A Fateful Encounter

*This page, A Fateful Encounter, belongs to **Vidle!** Only the people who are currently joining me in this adventure may edit this article. If you would like to join in then request through a message.*

Lila held her mother's hand safely in her own, waiting to be guided in this unknown place of unknown faces. Everything was too foreign and huge to feel secure, relieving, to feel like home - not that home was a welcome place to begin with - and it frightened her deeply. She was only a five year old French kid on travel to Japan with her mother, after all. Looking around with fear but also a bit of curiosity, as if the place encouraged her to write everything down in the tiny notebook she was recently given, she didn't notice that her mom's hand had slipped out of her own and soon found herself in the middle of an unknown street full of unknown people speaking an unknown language she couldn't grasp a single word of. The loud crowd around her filled her mind with a buzzing noise and before realizing it, she was bawling, huge tears of terror and despair streaming down her cheeks.

Maizono got out from a convenient store and looked at Lila. "Excuse me?"

Still sobbing loudly, she turned toward the stranger, speaking in this foreign language she didn't understand. The person seemed concerned, and she wanted to answer, but had no idea how to make herself understood. Remembering how English was an international language, she decided to try out the little vocabulary she already knew. "Mama... Gone... Me, lost... Not from here..." she cried, with her very thick French accent, hoping the girl facing her had some sort of knowledge of English.

"I'm sorry to hear that. You need someone to talk to?" Maizono kneeled and looked at her with a smile

"Yes, yes..." she sobbed pitifully, although her cries had decreased in intensity. A bit hesitantly, she gripped the girl's dress and tugged at it, pouting to keep her tears from falling any more. "Help find mama ?"

"Of course!" Maizono hugged her. "My name is Maizono Otodashi. What's yours?"

Relieved, the younger girl offered a toothy smile to Maizono, looking at her in the eyes while drying her wet cheeks. "Me Lila. Lila Verrier. Mama was there ?" she tried to explain, pointing the last place she was at before losing her mother. It was barely feets away, but Lila just felt the need to show her. Then, she continued. "Me was looking at people. Scary, loud ! But me curious. Me still watching. But then Mama not there !" all the while, she was making huge hand gestures to help her message to come across, so captivated in her play that she even forgot to cry at her mother's mention.

"I'm sorry to hear that you lost your mother. I hope I can do anything to help you." Maizono responded smiling at her.

Smiling a tad less brightly, Lila grabbed Maizono's dress and tugged at it again, pointing something in the distance. "Maybe road again find Mama ?" she tried, suttering a bit on the foreign words her tongue usually didn't handle. She was reaching the extent of her knowledge of this language.

"Alright. Maybe i can be able to help you." Maizono smiled.

"Okay." Taking the girl's hand and hoping she had understood, Lila guided her through the crowd, trying to remember the places her mom and her were at before she had lost herself. As she dragged the bigger girl after her, she started to get upset again, seeing no hair of her precious mother in the mob, and had to bite her lip not to let her tears fall. Soon enough, her view blurred and she stopped, biting down tears as hard as she could. But eventually, they fell and Lila resumed her crying, feeling awful for being such a crybaby. "Mama not here... Mama gone always ?"

"No Lila. We'll find her. I promise."

"But... But..." As she suttered on pitiful cries, a voice reached out above the noise, and Lila's eyes widdened in surprise. "Mama ?" She turned around and, fighting against the crowd, the lovely face of her dear mother appeared. Immediatly forgetting Maizono, she launched herself in her mother's embrace, crying her name in her native language. Then, remembering the help she had just gotten, she proudly showed her big sister of the day and introduced her, in her beloved French : "Mom, this is Maizono Otodashi. She helped me find you." And, in a perfect Japanese, Lila's mother replied : "What a lovely young girl. Well, thank you for you help. It was a pleasure to meet you." Then, in French again : "We shall be going now, Lila."

"It's nice to meet you two." Maizono smiled.

"Yeah, sure." Lila's mother brushed off quite rudely. But as Lila had gotten started, there was no stopping her. "Hey, Mama, can we bring her over ? Please mama ! Maizono is nice ! Right ?" But her mom was quick to reply. "No honey, Maizono surely has some other matter she shall be attending. Plus Mama's done here, we should go." With a dissapointed look on her face, Lila gave up. "Oh, okay." Yet, she turned toward her friend again and smiled, as she was carried away : "Bye big sis Maizono !"

"Bye Lila!" Maizono waved her hand then walked away.

Burying her face into her mother's shoulder, Lila imprinted the nice smile of Maizono in her memory, ignoring the scolding and the mean words she received on how much time Mama had lost, how she was just a little brat, etc... Maizono had been nice for the day, so it was okay. Today, there was no need of a nice mama, as long as there were other people to like her. And even as Mama would insult her, there was nothing sweeter than Maizono's nice smile to help her to handle it.