Epilogue: Emri

On a hot summer’s day, a barista cleans her station and happily greets her customers. She continues to clean after her workers attentively giving support and encouragement as she lists the tasks to be worked on for the café, Dawn’s Café. Workers move like a well-oiled machine, a symphony of baristas interchangeably helping brew orders, completing transactions, and restocking the cold bar with pastries and boxed foods.

Her name tag reads Manager – Emri. She’s about to leave for the day and signs off on some last-minute paperwork and deliveries. She waves to her workers making her exit, she’s stopped.

“Emri! Hey you have the bag with your name on it.”

She turns around smiling, “Oh shoot! I forgot about that. Thanks Tiff!”

“Someone give that too you?”

“Yea, one of my regulars that comes in to get coffee every morning.”

Tiff tries to recall, “What’s the order for their coffee?”

“Oh! He usually gets the large, iced coffee with a shot of classic. Lately he’s been going back and forth between the Lychee Iced Tea.”

“Large Iced Coffee?”

“Yea he always gets the large.” Emri pauses as Tiff ponders into the abyss of faces.

“Shoot I can’t remember his face! There are too many large, iced coffee regulars ordering that recently.

“Yeah, don’t worry about it. I’m sure you’ll remember who he is if I point him out to you.”

“So, has he asked for your number yet?” Tiff grins with accusation.

“Hey no. Stop that! He’s just really nice. He wouldn’t date someone like me.” Emri laughs.

“You never know hun. You better drive safe it’s raining cats and dogs.”

“Ah crap! Okay, I’ll see you guys tomorrow, bye.” She hurries to her car with a bag dressed up with a happy birthday printed on the side.

Emri starts her car and pulls out of her stall. Shortly after she’s driving on the highway and suddenly, she hears tires screeching. Emri looks into her rearview mirror to see cars ramming into each other. She braces to see the truck slam into her SUV pushing her into the intersection. As Emri’s SUV is pushed, she can see a semi-truck trying to evade her, and then a sudden darkness.

Total darkness covers her eyes. She can’t see anything. Everything feels wet, is she underwater she thought. She can’t move, she feels bound. She can feel the water circulating from under her body. Her mouth is restricted with something covering her nose and mouth. A breathing apparatus pumps oxygen into her mouth and her nose. Voices, she thought. Are those voices I hear, it’s faint, but she can recognize two voices are talking. She can’t make out anything clear through the water running against her ears.

“Where am I?” She thought. “Where am I? What am I doing here?”

She remains calm despite her circumstance. She tries to recall what brought her to be here. She cannot remember. She tries to think of anything, a face, a name, someone. Her mind is a complete blank.

“Maybe if I listen closely, I may be able to hear what they’re talking about?”

“This is the girl we found along the river with his body?”

“Yes, your majesty. We searched the records for anyone that matches the description of this girl, but we didn’t find anything. No records for the boy either.”

“I see. Crimzon is in stable condition then?”

“Yes. Both have been stabilized now and the regeneration of their bodies finally kicked in and are healing properly.”

“Good job Aiko. Do you mind over seeing them here in the orphanage until they can participate in the Rite?”

“No, your majesty. I don’t mind at all. But what about this one? Poor girl has no name.”

“I will name her Irin.”