Simon was frozen like a statue by Ella's question as though her words had cast a spell over him. It had certainly caught him off guard. Most of the time when he thinks about his parents, memories and flash backs of the plane crash float up from his subconscious. Though with how fast everything had happened they were better classified as erratic spurts of violence and chaos than actual recognizable and coherent memories. Still as fragmented as the event was, it haunts him all the same. Although today has been particularly bad, the memories have just been a non-stop barrage of unhappy today. Sleeping was definitely going to be a challenge.
To Simon's surprise, the memory that resurfaced wasn't the plane crash, but instead a rather pleasant one he had of his mother back when he was a young boy. It was back in Seattle, Simon being only a little bit over seven years old. He didn't even know he could remember that far back. They were all at the large park just a few blocks down from the apartment he lived in. He could seen the yellow frame works twisting and winding into what made up the jungle gym, a little farther down were the two massive blue slides that sat near the end of the park. Or maybe they were green? He couldn't quite tell, its been so long that is a small wonder he even remembers this at all. His favorite thing in the park was the swing set, he would always see how high he could swing on it, trying to see if he could do a loop. In a combination of stupidity and severe "why not" syndrome, he got the largest swing his little body could give him and launched himself out of the swing seat. Well instead of turning and landing firmly on his feet, gravity and it's maniacal ways decided that was not going to happen. So instead, he went flying feet first and promptly landed flat on his back onto the ground. He never did train to be a pilot.
When he finally did touch back down with reality, or the memory at least, all he saw was his mother kneeling over him. As everything else sort of blurred out, ever detail of he face became visible; her light brown hair, those green eyes that matched his perfectly and the happy disposition she always seemed to have. "Come on, lets get you cleaned up." She said in the soothing voice he knew all too well.
He reached up to grab her hand, but it would not connect, his passed through hers like it was all just an allusion. Her hand turned to dust and was just blown away by the wind, seeping back into the cracks of his mind. He reach out again to try and bring it back, but to no avail. In an instant it was all gone and Simon was snapped back to reality. A little overwhelmed by the unexpected memory, Simon leaned his head into his right hand and rubbed his eyes as though that would clear his mind. It didn't.
"God, I need a doctor." Simon thought as a sublte smile cracked across his face. For once he wasn't weight down by the memory and didn't feel bothered to talk about it. Just as he was about to answer Ella's question, she withdrew it like she was in trouble for asking. It made sense, asking of ones parents without really knowing the person was a rather odd request, but he couldn't help but feel slightly disappointed. The one time he has something good to share and he has to keep it to himself.
As for her second question he replied with a simple
"I don't know." He did know, he saw them as he made his way to his seat, the young blue haired one stuck out like a sore thumb, but for now he didn't really want to deal with the hyper-activeness she seemed to bring with her and the other pilot. For now he'll just eat his food and be silent. He saw Ella take some pills out and consume a few of them, but chose not to ask. It would have been rude to ask and it really wasn't his business. He just kept at his food until Johnathan's question involving Ella's affection for the Sergeant came out. This didn't even involve him, and Simon still ganged on his food in response to such a ludicrous idea. Ella had a similar response to the idea, though significantly less gagy. As his choking spree came to an end, he noticed Isamu and Nisa approach their table, so much for keeping things quiet. Still a little short on breath, Simon decided he might as well start off on a decent foot.
"Other than me choking to death and poking at others, not much." Simon said, coughing through some of his words. His comment was immediately back up by Nisa joining in on teasing Ella on about the Sergeant.
"Alright, alright, thats enough, leave the poor girl be." Simon promoting Nisa with his fork. He was sure Ella's didn't want everyone ganging up one her. At least not on the first day.
