With her hunched shoulders and dark hair, she looked like she could be a movie villain if she really wanted to, but Mimi wasn't like that at all. Sure, some found her off-putting, but Mimi was just misunderstood.

"The farm name? Of course, I forgot!" I laughed. "You know me, Mimi."

"Sakura. It's called Sakura, and it's located in Mineral Town."
"Ah yes, I knew it was there all along!" I awkwardly laughed at my statement. Mimi just sighed and handed my phone that I had left on the countertop to me.

"That was surprisingly the only thing that you needed to pack up. I'm impressed."

"Well, I need to be my best today. I even did my nails and everything to make sure I create an impression on those simple country folks."

"I'm sure your outgoing personality will be more than enough to win them over." Mimi opened the door to leave the apartment for the final time.
"That's true! I can't wait to see Mineral Town!" I skipped out the door, thinking about how wonderful it would be to get some fresh air and be out of this claustrophobic city.

"Claire, you forgot your suitcase!"

It was certainly a good six-hour train ride, but we eventually made it to the stop for Mineral Town. It truly was in the middle of nowhere, with the nearest city being at least an hour and a half away. At least, I thought it was the stop for Mineral Town.

"We're here!" I exclaimed, twirling around my luggage like it weighed nothing. "Can you believe it, Naomi? Here, we can begin our new life on Sakura!"
"We still have to get a boat there, Claire," Mimi commented, pulling her luggage behind her. "I think we're supposed to meet this guy named Thomas somewhere on the platform."

"I remember that picture of him!" Even if I couldn't remember what people told me or things like that, I seemed to be naturally good at remembering a face to a name. "I think that's him over there!" I pointed over to what I assumed to be him.

Thomas was a quaint little man. He was short and stout, with a large red top hat to compliment his stature. He almost looked like something out of a picture book. If he was the mayor of Mineral Town, I couldn't help but imagine the rainbow-colored cast of other people in town that would be similar to him. The thought of a quaint fairytale town just made my heart flutter. I would love to live in that sort of place. I ran over to Thomas, waving to him.

"Are you Mr. Thomas?" I called out, hoping he would hear me. He turned around and waved back to me. I put on my grown-up facade since that's what most adults would want to see from me. They want a kind, dainty young lady.

"Claire, wait up!" Mimi groaned, lugging her suitcase behind her. Thomas waited for Mimi to come over to us before speaking, which took a while but she eventually made it to us.

"I take it you both are Claire and Naomi?" Thomas asked the two of us. We both nodded in unison. "Wonderful. I am Mayor Thomas Duke of Mineral Town, however, most of the townsfolk call me Thomas." He held out his hand to me. "It's nice to meet you both."

"It's nice to meet you too, Mayor Thomas," I said politely and shook his hand. He went over to Mimi, who was a little hesitant before giving a limp handshake.

"I take it you're shy, Claire?" he asked Mimi before she muttered something under her breath. "What was that? I couldn't really hear."

"Her name's Mi-"
"Naomi," Mimi spoke up slightly. "Claire's the blond." I could feel Mimi's glare burn the back of my skull.

"I deeply apologize for my dear sister," I tried sounding sincere, which I think worked for Thomas but not Mimi. Mimi never fell for my adult ruse anyways. "She may be shy and stiff, but she's genuinely a good person. Once she comes out of her shell, that is." The glare was burning harder now, but I did my best to ignore it.

"It's quite alright Claire. My wife used to be shy when she was your age." Thomas started walking, so I decided to follow behind him so as to not get lost. Mimi followed suit.

Eventually, Thomas led us to the dock. The city we were in had a relatively large port. Large cargo ships loomed over the three of us as if they were some sort of judgemental higher beings. I shuddered a bit, as I couldn't recall the last time I had seen so many ships that were that big. I could only imagine them sinking into the ocean. I couldn't really understand why I was thinking that. After all, I never set foot on a ship before. Why should I be this nervous?

We arrived at the medium-sized motorboat that would take us to Mineral Town. It was located on a very large island about ten miles away with a couple of other small towns such as Forget-Me-Not Valley and the like, but there weren't that many people living there as of right now. It truly was a small town, according to Thomas.

"After you, ladies," Thomas stepped aside to allow the two of us to board.

"Thank you very much," I made sure to say politely. I heard Mimi whisper the same thing as she followed me on board.

The twenty-minute boat ride seemed like it dragged on forever. Thomas and I made some small talk while Naomi was fiddling with her phone. At some point, I decided to get up and witness the view of the town come closer and closer into view. I must've leaned too far over the edge while we were close to the docks. I truly wasn't paying attention until it happened.

"I can't wait to arrive at-" I started saying before accidentally diving headfirst into the water below me. "Woah!"

The cold waters of the ocean hit my face like an alarm clock waking me up in the middle of the night. I was panicking. How was I supposed to swim? I hadn't come in contact with a pool or a beach for many, many years before this. I sort of flailed about, trying to swim upwards but desperately failing. The boat was leaving without me! I needed to catch up, and quickly. I did my best to keep up with the boat, but eventually, I ran out of air and started sinking.

Is this the end? My journey just started, it can't be!

"Clarisa, I'm sorry. We can't go on our yearly vacation this year," Mom told me. I was about six or seven at the time.

"Why not, Mommy?" I asked, tugging on her apron. The area seemed fuzzy, but I figured I was in my childhood home in the suburbs of the nearest city we were by at the time.

"Daddy and I can't get the time off to go on our yearly vacation," I remember Mom telling me later, when I was a teenager, that there was a recession during that time, so money was particularly tight. Of course, being that young, I wouldn't have been able to understand, so the fib was good enough for now.

"Awww!" I pouted.

"Don't worry sweetheart! We'll go there next year." Mom patted my head.

Sometime later, maybe a week or so after that conversation, Mom came up to me again explaining that my grandfather would let me come to his farm that summer.

"What about Mimi?" I recalled asking her.

"Mimi will be fine. She's a bit too young for the trip, sweetheart. Aunt Josie will be coming over to help take care of her during the day, like she always does."

"Okay!" I happily skipped to my room, excited about the new adventure.

About two more weeks had passed and I was now on my grandfather's farm. He had told me that he would be busy throughout the day, but the area was safe enough that I could wander about and make friends to play with if I really wanted to. I remember that none of the other kids really wanted to play when I first introduced myself, so I decided to play by the hilly area that was somewhat away from the town. I was pretty lonely until a boy came by one day and noticed me all by myself.

"Hey! You're the kid that's staying on Mr. Watson's farm, right?"

"Yeah…" I trailed off. I was pretty shy as a kid, but I slowly grew out of that phase.

"I'm sorry I couldn't play the other day! Do you want to play with me and my friends?" The boy was really eager, something that sort of overwhelmed me a bit, but I thought it was nice that he wanted to play with me.

"Mhm!" I nodded happily. "Let's play!"
"Okay! Follow me!" He grabbed my hand and started running off.

"Wait for me!" I screamed, trying to keep up the best I could.

Eventually, summer ended, and I had to head back home.

"Aww!" I distinctly recollected the sad look on his face. "You'll come back next year, right?"
"I'll try my best!" I said and gave him a hug. "I want to know your name though. You never told me!"

"Oh yeah! Sorry, I forgot. My name is…"

"Clarisa! Please wake up or I'll never forgive myself!"

"What was his name!" I shrieked and bolted up. "I can't remember!" I looked down to see Naomi crying on my lap. I then started coughing a whole lot. That was probably a bad idea for me to do, but my brain didn't like to think logically sometimes.
"Well at least I know you don't have amnesia or anything," Mimi gave a sigh of relief and looked up at me. "I should've told you that you were leaning too close to the edge."

"I fell off the boat? Oh right, I did do that, didn't I?" I inquired.

"Yes, you did! If it wasn't for that guy being by the beach and seeing you fall over, you would've been dead. He was really strong."

"A guy…" I started thinking. Maybe he had a love at first sight moment for seeing a poor, dainty girl fall over the side of a boat that he just had to go swim to save me? "Wait, no no no!" My face started flushing up; I could just feel it. "He didn't like me, did he? I didn't attract him by doing something so stupid like that, did I?"

"Here we go again," Mimi rolled her eyes as I was freaking out about a boy liking me. "You're twenty-three, shouldn't you stop acting like a teenager?"

"Mimi," I whined. "Where are we even? I'm scared! Is that boy going to come back?"

"You're currently at the infirmary," someone else said, walking in. "Your sister brought you here." She walked in, wearing a blue and white dress that went down all the way down to her shoes. Her facial features reminded me of chocolate.

"Aww, so was the man saving me all just something you made up?" I asked Mimi, kind of annoyed that she would fib like that.

"He helped me walk you here, but after that Elly pretty much took over. I didn't think to catch his name, sorry."

"It's fine," I said and pouted. "You must be Elly then?"

"Yes!" Elly said and smiled warmly at me. "It's nice to meet you, Claire."

"Can I leave now?" I asked. I didn't particularly like to stay at hospitals. The way everything is so clean made me uneasy.

"Unfortunately you'll have to stay here a few days so I can make sure that you're doing well. Doctor's orders."

"Aww, alright Doctor Elly," I sighed. Elly then chuckled a little bit. "What? Aren't you the doctor?"
"I'm pleased that you think of me that way but.." Elly trailed off, looking a little awkward. "I'm just a nurse. Doctor Trent is the doctor who runs the practice."

"I'm really sorry! I had no idea!" I flustered up and started waving my hands around.

"It's alright! Please don't stress about it." Elly was a really nice person from the looks of it. I was more interested in this doctor guy she spoke of. Trent was his name?

"The Doctor will be back tomorrow," Elly explained. "He had to go to the mainland for a meeting about supplies. For now, he said I'm Doctor Elly!" I noticed Elly's face gained some more color to her pale cheeks. It seemed that she had a crush on Doctor Trent. If it turned out that this Doctor was the one who saved me, I would have to put a great deal of effort into courting him, or whatever they call dating out in the sticks. Elly would most likely be a rival for his affections. I made sure to keep this in mind.

"The infirmary will be closing soon," Mimi spoke up. "Thomas will show me the way to the farm."

"Are you sure you'll be able to handle everything by yourself?" I asked Mimi. "I know you aren't that great with the finance side of things-"

"Claire." Mimi looked me dead in the eye. "I will be fine. You focus on recovering. Please don't worry about me."
"If you say so!" I said and smiled. "I'm sure you'll handle everything well." I, of course as the older sister, had my doubts, but Mimi had proved that she would be capable of things before, so the farm shouldn't be that bad.

"See you tomorrow," Mimi patted my head and left. Elly soon followed out of the room behind her.

Thinking in bed at night, I wanted to find out two things during the time I'm here. The first thing I want to find out is the name of the boy who played with me as a kid and made me feel welcome when the other kids would not. The other thing I wanted to know was who the man who saved me was. Perhaps they were the same people. Perhaps they were not. Either way, I needed to thank these two people for being there for me.

I hope they still remember me.