LAX

Aaron and Ji Yeon meet at LAX

LAX

Aaron waited at a restaurant at the terminal of LAX. He'd just gotten back from Sydney, Australia and was waiting for his friend Ji Yeon, who was arriving from Seoul, Korea soon. Wishing he was 21 or at least had a fake ID, he pulled out a book from his luggage and began to read The End of Eternity by Isaac Asimov.

People came and went, but he didn't notice any of them until a shadow fell over his book a while later. Aaron looked up and saw a petite young Asian woman standing in front of him. “Ji Yeon?” he asked as he marked his place and closed his book.

“Aaron?” she asked back.

Aaron set the book on the table and stood up. The two embraced and then he invited her to sit down in the chair across from him. “It is so god to finally meet you!” he exclaimed.

“You too.”

“How was your flight?”

“Not bad. Grandma made me paranoid about flying since that is how Mom and Dad died, but it was a rather uneventful flight.” She smiled.

“I know. My Mom and Grandma are the same way.”

“I tried to tell her that far more people die in car accidents each year than die in plane crashes, but she just doesn't listen. She goes on and on about lightening striking in the same place twice.”

“I know. Mom wouldn't even get on a plane to go see Grandma in Sydney. She stubbornly refused to leave LA once she got back. Grandma actually moved here for a few years, but then when her sister Lindsey got sick, she moved back to Sydney. I know Mom misses her terribly, but she still can't bring herself to get on a plane after all these years.”

“How long has it been?” Ji Yeon asked,

“Oh, I was about three and a half when Mom came back. So it has been like nineteen years now.”

Ji Yeon suddenly looked as if she was about to cry. “I was about two years old when my Mother disappeared. I figure she must have died trying to rescue your mom and the others. I barely even remember her now. Grandma told me her plane when down on the way back from LA. She was supposed to be returning to Seoul after she took care of some business here, but after I found your blanket I realized that was probably a lie. Or maybe that is what they told Grandma. I don't know. I just had to find out who Aaron Austen was.”

“I wouldn't imagine tracking me down was easy since mom changed my name from Austen to Littleton when she got back.”

“Why were you named Austen in the first place?”

“Aunt Kate took care of me from the time I was three months until I was about three years old. She hasn't said much about the past, except that she had to go get my mother and she didn't want to take me along. Mom had been left behind somehow. Everyone thought she was dead. Anyway, Kate left me with my grandmother and explained that she'd been passing me off as her own. Grandma had no idea I even existed since she was in a coma until after Mom left for LA. It took me years to find out why Mom was even going to LA.”

“How crazy is it that our parents had been complete strangers until that fateful flight?”

“Crazy. But even crazier is that here we sit years later talking about it! I mean if it hadn't of crashed all those years ago they would have never met and then we would have never met!” Aaron exclaimed.

“I am glad I found your blanket. I am still not sure how Mom came to have it in her possession. After she disappeared from LA, the cops found her car parked at the airport. They impounded the car and sent the contents of it to Grandma in Seoul. Your blanket was among her things for some reason.”

“I asked Aunt Kate about that and she said that your Mom watched me sometimes. She was watching me the day she disappeared. I guess your Mom thought it would be neat if we met and became friends.”

“I suppose she hoped that we'd grow up together instead of just being friends online for so long.”

“She wasn't afraid to fly and probably would have been happy to bring you to LA to meet me.”

“Perhaps she should have been afraid. Then she might still be alive.”

“Aunt Kate says she didn't die in a plane crash though.”

“No, but that is what they told my Grandma though.”

“I know. But they were trying to protect the others.”

“What others?”

“That I don't know. I guess the others who were on the island.”

“Perhaps we should find them.”

“Those who were still on the island?”

“Yeah. Though I think we start with who might have been on the island and left. Perhaps there are others out there like us, whose pasts are shrouded in mystery.”

“Yes, definitely. We need to know more.”

Ji Yeon laughed, “You know a whole novel of information more than I do. I had no idea my mom knew you or Clare or Kate or James. It wasn't until I emailed you that I found out your Mom knew my Mom.”

“To be fair Mom and Kate didn't mention you either. Mom had no idea who you were. It was Aunt Kate who remembered your name when I asked. But even then she didn't know anything about you other than who your parent were.”

“Grandma says my father died in the first crash in 2004. My mother was with him and survived, but then she died in 2007 in another crash.”

“Like I said in my email, Uncle James says that Jin was with him during those three years. He was alive and well. Your Mom went to find him and they were reunited briefly before they both drowned.”

“Seems cruel doesn't it? She traveled all that way to find him and then that was it. Sometimes I think I should have been with them. At least then we could have had one moment together as an actual family. Not knowing them has been tough.”

“You should come with me to Aunt Kate and Uncle James. They can tell you about your parents”

“Hopefully they won't be too secretive,” Ji Yeon sighed.

“Oh, I think we can get them to open up,” Aaron said with a sly smile.

“Then let's go. What are we waiting for?”

Aaron stood up, grabbed his bag and left the restaurant with Ji Yeon. They went to his car in the parking lot and he drove them to Kate and Jame's place.

Author's Note

Lost Fan Fiction