After Lavender disappeared, Ivy and Drake walked down the dirt path in silence. They passed through what seemed like thousands of flower neighborhoods when they reached Dale’s restaurant.

“Hey, Ivy,” Drake said breaking the silence, “why don’t we stop in and grab a bite. It is already six.”

“Sure, why not,” Ivy replied as Drake opened the door for her.

The two walked into a dimly lit room, crowded with people. The hostess, Rose, seated them at a table for two towards the back of the restaurant. It was much less crowded back there, with only a couple of the red and white striped booths filled.

“That’s all you’re getting, Ivy?” Drake asked after Ivy had just ordered a cup of Dale’s famous hot chocolate.

“Don’t really have much of an appetite,” Ivy replied as she glanced around the restaurant.

“Come on, Ivy. You really should lighten up a bit. Forget about things for a while,” Drake said lightheartedly, as he leaned across the table towards Ivy.

“How can I forget, Drake?” Ivy questioned angrily, as she pushed Drake back over to the other side of the table. “How can I forget?”

Ivy was extremely angry that Drake thought she could forget what had happened today. In fact, she was so angry that she found herself rushing out the front door of Dale’s, Drake yelling back to her in the background. Ivy didn’t want to look back at the people who would be staring at her with confusion, so she sprinted as fast as she could out the door and onto the familiar path to her house.

Tonight the path felt a lot shorter for Ivy; sprinting, she made it back to her familiar yellow flower in only a couple of minutes, despite her extremely short legs. Ivy yanked the bright red lever to pull down her ladder and then began to climb up the steps.

“Geez, why are you in such a hurry,” an unfamiliar voice said with a laugh.

“None of your business,” Ivy replied angrily as she turned around cautiously on the swinging ladder. But, when turned around she almost fell from shock. There was a young man, probably around Ivy’s age, with bleach blonde hair, deep blue eyes and wearing some type of odd uniform, riding a bird.

The young man grinned as he saw Ivy staring at the bird with a confused and scared look. “Don’t be frightened, it’s just a bird.”

Ivy climbed back down the ladder slowly and walked over to where the man had landed the bird. “But how did you—”

“That’s what everyone has been asking me lately,” the young man interrupted. “It’s actually pretty easy to ride a bird. Just takes some patience, hard-work and I guess a few tricks.”

“What kind of tricks?” Ivy asked out of curiosity.

“That is one thing I cannot tell you. My masters would be upset with me. In fact I better get going because I am already running late,” The young man said as he jumped onto his bird. “Goodnight, Ivy.”

“Goodnight—” Ivy shouted as the young man flew off into the starry night. But, she realized she never caught his name.

Later that night Ivy sat at the foot of her flower, thinking everything through. It was nearly midnight, but Ivy couldn’t seem to fall asleep. She kept wondering how the young man knew her name when she didn’t even know his. Her mind kept drifting back to the odd uniform the young man had been wearing. She could picture the long grey pants, the plain grey t-shirt, and even the black shoes he had been wearing. But, there was one thing Ivy couldn’t seem to picture; the smudged name tag that was pinned to his shirt. She tried for hours to remember even one letter, but it was no use at all. She was never going to figure out what the young man’s name was.

“Gosh, Ivy. I leave you alone for one night and you can’t even make it back to your own flower?” Drake said as he shook Ivy’s shoulder to wake her up.

“Drake?” Ivy asked as she wiped her eyes to adjust to the bright sun.

“Yes, Ivy. It’s the one and only Drake at your flower bright and early.” Drake sarcastically said.

“What are you doing here?” Ivy asked him. “I thought you would be too embarrassed to find me after what happened last night at Dale’s.”

“Nah, I understand. It’s all good.” Drake replied, putting out his hand to help Ivy get up.

“Thanks, Drake. I really appreciate it,” Ivy said gratefully as she stood up and brushed the dirt off of her.

“No problem. But, we better start looking for Lily again. She has to be around here somewhere.”

“I couldn’t have said it any better myself,” Ivy replied with a laugh. “Hey, I met this odd guy last night who was riding a bird, but he never told me his name.”

“That’s odd. Would this help?” Drake asked Ivy as he pulled something out of his pocket.

“Oh my gosh, Drake! You just made my life!” Ivy screamed with excitement.

What Drake just happened to pull out of his ripped jeans pocket truly shocked Ivy. It was none other than a nametag; the familiar nametag that Ivy saw on the strange man last night.

“What do you mean that I made your life?” Drake asked as he let out a few laughs.

“This nametag belongs to the strange guy that I ran into last night. It must be his name! Please let me see it!” Ivy said extremely quickly with a lot of excitement.

“Sure, Ivy, here you go,” Drake replied as he handed the dirty and smudged nametag over to Ivy.

“Thanks, dude,” Ivy said with a huge grin across her tiny face. She wiped the nametag off on her shirt and took a deep breath before reading it.

“Ash?” Drake and Ivy questioned in unison.

“No, it can’t be,” Ivy replied, the smile fading from her face.

“But it is,” Drake said in return.

“You’re telling me some weird guy wearing all grey clothes and flying some stupid bird is the answer to our problems? This has to be some sort of joke,” Ivy stated as she slumped to the ground and rested her head in her hands.

“Ivy, I didn’t tell you nothing. But, I think you’re right. Maybe this Ash guy knows where Lily is,” Drake suggested as he also sat down on the hard soil.

But, neither of them knew what to think of all this. They sat on the soil shoulder to shoulder, brainstorming on how to work this out. Finally as the two were finishing up there lunch of grass and bug salad, Drake decided that they should head over to the town hall and ask about Ash. After all, the town hall kept a large book that listed every person that lives or has ever lived in Lilydale.

“So how did you exactly find Ash’s nametag?” Ivy asked Drake as they headed down the dirt path towards the town hall.

“Well, I was on my way over to your flower when I spotted it half buried in the dirt,” Drake replied as the two approached the road that lead to the rundown mushroom building.

Ivy thought that was a bit strange that it was just lying in the dirt. She thought that Ash might have purposely left it there. But, her thoughts were cut off short as Drake opened the door to the town hall for her.

Ivy had only been to this place a couple of times before; once to talk to Lily and another time for a school field trip. But although she had seen this place before, she was still amazed as she walked inside. The place was very elegant and pristine, and almost everything was white. There were white marble floors, white walls full of picture frames of the past village elders, and even white couches, tables and chairs. The only things that didn’t seem to be white were the gold doorknobs that lead into the offices and the silver fountain that stood in the middle of the room.

“May I help you two?” A friendly secretary asked. She also fit in with the room with her long white pants and white blouse.

“Um…yes please,” Ivy replied, trying to remember the manners her parents had taught her, “We were actually wondering if we could take a peek at the citizen book.”

“Sure, I can bring you to Geranium who can help you look someone up,” The secretary replied as she started to lead them through a hallway full of offices.

“That would be great,” Drake told the secretary.

The three of them walked through the bright white hallways for a few minutes before finally reaching Geranium’s office. The secretary opened the white door to let them and then disappeared down the maze of hallways. The room smelled rotten and was extremely dark and messy compared to the rest of the building. A man wearing sweatpants and a sweatshirt sat behind a desk stacked with papers, and a large book was propped up against the far wall. Ivy thought that it was quite odd that a man of such a high position would be wearing such a horrible outfit.

“Hello,” the man said as he got up from his chair and grabbed the large book from the wall, “my name is Geranium, but most people just call me Germ.”

“So, uh, Germ, we were wondering if you could look a name up for us,” Drake asked, trying not to let out a couple of laughs.

“Yes, please take a seat,” Germ replied, gesturing towards a couch, “What name can I look up for you two?”

“Ash. But we are unsure of the last name,” Ivy spit out quickly.

“Sure, shouldn’t be a problem,” Germ replied as he flipped open the book. He turned pages after pages for what seemed like hours and hours before finally pulling out a different book. His face became more serious, but he continued searching through the book very carefully. Every couple of pages he would take a bite of his chocolate donut coated in a variety of bugs, take a drink of his coffee and then wipe his mouth. Ivy was getting very impatient and when Germ would look at a page curiously, Ivy would get really nervous to the point where she almost had to make a trip to the ladies room. The only thing that kept her from losing it was the reassuring nods from Drake. Every time Ivy looked over at him, Drake nodded his head with a slight grin. His brown hair would be in his blue eyes, but he would shake his head and then nod. Ivy was glancing at Drake when Germ apparently made a breakthrough.

“Here we go,” Germ said as he put his finger on what seemed to be a name.

“You found Ash’s profile in the book?” Ivy asked hopefully.

“Yes but no,” Germ replied. He decided to hold up the book to show Drake and Ivy what he meant.

The first thing that Ivy saw was a picture. It was a boy, about ten years in age, with beach blonde hair, tan skin and blue eyes. It was definitely Ash, but a younger version. The next thing she saw was the name; Ash. It was just another thing that Ivy could cross off the mental check list. But, Ivy also noticed a date. It read March 25th, 2004. Ivy thought that the date was odd. There was no way he was born in 2004 if he was around Ivy’s age.

“Sir, uh Mr. Germ, may I ask what this date means?” Ivy asked Germ, pointing at the odd date.

“That would be the date of death,” Germ replied after he had slid his glasses on to take a peek at it.

“But, sir, that is not possible. I just talked to Ash yesterday,” Ivy reported.

“I’m sorry, but these books do not lie,” Germ informed Ivy.

“Is there another Ash in these books?” Drake asked.

“Nope, the only Ash listed,” Germ firmly replied.

“Well it is definitely him. The boy in the picture has the exact same appearance as him,” Ivy stated with quite a bit of confidence.

“Wait,” Drake commanded as his expressions turned to confusion, “Isn’t that date the exact same as when your parents died?”

Ivy thought she might faint. Drake was exactly right. Her parents had died on March 25th, 2004 in a horrible flower fire. Ivy could feel her heart plummet as tears started to fall from her eyes like heavy rain drops on a stormy day. She slumped onto the couch as Drake tried to wipe the tears away. This couldn’t be happening. Was Ash in the fire as well? But, if he was in their flower why, was he there? She had never seen Ash before in her life. Nothing was making sense. But most of all, why was Ash still alive? And why would he know how to get to Lily?

Ivy felt herself drifting away into thoughts as she wept. She felt the strange stares of Germ as he left his office and closed the door behind him. She felt the soft hands of Drake as he wiped the streams of tears away with the sleeve of his blue shirt. She felt her heart sinking even farther and her head almost ready to burst. Memories of her parents started racing through her mind; how her mother taught her to read, her father chasing her through the grassy fields and even watching her house burn down right in front of her eyes. She remembered Drake holding her as she screamed for her parents. She remembered everything on the night of March 25th; everything except for Ash.