Past Lives: The Things Unknown and Unsaid

About 12 Years Ago

"Esta bem(1), It's alright," Emma said, her voice cracking with sadness. "We're ok."

"Are we Emma?" Cleo asked fear starting to run into her thoughts. "We're stranded on an island and anyone who might know where we are is… out there. Isto é mau(2)."

Emma looked to where Cleo was pointing. The boat fire was still visible from their spot on the beach. No one could be seen around it, no life boats either. No one else seemed to have gotten off.

"Someone will find us," Emma said. "People will start to wonder, soon, the other teachers. They'll look for us. They'll see us here. We'll be ok."

Emma moved closer to Cleo. Her blond hair brushed ageist her friends face as she tried to comfort her. Cleo's brown eyes looked up at her friend. "We're the only survivors, Emma. I know it. E quando alguém acha-nos, seremos só uns que souberam o que aconteceram, como ficamos aqui, como sobrevivemos, mas não fizeram. Mas não posso lembrar-me de o que aconteceu-se(3)... It seemed like a dream. Ninguém me acreditaria.(4)"

"I know what you mean. This doesn't seem real," Emma said softly watching as the fire in the distance fizzled out to nothing. "Let's keep this between us, how we got here, what happened, what we saw. Can you do that?"

Cleo nodded. "nosso segredo.(5)"

Cleo watched the fire as sirens were sounding low in the distance. Flashing lights were everywhere. Divers were in the water and before anyone knew it, Cleo and Emma were safe and everyone was gone, forgetting the entire incident, every child, every name, every face, every life lost because of a small problem and a silly mistake.

Present Day

"Alright, class, your end of the nine weeks projects will be due in six weeks. I want you to research a tragedy that either happened around the Gold Coast, or where you grew up as a child. You can easily find some old papers from events around here in the library. I want you to have picked an event for approval next class," Mrs. Collins explained to the class. "This will all lead up to our week of remembrance. Most remember the tragedy that hit here 12 years ago, but I know some don't, and others weren't here. We will be talking a lot about that tragedy in weeks to come."

Just then the bell rang. Students started to make their way for the door. Rikki stood, gathering her things and walked up to Cleo, whom sat in the front. Bella joined her friends from her seat on the other side of the room, and the three of the made their way out of the class room.

"So what big tragedy is Mrs. Collins referring to, Cleo?" Bella asked as they rounded the corner and met up with Will.

"I really don't remember. I was six and in grade 1," Cleo explained trying to brush the subject off.

"You don't remember anything of it, not even a simple what do you think happened?" Rikki asked getting curious.

"There was an accident, some students and a teacher died, that's really all I can remember. Again, I was six," Cleo said walking ahead of her friends to her locker.

"So Mrs. Collin's explain the project today?" Will half asked. "I think I'm going to work with the murder of this girl I knew when I was ten. She was killed by her father, whom turned out not to be her father."

Bella turned to look at him and he smiled. "I'm going to do the disappearance of a twelve year-old-girl in Ireland. No one found her, ever."

"That's terrible," Cleo commented closing her locker and following her friends to the road.

"Yeah, some crazy people say they saw her the day she disappeared jumping off a pier into the ocean. They say she either committed suicide or was a mermaid," Bella explained with a smile. "They also said I was a mermaid, and that me and that girl were going to rule the world."

"Funny, Kim thought we were going to take over the world, right Rikki," Cleo said with a laugh as the teens made their way to Rikki's Café.

Once there, Rikki tossed off her bag in her office, kissed her oh-so-annoying boyfriend, and raced out to where her friends had taken a seat on the couch indoors. The weather outside was too cool and was calling for rain, better safe than sorry. Cleo pulled out her notebook and flipped to the page where she wrote the homework assignment down. Zane made his way, behind Rikki, to the couch and peered over Cleo's shoulder. He read her notebook.

"So what are you picking Cleo?" Zane asked as Cleo twisted to get a good look at him. "That terrible accident from…. awe, awe " Zane didn't get to finish because Cleo had gotten to him so he wouldn't.

The other's watched her as she let go of Zane, after he got the message to keep quiet. They shook it off quick and went straight back to talking about the mystery accident.

"Hey Zane, do you know anything about an accident from when you and Cleo were in grade 1?" Rikki asked, hoping to get more answers from Zane than she did Cleo.

Zane looked to Cleo's dagger eyes, knowing that was a silent threat, "I don't know much," he admitted. "sorry."

"It's cool, we'll learn about it soon. I was just wondering if you knew anything about it before hand." Rikki said walking away from the group.

After Rikki was gone, Cleo made a quick exit, hoping no one would ask her about the accident again. But she wasn't quick enough, she was caught by Zane.

"Do you mind?" Cleo asked pushing her way past Zane.

"Why didn't you tell them?" Zane asked. "Is there a problem with just telling them now. They're going to find out."

"Because they will want to know exactly what everyone else still wants to know, and I can't lie to my friends," Cleo explained.

Zane sighed, "Then don't, tell them. They'll understand, you should know that."

Cleo looked into Zane's eyes, "That's just it, even I don't understand. How would they?" And with that, she left.

Translations: 1) It is alright 2) This is bad 3) And when someone does find us, we will be only ones who knew what happened, how we got here, how we survived, but they didn't. But I can't even remember what happened myself. 4) No one would believe me 5) our secret