“Her name was May.”

I blink once, twice, and stare at Iris. He’s staring back at me, waiting for me to respond. Or maybe he’s thinking of what else to say to me. He shouldn’t have to say anything to me—in fact, I shouldn’t want him to say anything to me. His dreams were his dreams, and that had nothing to do with me.

But my head just wouldn’t listen to me.

“That’s—” I pause, wondering if I should even respond but now that I’ve spoken, he’s anticipating an answer, and I don’t have it in me to leave him hanging. I look away from him and down at my hands. They were dirty from the soil and rough. “That’s a pretty name.”

I hear Iris let out a quiet laugh. “You think so?”

“Yeah,” I say. “It’s a nice name. What was she like?” Stop asking questions, Daisy. Who are you to ask anyway?

“I don’t know,” he starts, his back to the window and face towards my direction. “I haven’t seen much of her. Every time I see her face, I wake myself up—I don’t know why but when I open my eyes, it’s always after I’ve seen her.”

“Maybe, in your past life, something happened to her,” I say thoughtlessly. I look up and he stares at me, trying to comprehend my words. Iris doesn’t believe in those kinds of things and saying anything about it won’t help him in any way, so when he smiles at me instead of ignoring me, I’m surprised.

“Daisy,” he says.

“Iris,” I respond.

“Tell me about your life.”

My thoughts come to a halt and my eyes widen in shock. As much as I try to hide it, I can’t conceal the fear in my eyes. Iris sees it—he knows it’s there—but he remains calm, still smiling. It’s the only moment where I wish he wasn’t smiling so sweetly towards me.

“My life?” I mumble. “What about my life?”

“I want to know what happened to you,” he says as if it were nothing, as if it were the most obvious thing. “I want to know why you sat where you did, why you try so hard to hide your emotions, why I don’t know anything about you. I want to know you better.” He pauses and his smile disappears, but there’s still that faint twinkling in his eyes, the light that refuses to go away.

I tear my eyes away and look down again, thinking of my next response. “Daisy?” he calls me again, this time worriedly. “Are you okay?”

I look up at him, my eyes watering with tears that form. The look in his eyes changes and that’s when I realize he’s only inches away from me. But I don’t have the energy in me to panic. I’m too scared to panic. “I can’t,” I start, staring into his eyes.

“I don’t want to remember again.”