Chapter 3: The Truth

Just as dad was about to tell me the truth, there was a knock on the door. Dad peeped through the hole, and let the person in. I recognized him immediately. I was confused. "Cliff? What are you doing here?" I said holding my head because I felt lightheaded. "Don't worry about why I am here. The important thing is that I am. I heard from a source that you are planning on telling Kai the truth." Said Cliff talking to Dad. "Yes we are. Its actually a good thing you are here as well then." Said Dad. "Cliff do you want to tell him or should we?" "I will tell him what I know. First." "Ok go ahead." "First Kai. How are you feeling?" Said Cliff worriedly. "Just a little lightheaded and tired. I need to hear this now that you are here. Especially now that you are here. "I said. "Well all right then. I guess the first and most important thing to tell you is who I really am." " I already know." I said. "I could figure it out by the way you talked to me and your body language. You aren't just any man that was told to watch me. You are my biological father." "Yes I am. Sorry for not telling you sooner." "I'm sure I figured it out sooner. I just can't remember at the moment. So now for the truth that happened. What happened on the ship?" I said curiously.

Then Cliff started telling me what he knew about what happened, "So you said what you knew was you were in the water and swam to shore correct?" He asked me. "Yeah than I met Rin and Elias who told me they were my brother and sister." "Well they might as well be. They raised you since you were 5 years old as their own I'm assuming." "We assumed he was at least 5 or 6 by the looks of him." Said mom. "Yeah well good guess. As I was saying they raisied you since that age. We had a wonderful 5 years with you until there was an accident. We thought we lost you out to sea so we kept following the way where you might have drifted off. Then 10 years later we see you at the port and you said you needed to do something important. I told the captain that he reminded me of someone I knew. I didn't tell him that it was my son. So as awesome as the captain is he offered to take you on account I watch you. We didn't aske questions to what you wanted to do. At least until you were ready. Then a year later, you finally told us what you wanted. I don't know if you want them to hear or not." "Hey mom? Can I talk to Cliff for a minute alone in my room?" "Yes of course Kai." "Thanks mom." So we walked in my room and I sat down in my bed and Cliff in a chair.

"Ok So what was it I wanted to do?" "You said you wanted to find your biological parents. I was shocked when you first told me of course because I am your father. As for your mother, she is alive. She is on another ship coming to port soon. I'm sure she will be happy to know you are ok." "All right. We can go out now and you can tell them the rest." "Ok then." So we walked out and I sat back down in the middle between Elias and Rin. "Ok so after he told me what it was, there was a big storm. It felt like a repeat of what happened the first time. We Searched and searched for him again. Luckily we heard rumors that someone named Kai was hanging around somewhere. So we dropped by port here and here I am. Luckily it only took a month and not another year to find you again."

"Is that all that really happened?" I said curiously. "I have a feeling there is something more to what happened. I believe that stuff did happen, I just don't think that is all." I looked at Rin. She nodded it was ok to tell him. "When Rin my sister was visiting me in the hospital I was tired so I closed my eyes. I heard her say, "Sleep well little brother. I will be back. I will protect you." I need to know. If you know anything about it please tell me father." I didn't realize I called Cliff father until I saw his shocked face. "Never thought I'd hear it again. Thank you." "Sorry did I call you father? I was sort of in a zone sorry about that." "No really its fine. You can call me that if you want. I may have not been much since I didn't raise you for 10 years but its nice to hear you call me father again. I know a little bit about the danger.

Kaia (Kiya) Your mother is coming back soon. I had her check out more about it." "I see. So I was named after mom. Kai as in Kaia." "Yeah your mom is an interesting one I'll tell you that. She should be here about late tonight or sometime around noon tomorrow." "Do you mind if I meet her Cliff?" "NO of course not. She would be happy to see you. I'm sure your parents would be ok with it?" "Yeah of course Kai. We may be your adoptive parents but you have the right to know your real ones as well." said Dad. Then Elias spoke up. "Just remember Kai. You are our brother no matter what anyone says ok?" "He's Right Kai. You will have a place here no matter where you go or who you see." I was holding back tears. "Thanks everyone. That means a lot. When you see her, would you let me know? I will come down as fast as I can." "He he. You are so like her in that reguard. Yes I will let you know. Until then get some rest." "Thanks Cliff." Then we saw him out and he left.

When I was watching him go I had a bad feeling. So I decided to talk to mom dad and the others about it. Luckily they were still sitting down on the couches. I sat there thinking of how I was going to tell them. I saw everyone's worried faces while I was in thought. Then I decided I would tell them in a certain way. It may hurt them but I need to know the truth. I looked at them with a serious expression and said, "Mom. Dad. Rin. Elias. I want to tell you something that may hurt your feelings for me asking. First I want to thank you for all you have done for me. Taking me in giving me food, a bed to sleep in and a roof over my head. I want to thank Rin and Elias for being my siblings. I may make a decision to go with them for awhile depending on the answer I get from all of you whether all of you did it or not. Once I hear your answer then I will know for how long it will take me to get back or if I am even leaving. Here is the thing I want to say. Are you part of the reason why I am in danger? Do you have anything to do with it? I know you know something. Rin told me she would protect me." "Yes we know something." Said mom. "We didn't think they would harm you or try to kill you. We thought it was for your own good." "What happened I need to know." I said getting irritated.

Then dad spoke. "It is true that you went on your own to do something important. We still don't know what that was. We had you followed by another ship. We thought that we would make sure you were safe when you were gone. Then apparently they wanted some information from you that they thought you might know because you were our son. They caused you trouble. They tried to kill you. Unfortunately we got word that the ship they took you on sunk. We worried that you were on it. Then we heard there was another ship then we got our hopes up. Hoping you would survive. That is why we have to protect you. I am not sure what information they want from us, but its enough to hurt our family." I got up and said, "I'm going for a walk. You will know where I will be if anything important comes up." Before anyone can say anything I was out the door to see Cliff.

"Hey Cliff." I said. He was shocked to see me at first, then he saw my face. "What's up Kai? Did something happen?" "Yeah I just can't talk about it right now. I just had to get away. Hey Cliff? If I wanted to, could I join the crew like last time? I need to get my memory back and I think that is the best way. Then I will decide if I want to come back or not." "I think its fine. You are almost 17 now. I think you are old enough to make a decision like that. We still have to wait for your mother though. It will be up to the captain and what I tell him about you. I think its about time I tell the captain our secret although I'm sure he figured it out by now. I think before you make your decision, you should tell your parents and siblings what your plans are." "Yeah I do plan on it. I told them I was thinking about it but not sure. I want to meet mom first before I make my decision." "That's a wise decision."

"Didn't I meet Kaia on the ship before?" "No she is usually on another ship doing business enought to know what she looks like. Once you see her and she sees you, I think she will slow down. At least I hope so." "Oh another thing I wanted to ask. Do I have any siblings I don't know about?" "About that, when your mother comes you will find out. She said if she could see you again she would be the happiest girl on the open sea." "Haha. Thanks Cliff. So I know I already had parents, but why did you and mom wait to tell me who you really were?" "Well we didn't want to confuse you Kai. We thought you already had parents and that was good enough. We didn't want to ruin your happiness or your sense of adventure looking for us." "Ha Ha. You know me too well Cliff. If would have been an adventure looking for you if you were already on the ship and I didn't know."

"I wonder what mom would have done?" "Well if she was on the ship not being busy, she would tell me to tell you who we were." "Hmm. I can picture that. That's just what I would say. I guess I'm more like mom than I thought." "I don't know if its a good thing or a bad thing." Cliff joked. "Haha. Is mom really that bad?" "Well if she was I wouldn't have married her. I liked her for who she was. I was a sailor and your mom was just a woman on land. She came on board with me without question. She didn't know when I would be back and neither did I so she decided it was best to join me on the open seas. So she got a job pretty easy helping out other ships that need it." "So was I born on a ship then?" "Well yeah. You were. Your story is this. Your mom was ready to deliver you. We weren't that far from port. So I asked her if she could wait till we got to the port. She said she would try. So once we got to port, the doctor on our ship came rushing to your mom and helped deliver you. You were born on our ship that lost you at 5 years old. It crumpled to pieces." "I'm sorry Cliff. I'm sure you lost some men to it?" "Yeah a lot of good ones. At least the captain survived among others and myself. Thankfully you did too." "Yeah I'm glad I met you. I hope you don't mind me saying this but thanks dad. I hope on the trip I can call you that? Kaia mom as well." "I'm sure she would love that. That would be up to you what you call us." "All right."