To Help A Friend

A Story by Amber

"Wait up, Aaron!" Sam yelled, running after her best friend, Aaron. He was leading her through a forest near his house. Tall trees covered in moss were making it difficult for Sam to keep up, even though she's already slower than him usually.
Aaron stopped and started pulling away branches from several trees. "Come here, look!" Aaron shouted back at Sam. She walked through the path Aaron made and was amazed.
It looked like an oasis in the middle of a desert. The dead grass they were previously walking through was clear green and neatly cut in this area. The trees no longer covered the sky, so the sun was shining down brightly on them. There was a little pond with a few ducks swimming around happily and, close to it, a patch of beautiful flowers with butterflies flying around them.
"Wow…" Sam whispered."This place is so pretty."
"I know," Aaron agreed. He walked over to the patch of flowers, picked a few, and walked over to Sam. "Here, happy birthday!"
"You remembered! Thank you," Sam smiled. They were quiet for a little while, until a rustling sound broke the silence. The two friends looked around, confused. The rustling sound came again, this time more clearly. Aaron realized it came from around the flower patch and started walking toward it. Sam slowly followed.
"Hu-mans?" a voice from behind a tree close to the flowers appeared. "Humans?" a little girl came out from behind the tree. She couldn't have been any older than seven, but she was very pale. She moved her long, blonde hair out of her face and spoke again, "You, you stole my flowers!" She teared up a little and then ran toward Sam and, along the way, ran through Aaron.
He and Sam both had shocked looks on their faces. Finally, Aaron spoke,"H-how'd you do that?!" The little girl took the flowers back from Sam, smelled the flowers and said, almost emotionless, "Oh, I'm a ghost." Aaron and Sam looked even more shocked. "And," she continued. "Since you stole my flowers, you're going to help me find my mommy!"
"What?!" Aaron yelled, still in shock. "Why should we help you?!" The little girl smiled, "Because if you don't, I'm going to haunt you two forever and make a lot of bad things happen! That's what'll happen if you don't help me find my mommy so I can cross over!"
Aaron walked over to Sam, grabbed her hand, and led his shocked friend out of the forest. The little girl followed. Aaron sighed, "You're following?"
"Of course!" she said. Sam finally came out of shock,"What's your name? I'm Sam and this is Aaron," Aaron gave her a disapproving look.
"I don't remember…" She got a sad look.
"Well, I'll name you Flora then!" Sam smiled, and, the newly named, Flora smiled back. The two girls talked while the highly annoyed Aaron led them to his house.
"So, uh, Flora," Aaron said after they arrived at his small, run-down house. "Where can we find your mom?" Obviously, he wanted this to be over as quickly as it started. Flora thought for a little bit and then answered,"Hmm… I don't know."
Aaron reached over at his desk grabbing a stapler and getting ready to throw it at her, but Sam grabbed his hand to stop him. She calmed him down and he sat at his computer, knowing it would be helpful.
"Well, where did you two live before, well, you know," Sam asked.
"Actually," Flora answered. "It wasn't that far from here," Aaron typed in the neighborhood area into the computer. "What's your mom's name?" He asked.
"Umm… I think mommy's name was Maria. And our last name was… Lonsdale. Yeah! That's it!" Aaron typed away again.
They were all quiet for a while waiting for any news. The only noise in the room was Aaron typing and clicking at his computer. After around an hour, Aaron asked Flora to look through some pictures he found to see if anything looked familiar to her. Two pictures did. One was of a house and the other of a woman. Flora said it was her house and mom, and as soon as she realized this she blasted out of Aaron's house. Aaron and Sam tried to follow her, but she was too fast for them.
That was the last time the two friends saw Flora. They never knew what happened to her, but they were sure she crossed over. Her not coming back and the fact that Sam and Aaron found a note saying "Thank you, Sam. Thank you, Aaron. I'll never forget you two." only confirmed it.
Although the three weren't together for very long they never forgot each other. Flora always thought about Aaron and Sam, and wondered what they were up to back on earth. And Aaron and Sam never forgot about Flora or the day they met her. They thought about her always wondering what she was doing on the other side and every year on the exact day they met they go back to that wonderful spot in that forest where they first met her to put flowers on the grave they made for her.